Today, September 17 is Constitution Day. It’s the day our nation’s citizens commemorate the creation and signing of the U.S. Constitution by thirty-nine Founding Fathers on September 17, 1787.

Constitution Day was established as an American federal observance with the passage of an omnibus spending bill in 2004.

To celebrate Constitution Day, the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania releases an annual survey examining Americans’ knowledge of the Constitution and their First Amendment rights.

It’s most recent survey, published on September 12, 2024, found that “less than half of Americans can name most of the rights protected under the First Amendment.”

“As was true last year, most Americans could name only a single right guaranteed by the First Amendment: freedom of speech, provided by nearly 3 in 4 respondents,” the survey found.

Survey respondents were asked to name specific rights guaranteed by the First Amendment. Of those surveyed,

• Three-quarters (74%) say freedom of speech
• Under 4 in 10 (39%) say freedom of religion
• Less than a third (29%) say freedom of the press
• Over a quarter (27%) say the right to assembly
• About 1 in 10 (11%) say the right to petition the government

Photo Credit: Anneberg Public Policy Center

Additionally, “nearly two-thirds of Americans (65%) can name all three branches of government, 13% can name two branches, 8% can name only one, and 15% cannot name any, unchanged from last year.”

Photo Credit: Anneberg Public Policy Center

The annual survey also discovered that barely half of Americans can correctly name which parties currently control the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives.

“While 55% know that Democrats control the Senate, 22% answered incorrectly and another 22% are unsure. While 56% know that Republicans control the House of Representatives, 20% answered incorrectly and 22% are unsure,” the survey found.

“Civics knowledge matters,” says Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center. “Those who do not understand the rights protected by the Constitution can neither cherish nor invoke them; those who do not know which party controls the House and Senate may misattribute credit or blame for action or inaction.”

R. Lance Holbert, director of the center’s Leonore Annenberg Institute for Civics (LAIC), said, “This year’s Annenberg Constitution Day Civics Survey reinforces the simple truth that civics education should not focus solely on the country’s youth. Civics education needs to be a life-long pursuit.”

In April 1991, former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia gave the Alexander Meiklejohn Lecture at Brown University, in which he explored the idea of the U.S. Constitution.

“Unlike any other nation in the world, we consider ourselves bound together, not by genealogy or residence but by belief in certain principles; and the most important of those principles are set forth in the Constitution of the United States,” Justice Scalia said.

Referring to the Constitutional Convention held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1787, Justice Scalia added,

When else has a government been established, not by conquerors dividing up the spoils, or even by political parties parceling out the power, but by a four-month seminar consisting of many of the most erudite and politically experienced individuals in the nation?

The justice went on to remind his listeners why it’s critical each generation of Americans learn, know and love our Constitution.

“[The U.S. Supreme Court] cannot save the society from itself – because in the last analysis the Court is no more than the society itself,” Justice Scalia said, adding,

The Constitution will endure, in other words, only to the extent that it endures in your understanding and affection.

Before reading this article, could you name the three branches of government, and the five freedoms protected by the First Amendment? Can you now?

If not, this Constitution Day is a great day to start learning more. Check out our available articles and resources below.

You can learn more about America’s Founding Fathers and the importance of preserving our moral and religious freedoms by listening to Tim Goeglein’s appearance of a recent episode on Focus on the Family with Jim Daly, “A Hopeful View of America’s Future.”

Related articles and resources:

Many Americans Unaware of Key Facts About U.S. Constitution, Survey Finds

Today is Constitution Day: Let’s Celebrate the Document That Made America

Supreme Court Rules Presidents Have ‘Presumptive Immunity’ for All Official Acts

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