Here's some commentary from the Cato Institute about public support for some of the freedoms listed in the Bill of Rights. It's a response to a poll showing that most Americans oppose the Supreme Court's decision to recognize free speech rights for corporations.
It highlights a few points we've been making in class about the Constitution, the concern Madison had about majority rule, and the different responses polls get from respondents based on whether a question touches on abstract or concrete concepts.
In the abstract, Americans continue to support First Amendment freedoms. In concrete cases, majorities still often oppose the exercise of such freedoms. Citizens United vindicated the First Amendment in a specific case that a majority does not support. This gulf between principle and application has been and continues to be common among Americans.
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The more important lesson here involves an often ignored truth: the U.S. Constitution does not establish a government through which a majority can do anything it likes. The Bill of Rights marks a limit on political power even if a majority controls the government. (James Madison might have said especially if a majority controls the government). We have a Supreme Court to enforce those limits against government officials and against majorities. In Citizens United, the Court finally did what it should have done: protecting unpopular groups from the heavy hand of the censor. The fact that a majority favored and favors giving unchecked power to the censor matters not at all.
