First Amendment to the United States Constitution

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"First Amendment" redirects here. For the first amendments to other constitutions, see First
Amendment (disambiguation).

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The First Amendment (Amendment I) to the United States Constitution prevents the government from
making laws which regulate an establishment of religion, or that would prohibit the free exercise of
religion, or abridge the freedom of speech, the freedom of the press, the freedom of assembly, or the
right to petition the government for redress of grievances. It was adopted on December 15, 1791, as one
of the ten amendments that constitute the Bill of Rights.

The Bill of Rights was proposed to assuage Anti-Federalist opposition to Constitutional ratification.
Initially, the First Amendment applied only to laws enacted by the Congress, and many of its provisions
were interpreted more narrowly than they are today. Beginning with Gitlow v. New York (1925), the
Supreme Court applied the First Amendment to states—a process known as incorporation—through the
Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

In Everson v. Board of Education (1947), the Court drew on Thomas Jefferson's correspondence to call
for "a wall of separation between church and State", though the precise boundary of this separation
remains in dispute. Speech rights were expanded significantly in a series of 20th and 21st century court
decisions which protected various forms of political speech, anonymous speech, campaign finance,
pornography, and school speech; these rulings also defined a series of exceptions to First Amendment
protections. The Supreme Court overturned English common law precedent to increase the burden of
proof for defamation and libel suits, most notably in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964). Commercial
speech, however, is less protected by the First Amendment than political speech, and is therefore
subject to greater regulation.

The Free Press Clause protects publication of information and opinions, and applies to a wide variety of
media. In Near v. Minnesota (1931) and New York Times v. United States (1971), the Supreme Court
ruled that the First Amendment protected against prior restraint—pre-publication censorship—in
almost all cases. The Petition Clause protects the right to petition all branches and agencies of
government for action. In addition to the right of assembly guaranteed by this clause, the Court has also
ruled that the amendment implicitly protects freedom of association.

Although the First Amendment applies only to state actors,[1] there is a common misconception that it
prohibits anyone from limiting free speech, including private, non-governmental entities.[2]

Contents

1 Text

2 Background

3 Freedom of religion

3.1 Establishment of religion

3.1.1 Separationists

3.1.2 Accommodationists

3.2 Free exercise of religion

4 Freedom of speech and of the press

4.1 Wording of the clause

4.2 Speech critical of the government

4.2.1 World War I

4.2.2 Extending protections

4.3 Political speech

4.3.1 Anonymous speech

4.3.2 Campaign finance

4.3.3 Flag desecration

4.3.4 Falsifying military awards

4.4 Compelled speech

4.5 Commercial speech

4.6 School speech

4.7 Internet access

4.8 Obscenity

4.9 Memoirs of convicted criminals

4.10 Defamation

4.11 Private action

4.12 Freedom of the press

5 Petition and assembly

6 Freedom of association

7 See also

8 References

8.1 Notes

9 Citations

9.1 Bibliography

10 Further reading

11 External links

Text

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise
thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to
assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.[3]

The hand-written copy of the proposed articles of amendment passed by Congress in 1789, cropped to
show just the text in the third article that would later be ratified as the First Amendment

Background

Further information: Anti-Federalism

The right to petition for redress of grievances was a principle included in the 1215 Magna Carta, as well
as the 1689 English Bill of Rights. In 1776, the second year of the American Revolutionary War, the
Virginia colonial legislature passed a Declaration of Rights that included the sentence "The freedom of
the press is one of the greatest bulwarks of liberty, and can never be restrained but by despotic
Governments." Eight of the other twelve states made similar pledges. However, these declarations were
generally considered "mere admonitions to state legislatures", rather than enforceable provisions.[4]

James Madison, drafter of the Bill of Rights

After several years of comparatively weak government under the Articles of Confederation, a
Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia proposed a new constitution on September 17, 1787,
featuring among other changes a stronger chief executive. George Mason, a Constitutional Convention
delegate and the drafter of Virginia's Declaration of Rights, proposed that the Constitution include a bill
of rights listing and guaranteeing civil liberties. Other delegates—including future Bill of Rights drafter
James Madison—disagreed, arguing that existing state guarantees of civil liberties were sufficient and
any attempt to enumerate individual rights risked the implication that other, unnamed rights were
unprotected. After a brief debate, Mason's proposal was defeated by a unanimous vote of the state
delegations.[5]

For the constitution to be ratified, however, nine of the thirteen states were required to approve it in
state conventions. Opposition to ratification ("Anti-Federalism") was partly based on the Constitution's
lack of adequate guarantees for civil liberties. Supporters of the Constitution in states where popular
sentiment was against ratification (including Virginia, Massachusetts, and New York) successfully
proposed that their state conventions both ratify the Constitution and call for the addition of a bill of
rights. The U.S. Constitution was eventually ratified by all thirteen states. In the 1st United States
Congress, following the state legislatures' request, James Madison proposed twenty constitutional
amendments, and his proposed draft of the First Amendment read as follows:

The civil rights of none shall be abridged on account of religious belief or worship, nor shall any national
religion be established, nor shall the full and equal rights of conscience be in any manner, or on any
pretext, infringed. The people shall not be deprived or abridged of their right to speak, to write, or to
publish their sentiments; and the freedom of the press, as one of the great bulwarks of liberty, shall be
inviolable. The people shall not be restrained from peaceably assembling and consulting for their
common good; nor from applying to the Legislature by petitions, or remonstrances, for redress of their
grievances.[6]
This language was greatly condensed by Congress, and passed the House and Senate with almost no
recorded debate, complicating future discussion of the Amendment's intent.[7][8] Congress approved
and submitted to the states for their ratification twelve articles of amendment on September 25, 1789.
The revised text of the third article became the First Amendment, because the last ten articles of the
submitted 12 articles were ratified by the requisite number of states on December 15, 1791 and are now
known collectively as the Bill of Rights.[9][10]