First Amendment

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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.

Bill of Rights

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Read the Bill of Rights at the National Archives website

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Original Citation

United States Constitution. Amend. 1.

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Current Citation

The Constitution of the United States. The Constitution of the United States and The Declaration of Independence. Written by Delegates of The Constitutional Convention. Racehorse, 2016, amend. 1.

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The First Amendment has erected a wall between church and state. That wall must be kept high and impregnable. We could not approve the slightest breach.

Hugo Black

Everson v. Board of Education

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Black, Hugo. United States, Supreme Court. Everson v. Board of Education. United States Reports, vol. 330, 10 Feb. 1947, pp. 1-74. Justia, supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/330/1/.

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An unconditional right to say what one pleases about public affairs is what I consider to be the minimum guarantee of the First Amendment.

Hugo Black

New York Times Co. v. Sullivan

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Black, Hugo. United States, Supreme Court. New York Times Co. v. Sullivan. United States Reports, vol. 376, 9 Mar. 1964, pp. 254-305. Justia, supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/376/254/.

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If the First Amendment means anything, it means that a State has no business telling a man, sitting alone in his own house, what books he may read or what films he may watch.

Thurgood Marshall

Stanley v. Georgia

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Marshall, Thurgood. United States, Supreme Court. Stanley v. Georgia. United States Reports, vol. 394, 7 Apr. 1969, pp. 557-572. Justia, supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/394/557/.

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In other words, the First Amendment has a penumbra where privacy is protected from governmental intrusion.

William O. Douglas

Grisworld v. Connecticut

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Douglas, William O. United States, Supreme Court. Griswold v. Connecticut. United States Reports, vol. 381, 7 June 1965, pp. 479–531. Justia, supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/381/479/.

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Whether, to the average person, applying contemporary community standards, the dominant theme of the material, taken as a whole, appeals to prurient interest.

William J. Brennan, Jr.

Establishing the American legal standard for obscenity, which does not receive First Amendment protection.

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Brennan, William J, Jr. United States, Supreme Court. Roth v. United States. United States Reports, vol. 354, 24 June 1957, pp. 476-514. supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/354/476/.

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All ideas having even the slightest redeeming social importance—unorthodox ideas, controversial ideas, even ideas hateful to the prevailing climate of opinion—have the full protection of the guaranties... But implicit in the history of the First Amendment is the rejection of obscenity as utterly without redeeming social importance... We hold that obscenity is not within the area of constitutionally protected speech or press.

William J. Brennan, Jr.

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Brennan, William J, Jr. United States, Supreme Court. Roth v. United States. United States Reports, vol. 354, 24 June 1957, pp. 476-514. supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/354/476/.

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Under the First Amendment there is no such thing as a false idea. However pernicious an opinion may seem, we depend for its correction not on the conscience of judges and juries but on the competition of other ideas.

Lewis F. Powell, Jr.

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Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc.

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Powell, Lewis F., Jr. United States, Supreme Court. Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc. United States Reports, vol. 418, 25 June 1974, pp. 323-404. https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/418/323/.

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I know it when I see it.

Potter Stewart

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Jacobellis v. Ohio

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On the nature of "obscenity".

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Stewart, Potter. United States, Supreme Court. Jacobellis v. Ohio. United States Reports, vol. 378, 22 June 1964, pp. 184-204. Justia, supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/378/184/.

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The constitutional guarantees require, we think, a federal rule that prohibits a public official from recovering damages for a defamatory falsehood relating to his official conduct unless he proves that the statement was made with "actual malice"—that is, with knowledge that it was false or with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not.

William J. Brennan, Jr.

New York Times Co. v. Sullivan

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Brennan, William J, Jr. United States, Supreme Court. New York Times Co. v. Sullivan. United States Reports, vol. 376, 9 Mar. 1964, pp. 254-305. supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/376/254/.

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We hold that obscenity is not within the area of constitutionally protected speech or press.

William J. Brennan, Jr

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Brennan, William J., Jr. United States, Supreme Court. Roth v. United States. United States Reports, vol. 354, 24 June 1957, pp. 476-514. Justia, supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/354/476/.

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The chilling effect upon the exercise of First Amendment rights may derive from the fact of the prosecution, unaffected by the prospects of its success or failure.

William J. Brennan, Jr.

Dombrowski v. Pfister

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Brennan, William J, Jr. United States, Supreme Court. Dombrowski v. Pfister. United States Reports, vol. 380, 26 Apr. 1965, pp. 479-502. supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/380/479/.

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Our liberty depends on freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.

Thomas Jefferson

Read this letter at the National Archives website

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Original Citation

Jefferson, Thomas. Letter to James Currie. 28 Jan. 1786.

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Current Citation

Jefferson, Thomas. "Letter to James Currie, 28 Jan. 1786." The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, edited by Julian P. Boyd. Vol. 9, Princeton University Press, 1954.

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The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic... The question in every case is whether the words used are used in such circumstances and are of such a nature as to create a clear and present danger that they will bring about the substantive evils that Congress has a right to prevent.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Schenck v. United States

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Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. United States, Supreme Court. Schenck v. United States. United States Reports, vol. 249, 3 Mar. 1919, pp. 47-53. Justia, supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/249/47/.

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Political agitation, by the passions it arouses or the convictions it engenders, may in fact stimulate men to the violation of law. Detestation of existing policies is easily transformed into forcible resistance of the authority which puts them in execution, and it would be folly to disregard the causal relation between tire two. Yet to assimilate agitation, legitimate as such, with direct incitement to violent resistance, is to disregard the tolerance of all methods of political agitation which in normal times is a safeguard of free government.

Learned Hand

Masses Pub Co. v. Patten

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Hand, Learned. US District Court for the Southern District of New York. Masses Pub. Co. v. Patten, 244 F. 535 (1917).

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Debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide-open, and that it may well include vehement, caustic, and sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks on government and public officials.

William J. Brennan, Jr

New York Times Company v. Sullivan

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Brennan, William J., Jr. United States, Supreme Court. New York Times Company v. Sullivan. United States Reports, vol. 376, 9 Mar. 1964, pp. 254-305. Justia, supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/376/254/.

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