U.S. Constitution: First Amendment

First Amendment - Religion and Expression

Amendment Text | Annotations  

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.

  Annotations

• Religion  
• An Overview  
  • Scholarly Commentary  
  • Court Tests Applied to Legislation Affecting Religion  
  • Government Neutrality in Religious Disputes  
• Establishment of Religion  
  • Financial Assistance to Church-Related Institutions  
  • Governmental Encouragement of Religion in Public Schools: Released Time  
  • Governmental Encouragement of Religion in Public Schools: Prayers and Bible Reading  
  • Governmental Encouragement of Religion in Public Schools: Curriculum Restriction  
  • Access of Religious Groups to Public Property  
  • Tax Exemptions of Religious Property  
  • Exemption of Religious Organizations from Generally Applicable Laws  
  • Sunday Closing Laws  
  • Conscientious Objection  
  • Regulation of Religious Solicitation  
  • Religion in Governmental Observances  
  • Religious Displays on Government Property  
  • Miscellaneous  
• Free Exercise of Religion  
  • The Belief-Conduct Distinction  
  • The Mormon Cases  
  • The Jehovah's Witnesses Cases  
  • Free Exercise Exemption from General Governmental Requirements  
  • Religious Test Oaths  
  • Religious Disqualification  
• Freedom of Expression--Speech and Press  
• Adoption and Common Law Background  
• Freedom of Expression: The Philosophical Basis  
• Freedom of Expression: Is There a Difference Between Speech and Press  
• The Doctrine of Prior Restraint  
  • Injunctions and the Press in Fair Trial Cases  
  • Obscenity and Prior Restraint  
• Subsequent Punishment: Clear and Present Danger and Other Tests  
  • Clear and Present Danger  
  • The Adoption of Clear and Present Danger  
  • Contempt of Court and Clear and Present Danger  
  • Clear and Present Danger Revised: Dennis  
  • Balancing  
  • The ''Absolutist'' View of the First Amendment, with a Note on ''Preferred Position''  
  • Of Other Tests and Standards: Vagueness, Overbreadth, Least Restrictive Means, and Others  
  • Is There a Present Test?  
• Freedom of Belief  
  • Flag Salute Cases  
  • Imposition of Consequences for Holding Certain Beliefs  
• Right of Association  
  • Political Association  
  • Conflict Between Organization and Members  
• Maintenance of National Security and the First Amendment  
  • Punishment of Advocacy  
  • Compelled Registration of Communist Party  
  • Punishment for Membership in an Organization Which Engages in Proscribed Advocacy  
  • Disabilities Attaching to Membership in Proscribed Organizations  
  • Employment Restrictions and Loyalty Oaths  
  • Legislative Investigations and the First Amendment  
  • Interference With War Effort  
  • Suppression of Communist Propaganda in the Mails  
  • Exclusion of Certain Aliens as a First Amendment Problem  
• Particular Government Regulations Which Restrict Expression  
  • Government as Employer: Political and Other Outside Activities  
  • Government as Employer: Free Expression Generally  
  • Government as Educator  
  • Government as Regulator of the Electoral Process: Elections  
  • Government as Regulator of the Electoral Process: Lobbying  
  • Government as Regulator of Labor Relations  
  • Government as Investigator: Journalist's Privilege  
  • Government and the Conduct of Trials  
  • Government as Administrator of Prisons  
  • Government and Power of the Purse  
• Governmental Regulation of Communications Industries  
  • Commercial Speech  
  • Taxation  
  • Labor Relations  
  • Antitrust Laws  
  • Radio and Television  
  • Governmentally Compelled Right of Reply to Newspapers  
  • Regulation of Cable Television  
• Government Restraint of Content of Expression  
  • Seditious Speech and Seditious Libel  
  • Fighting Words and Other Threats to the Peace  
  • Group Libel, Hate Speech  
  • Defamation  
  • Invasion of Privacy  
  • Emotional Distress Tort Actions  
  • ''Right of Publicity'' Tort Actions  
  • Publication of Legally Confidential Information  
  • Obscenity  
  • Child Pornography  
  • Nonobscene But Sexually Explicit and Indecent Expression  
• Speech Plus--The Constitutional Law of Leafleting, Picketing, and Demonstrating  
  • The Public Forum  
  • Quasi-Public Places  
  • Picketing and Boycotts by Labor Unions  
  • Public Issue Picketing and Parading  
  • Leafleting, Handbilling, and the Like  
  • Sound Trucks, Noise  
  • Door-to-Door Solicitation  
  • The Problem of ''Symbolic Speech ''
• Rights of Assembly and Petition  
• Background and Development  
  • The Cruikshank Case  
  • The Hague Case