First Amendment to the United States Constitution

The First Amendment (Amendment I) to the <a href="/facts/United_States_Constitution/AJlEWNR3">United States Constitution</a> prevents <a href="/facts/Federal_government_of_the_United_States/VJCxUaf7">Congress</a> from making laws respecting an <a href="/facts/Establishment_Clause/47jj2jb4">establishment of religion</a>; prohibiting the <a href="/facts/Free_Exercise_Clause/aAB1erTp">free exercise of religion</a>; or abridging the <a href="/facts/Freedom_of_speech_in_the_United_States/8BlCxCRv">freedom of speech</a>, the <a href="/facts/Freedom_of_the_press_in_the_United_States/HD9KI85K">freedom of the press</a>, the <a href="/facts/Freedom_of_assembly/zDxVFral">freedom of assembly</a>, or the <a href="/facts/Right_to_petition_in_the_United_States/qofjQXK8">right to petition</a> the government for redress of grievances. It was adopted on December 15, 1791, as one of the ten amendments that constitute the <a href="/facts/United_States_Bill_of_Rights/jXGXawXU">Bill of Rights</a>. In the original draft of the Bill of Rights, what is now the First Amendment occupied third place. The first two articles were not ratified by the states, so the article on disestablishment and free speech ended up being first.
The Bill of Rights was proposed to assuage <a href="/facts/Anti-Federalism/L91rqJRW">Anti-Federalist</a> opposition to <a href="/facts/History_of_the_United_States_Constitution/jsyx2x6f">Constitutional ratification</a>. Initially, the First Amendment applied only to laws enacted by the <a href="/facts/United_States_Congress/mJlU46K7">Congress</a>, and many of its provisions were interpreted more narrowly than they are today. Beginning with <a href="/facts/Gitlow_v._New_York/VqKDdseJ">Gitlow v. New York</a> (1925), the <a href="/facts/Supreme_Court_of_the_United_States/rJHothwW">Supreme Court</a> applied the First Amendment to states—a process known as <a href="/facts/Incorporation_of_the_Bill_of_Rights/xtdq0Wm3">incorporation</a>—through the <a href="/facts/Fourteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution/TXMVRymL">Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment</a>.
In <a href="/facts/Everson_v._Board_of_Education/6jh2G6uE">Everson v. Board of Education</a> (1947), the Court drew on <a href="/facts/Thomas_Jefferson/8yxtcjKK">Thomas Jefferson</a>'s correspondence to call for "a wall of separation between church and State", a literary but clarifying metaphor for the separation of religions from government and vice versa as well as the free exercise of religious beliefs that many Founders favored. Through decades of contentious litigation, the precise boundaries of the mandated separation have been adjudicated in ways that periodically created controversy. Speech rights were expanded significantly in a series of 20th- and 21st-century court decisions which protected various forms of political speech, anonymous speech, <a href="/facts/Campaign_finance/5JW8hvrT">campaign finance</a>, pornography, and <a href="/facts/Freedom_of_speech_in_schools_in_the_United_States/bLk69NNF">school speech</a>; these rulings also defined a series of <a href="/facts/United_States_free_speech_exceptions/q6s4Lrba">exceptions to First Amendment protections</a>. The Supreme Court overturned <a href="/facts/English_common_law/FqYSDmGK">English common law</a> precedent to increase the burden of proof for <a href="/facts/Defamation/uEe9LxeQ">defamation</a> and <a href="/facts/Libel/uEe9LxeQ">libel</a> suits, most notably in <a href="/facts/New_York_Times_Co._v._Sullivan/E535MG1y">New York Times Co. v. Sullivan</a> (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 <a href="/facts/Near_v._Minnesota/9dg1bGbd">Near v. Minnesota</a> (1931) and <a href="/facts/New_York_Times_Co._v._United_States/Lz1Nlo8f">New York Times Co. v. United States</a> (1971), the Supreme Court ruled that the First Amendment protected against <a href="/facts/Prior_restraint/6jz0YlPJ">prior restraint</a>—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 <a href="/facts/Freedom_of_association/YoGAN8cB">freedom of association</a>.
Although the First Amendment applies only to <a href="/facts/State_action/9Y6B13Kf">state actors</a>, there is a common misconception that it prohibits anyone from limiting free speech, including private, non-governmental entities. Moreover, the Supreme Court has determined that protection of speech is not absolute.

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First Amendment to the United States Constitution