First Amendment Timeline | The Free Speech Center

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. The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

First Amendment Timeline

Significant historical events, court cases, and ideas that have shaped our current system of constitutional First Amendment jurisprudence, compiled by the Newseum Institutes First Amendment Center.

1215Abuses by Englands King John cause a revolt by nobles, who compel him to recognize rights for both noblemen and ordinary Englishmen. This document, known as theMagna Carta,establishes the principle that no one, including the king or a lawmaker, is above the law, and establishes a framework for future documents such as the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights.

1628ThePetition of Rightis a statement of the objectives of the 1628 English legal-reform movement that leads to civil war and the deposing of King Charles I in 1649. This important document sets out the rights and liberties of the common man as opposed to the prerogatives of the crown and expresses many of the ideals that later led to the American Revolution.

1641The Massachusetts General Court formally adopts the first broad statement of American liberties, the Massachusetts Body of Liberties. The document includes a right to petition and a statement about due process.

1663The new Charter of Rhode Island grants religious freedom.

1689John LockesLetter Concerning Tolerationis published. It provides the philosophical basis for George Masons proposed Article Sixteen of the Virginia Declaration of Rights of 1776, which deals with religion. Masons proposal provides that all Men should enjoy the fullest toleration in the exercise of religion.

1708Connecticut passes the first dissenter statute and allows full liberty of worship to Anglicans and Baptists.

1735New York publisher John Peter Zenger is tried for libel after publishing criticism of the Royal Governor of New York. Zenger is defended by Andrew Hamilton and acquitted. His trial establishes the principle that truth is a defense to libel and that a jury may determine whether a publication is defamatory or seditious.

1771The State of Virginia jails 50 Baptist worshipers for preaching the Gospel contrary to the AnglicanBook of Common Prayer.

1774Eighteen Baptists are jailed in Massachusetts for refusing to pay taxes that support the Congregational church.

1776Virginias House of Burgesses passes the Virginia Declaration of Rights. The Virginia Declaration is the first bill of rights to be included in a state constitution in America.

1777Thomas Jefferson completes his first draft of a Virginia state bill for religious freedom, which states: No man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever. The bill later becomes the famous Virginia Ordinance for Religious Freedom.

1776The Continental Congress adopts the final draft of the Declaration of Independence on July 4.

1786The Virginia legislature adopts the Ordinance of Religious Freedom, which effectively disestablished the Anglican Church as the official church and prohibited harassment based on religious differences.

1787-1788Originally published in New York newspapers asThe Federalistand widely reprinted in newspapers throughout the U.S.,The Federalist Papersare a unique collection of 85 essays written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay urging ratification of the Constitution. In Federalist No. 84, Alexander Hamilton writes on the subject of the liberty of the press, declaring that the liberty of the press shall be inviolably preserved.

1787Congress passes the Northwest Ordinance. Though primarily a law establishing government guidelines for colonization of new territory, it also provides that religion, morality and knowledge being necessary also to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged. The U.S. Constitution is adopted into law on Sept. 17 by the Federal Constitutional Convention and later ratified by the states on June 21, 1788. The U.S. Constitution is the oldest written constitution still in use.

1791On Dec. 15, Virginia becomes the 11thstate to approve the first 10 amendments to the Constitution, thereby ratifying the Bill of Rights.

1796During Tennessees constitutional convention, Andrew Jackson opposes, and plays a prominent role in defeating, a proposal requiring a profession of faith by all officeholders.

1798President John Adams oversees the passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts. In response, Thomas Jefferson introduces the Kentucky Resolution and James Madison issues the Virginia Resolution to give states the power to determine the constitutionality of the Alien and Sedition Acts. On Sept. 12, newspaper editor Benjamin Franklin Bache, the grandson of Benjamin Franklin, is arrested under the Sedition Act for libeling President John Adams.

19th century

The 19thcentury witnesses a Supreme Court hostile to many claims of freedom of speech and assembly. Fewer than 12 First Amendment cases come before the court between 1791 and 1889, according to First Amendment scholar Michael Gibson. This is due to the prevailing view among federal judges that the Bill of Rights does not apply to the states.

1801Congress lets the Sedition Act of 1798 expire, and President Thomas Jefferson pardons all person convicted under the Act. The act had punished those who uttered or published false, scandalous, and malicious writings against the government.

1836The U.S. House of Representatives adopts gag rules preventing discussion of antislavery proposals. The House repeals the rules in 1844.

1859John Stuart Mill publishes the essay On Liberty. The essay expands John Miltons argument that if speech is free and the search for knowledge unfettered, then eventually the truth will rise to the surface.

1863Gen. Ambrose Burnside of the Union Army orders the suspension of the publication of theChicago Timeson account of repeated expression of disloyal and incendiary sentiments. President Lincoln rescinds Burnsides order three days later.

1864By order of President Lincoln, Gen. John A. Dix, a Union commander, suppresses theNew York Journal of Commerceand theNew York Worldand arrests the newspapers editors after both papers publish a forged presidential proclamation purporting to order another draft of 400,000 men. Lincoln withdraws the order to arrest the editors and the papers resume publication two days later.

1868The 14th Amendment to the Constitution is ratified. The amendment, in part, requires that no state shall deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

1873Anti-obscenity reformer Anthony Comstock successfully lobbies Congress to pass the Comstock Law. This is the first comprehensive anti-obscenity statute enacted at the federal level. The law targets the Trade in and Circulation of, obscene literature and Articles for immoral use and makes it illegal to send any obscene, lewd or lascivious materials or any information or any article or thing related to contraception or abortion through the mail.

20th century

Free-speech claims form a substantive and integral part of the early 20thcentury First Amendment cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. This may well be due to the extraordinary social upheavals of the era: massive late-19thcentury immigration movements, World War I and the spread of socialism in the United States.

1907InPatterson v. Colorado its first free-press case the U.S. Supreme Court determines it does not have jurisdiction to review the contempt conviction of U.S. senator and Denver newspaper publisher Thomas Patterson for articles and a cartoon that criticized the state supreme court. The Court writes that what constitutes contempt, as well as the time during which it may be committed, is a matter of local law. Leaving undecided the question of whether First Amendment guarantees are applicable to the states via the 14th Amendment, the Court holds that the free-speech and press guarantees only guard against prior restraint and do not prevent subsequent punishment.

1917Congress passes the Espionage Act, making it a crime to willfully cause or attempt to cause insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny, or refusal of duty, in the military or naval forces of the United States, or to willfully obstruct the recruiting or enlistment service of the United States.

1917The Civil Liberties Bureau, a forerunner of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), is formed in response to passage of the Espionage Act.

1918Congress passes the Sedition Act, which forbids spoken or printed criticism of the U.S. government, the Constitution or the flag.

1919InSchenck v. U.S.,U.S. Supreme Court Justice Holmes sets forth his clear-and-present-danger test: whether the words used are used in such circumstances and are of such a nature as to create aclear and present dangerthat they will bring about the substantive evils that Congress has the right to prevent. Schenck and others had been accused of urging draftees to oppose the draft and not submit to intimidation. Justice Holmes also writes that not all speech is protected by the First Amendment, citing the now-famous example of falsely crying fire in a crowded theater.

1919InDebs v. U.S.,the U.S. Supreme Court upholds the conviction of socialist and presidential candidate Eugene V. Debs under the Espionage Act for making speeches opposing World War I. Justice Holmes claims to apply the clear and present danger test; however, he phrases it as requiring that Debs words have a natural tendency and reasonably probable effect of obstructing recruitment.

1919The U.S. Supreme Court upholds the convictions of five individuals charged with violating the Espionage Act inAbrams v. United States.The individuals had circulated pamphlets critical of the U.S. government and its involvement in World War I. In a dissenting opinion, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes writes that the ultimate good desired is better reached by free trade in ideas that the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market. This passage forms the foundation of the marketplace of ideas theory of the First Amendment.

1920Roger Baldwin and others start up a new organization dedicated to preserving civil liberties called the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

1921Congress repeals the Sedition Acts.

1925InGitlow v. New York,the U.S. Supreme Court upholds under the New York criminal anarchy statute Benjamin Gitlows conviction for writing and distributing The Left Wing Manifesto. The Court concludes, however, that the free-speech clause of the First Amendment applies to the states through the due-process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

1925The Scopes Monkey Trial occurs in Dayton, Tenn. School-teacher John Thomas Scopes is found guilty of violating a Tennessee law which prohibits teaching the theory of evolution in public schools. The case pits famed orator William Jennings Bryan against defense attorney Clarence Darrow.

1926H.L. Mencken is arrested for distributing copies ofAmerican Mercury.Censorship groups in Boston contend the periodical is obscene.

1927The U.S. Supreme Court upholds Californias criminal-syndicalism law inWhitney v. California.The case involves Charlotte Anita Whitney, a member of the Socialist Party and former member of the Communist Labor Party. Justice Louis Brandeis writes in his concurring opinion a passage that becomes a fundamental First Amendment principle: If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence.

1928InPeople of State of New York ex rel. Bryant v. Zimmerman,the U.S. Supreme Court upholds a New York law which mandates that organizations requiring their members to take oaths file certain organizational documents with the secretary of state. The Court writes: There can be no doubt that under that power the state may prescribe and apply to associations having an oath-bound membership any reasonable regulation calculated to confine their purposes and activities within limits which are consistent with the rights of others and the public welfare.

1931InStromberg v. California,the U.S. Supreme Court reverses the state court conviction of Yetta Stromberg, 19-year-old female member of the Young Communist League, who violated a state law prohibiting the display of a red flag as an emblem of opposition to the United States government. Legal commentators cite this case as the first in which the Court recognizes that protected speech may be nonverbal, or a form of symbolic expression.

1931InNear v. Minnesota,the U.S. Supreme Court invalidates a permanent injunction against the publisher ofThe Saturday Press.The Court rules that the Minnesota statute granting state judges the power to enjoin as a nuisance any malicious, scandalous and defamatory newspaper, magazine or other periodical is the essence of censorship. The Court concluded that the primary aim of the First Amendment was to prevent prior restraints of the press.

1933President Franklin D. Roosevelt pardons those convicted under the Espionage and Sedition Acts.

1933California repeals its Red Flag Law, ruled unconstitutional inStromberg.

1936InGrosjean v. American Press Co.,the U.S. Supreme Court invalidates a state tax on newspaper advertising applied to papers with a circulation exceeding 20,000 copies per week as a violation of the First Amendment. The Court finds the tax unconstitutional because it is seen to be a deliberate and calculated device in the guise of a tax to limit the circulation of information to which the public is entitled in virtue of the constitutional guaranties.

1937InDeJonge v. Oregon,the U.S. Supreme Court reverses the conviction of an individual under a state criminal syndicalism law for participation in a Communist party political meeting. The Court writes that peaceable assembly for lawful discussion cannot be made a crime. The holding of meetings for peaceable political action cannot be proscribed.

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First Amendment Timeline | The Free Speech Center