Which of these rights is protected by the first amendment

The First Amendment is widely considered to be the most important part of the Bill of Rights. It protects the fundamental rights of conscience—the freedom to believe and express different ideas—in a variety of ways. Under the First Amendment, Americans have both the right to exercise their religion as well as to be free from government coercion to support religion. In addition, freedoms of speech, press, and petition make democratic self-government possible by promoting the open exchange of information and ideas. Unpopular ideas are especially protected by the First Amendment because popular ideas already have support among the people. As Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes said, “freedom for the thought that we hate” is important to the discovery of truth, because sometimes viewpoints change. According to Holmes, the way to oppose thoughts with which we disagree is not to ban them, but to speak up for what we believe. In this way, truth has an opportunity to compete in the “marketplace of ideas.”

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Activities
Freedom of speech includes the right:
Freedom of speech does not include the right:
Which of these rights is protected by the First Amendment apex?
What are 3 things protected by the 1st Amendment?

No right is unlimited, and there are exceptions to freedom of expression as well. It is illegal to harm another person's reputation through falsehood or advocate specific violent acts. Another limitation on freedom of expression is national security. Freedom of speech and the press do not protect the disclosure of key information about troop movements during wartime, for example. However, in New York Times v. United States (1973), the Supreme Court ruled that a history of the Vietnam War known as the “Pentagon Papers” did not reveal critical information that would endanger lives in battle. Therefore, newspapers were free to publish these documents.

The Second Amendment links the right to bear arms and “the security of a free state.” Without access to guns for a militia, Americans believed they were vulnerable to oppression. In England, Catholic rulers prohibited their Protestant subjects from owning firearms, and the English Bill of Rights corrected that injustice in 1689. Similarly, the U.S. Bill of Rights included bearing arms among the rights “of the people,” not just government militias. In Heller v. District of Columbia (2008), the Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment protected an individual right to own guns, rather than the collective right of a state to have a militia. According to Yale law professor Akhil Reed Amar, “The framers recognized that self-government requires the people’s access to bullets as well as ballots.”

While the Supreme Court has decided that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual
right to bear arms, the Court has also conceded that there are
some instances (e.g. regulating the sale of assault weapons) in which the
government does have the right to regulate the sale and use of arms.

- Richard Beeman, “The Penguin Guide to the United States Constitution”

Rights content written by Linda R. Monk, Constitutional scholar

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Apply landmark Supreme Court cases to contemporary scenarios related to the five pillars of the First Amendment and your rights to freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition.

"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 redress of grievances." First Amendment, U.S. Constitution

Activities

Cox v. New Hampshire
Protests and freedom to assemble

Elonis v. U.S.
Facebook and free speech

Engel v. Vitale
Prayer in schools and freedom of religion

Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier
Student newspapers and free speech

Morse v. Frederick
School-sponsored events and free speech

Snyder v. Phelps
Public concerns, private matters, and free speech

Texas v. Johnson
Flag burning and free speech

Tinker v. Des Moines
Free speech in schools

U.S. v. Alvarez
Lies and free speech

DISCLAIMER: These resources are created by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts for educational purposes only. They may not reflect the current state of the law, and are not intended to provide legal advice, guidance on litigation, or commentary on any pending case or legislation.

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Among other cherished values, the First Amendment protects freedom of speech. The U.S. Supreme Court often has struggled to determine what exactly constitutes protected speech. The following are examples of speech, both direct (words) and symbolic (actions), that the Court has decided are either entitled to First Amendment protections, or not.

The First Amendment states, in relevant part, that:

“Congress shall make no law...abridging freedom of speech.”

Freedom of speech includes the right:

Not to speak (specifically, the right not to salute the flag).
West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943).
Of students to wear black armbands to school to protest a war (“Students do not shed their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse gate.”).
Tinker v. Des Moines, 393 U.S. 503 (1969).
To use certain offensive words and phrases to convey political messages.
Cohen v. California, 403 U.S. 15 (1971).
To contribute money (under certain circumstances) to political campaigns.
Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U.S. 1 (1976).
To advertise commercial products and professional services (with some restrictions).
Virginia Board of Pharmacy v. Virginia Consumer Council, 425 U.S. 748 (1976); Bates v. State Bar of Arizona, 433 U.S. 350 (1977).
To engage in symbolic speech, (e.g., burning the flag in protest).
Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397 (1989); United States v. Eichman, 496 U.S. 310 (1990).

Freedom of speech does not include the right:

To incite imminent lawless action.
Brandenburg v. Ohio, 395 U.S. 444 (1969).
To make or distribute obscene materials.
Roth v. United States, 354 U.S. 476 (1957).
To burn draft cards as an anti-war protest.
United States v. O’Brien, 391 U.S. 367 (1968).
To permit students to print articles in a school newspaper over the objections of the school administration.
Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier, 484 U.S. 260 (1988).
Of students to make an obscene speech at a school-sponsored event.
Bethel School District #43 v. Fraser, 478 U.S. 675 (1986).
Of students to advocate illegal drug use at a school-sponsored event.
Morse v. Frederick, __ U.S. __ (2007).

Disclaimer: These resources are created by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts for use in educational activities only. They may not reflect the current state of the law, and are not intended to provide legal advice, guidance on litigation, or commentary on legislation.