First Amendment Rights in the United States

Definition of First Amendment Rights

“First Amendment Rights, rights guaranteed to all citizens by the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, including freedom of religion, freedom of speech and press, freedom of assembly, and freedom to ask for governmental reform.” (1)

First Amendment Rights Cases in the Supreme Court

By Barry P. McDonald, who is a professor of constitutional law at Pepperdine University School of Law, and served as a law clerk to Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist (2010)

The Roberts Court is certainly willing to wade into difficult free speech issues. On the one hand, corporations have free speech rights to inundate election eve airwaves with slick commercials to sell their candidate of choice (in Citizens United v. FEC, the conservative bloc ruled broadly that a federal statute restricting corporate spending for political ads in the run-up to elections violated the First Amendment), and commercial producers of twisted sexual videos portraying the torture of small animals enjoy the same constitutional protections as any ordinary speaker (U.S. v. Stevens, 130 S. Ct. 1577 (2010)). Yet the Court also ruled that humanitarian lawyers can be criminally punished for counseling peaceful and legal conflict resolution techniques to foreign organizations accused of committing terrorism (Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project, 130 S. Ct. 2705 (2010)), and that public universities can effectively penalize student religious organizations for requiring those wishing to become members or leaders of such groups to share their religious beliefs (Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, 130 S. Ct. 2971 (2010)). Hmmm. Perhaps those pundits are right who say we need nominees to the Court who have “real world,” common sense experience instead of career judges who merely connect the legal dots.

In a major establishment clause ruling for the Roberts Court, the conservative bloc overturned a lower court ruling that Congress’s transfer to a private party of a parcel of land housing a war memorial cross in the Mojave Desert did not cure its unconstitutionality (Salazar v. Buono, 130 S. Ct. 1803 (2010)). The positions of the chief justice and Justice Samuel Alito, closely watched since Justice Sandra Day O’Connor retired, indicate that the conservatives now have a majority to push the law in a direction that tolerates increased government involvement in religious activities.

First Amendment rights in relation to Public Officers

Find out in this American legal Encyclopedia the information on First Amendment rights (Discharge from or termination of employment) in relation to Public Officers (and in the context of local government law).

Resources

See Also

• Fifth Amendment Rights
• Eighth Amendment Rights
• Fourteenth Amendment Rights
• Freedom Of Assembly
• Rights Protected
• Civil Rights And Civil Liberties
• Lame-Duck Amendment
• Rights Protected Summary
• Equal Rights Amendment
• Bill Of Rights Interpretation
• Bill Of Rights Origins
• Rights Of Women
• Bill Of Rights: Rebellion And Agitation For New Rights
• Constitutional Protection Of Civil Liberties
• Civil Rights For Hispanics And Asian Americans

Notes and References

1. Information about First Amendment Rights in the Encarta Online Encyclopedia

Guide to First Amendment Rights