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Articles on First Amendment

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Eugene Debs, center, imprisoned at the Atlanta Federal Prison, was notified of his nomination for the presidency on the socialist ticket by a delegation of leading socialists who came from New York to Atlanta. George Rinhart/Corbis via Getty Images

Trump wouldn’t be the first presidential candidate to campaign from a prison cell

Can you run for president from a prison cell? One man did in the 1920 election and got almost a million votes.
Harvard President Claudine Gay, University of Pennsylvania then-President Elizabeth Magill and MIT President Sally Kornbluth testify before Congress on Dec. 5, 2023. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Why university presidents find it hard to punish advocating genocide − college free speech codes are both more and less protective than the First Amendment

University codes of conduct support their mission to educate. But it’s not easy to balance those codes with the values of free speech, as the resignation of a prominent university president shows.
Supporters of web designer Lorie Smith, the owner of 303 Creative, demonstrate in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 5, 2022. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Supreme Court is increasingly putting Christians’ First Amendment rights ahead of others’ dignity and rights to equal protection

Using the rhetoric of the First Amendment, a string of US Supreme Court cases has allowed members of some religious groups to limit the freedoms of other Americans.
A display of books that have been banned in various places is on view at a community gathering space in Washington, D.C. Craig Hudson for The Washington Post via Getty Images

Where the Supreme Court stands on banning books

Current precedent relies on a 1982 case in which five justices generally agreed there were limits on a school’s power to ban books, but they didn’t agree on why.
Donald Trump continues to have − and to exercise − his free speech rights, even while under court orders. AP Photo/Alex Brandon

Jack Smith’s requested gag order, like judicial orders restricting Trump’s speech, seeks to balance constitutional rights

Trump has not been silenced. The limits on his speech protect fundamental rights − including his right to a fair trial by an unbiased jury and the public’s right to a working justice system.
The E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse in Washington, D.C., where an Aug. 11, 2023, hearing was held on the Trump case. Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

Trump’s free speech faces court-ordered limits, like any other defendant’s – 2 law professors explain why, and how Trump’s lawyers need to watch themselves too

What can President Trump and his lawyers say about documents and witness statements used as evidence in his upcoming trial over his alleged attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election?
Viewed over decades, the Supreme Court’s record on religion-related cases is more complicated than recent headlines suggest. Phil Roeder/Moment via Getty Images

The Colorado website designer’s win is one of dozens of federal cases where religious beliefs and LGBTQ+ rights have clashed – and the pattern might not be what you think

Two sociologists break down how cases related to plaintiffs’ beliefs and LGBTQ+ rights have fared in federal courts over several decades.
Supporters, including one wearing a t-shirt bearing former President Donald Trump’s photo that says “Political prisoner,” watch as Trump departs the federal courthouse after arraignment, June 13, 2023, in Miami. AP Photo/Gerald Herbert

Fascism lurks behind the dangerous conflation of the terms ‘partisan’ and ‘political’

When everything is seen as political – indictments, Supreme Court decisions, scientific findings – a democracy may be on its way to fascism.

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