All Cases

This is a chronological list of notable court cases involving First Amendment freedoms from 1804 to present. Each case on the list links to a summary of the ruling in the case. The list includes rulings from the Supreme Court and other significant decisions from state courts and the U.S. Courts of Appeals.

• Runkel v. Winemiller (1799)

  Runkel v. Winemiller (1779) gives insight into how early America viewed the First Amendment. The case involved the Maryland Court of Appeal's intervention in a...

• People v. Croswell (1804)

  The 1804 New York State Supreme Court ruling in People v. Croswell introduced that truth should be a defense to libel, even as the court upheld a libel...

• Commonwealth v. Clapp (Mass.) (1808)

  In Commonwealth v. Clapp (Mass. 1808) illumines state law prior to the application of the First Amendment to the states. Libel was considered criminal...

• Barnes v. First Parish in Falmouth (1810)

  Barnes v. First Parish in Falmouth (Mass. 1810) found that the state could establish a religion and that a preacher not of that denomination could not receive...

• People v. Ruggles (N.Y.) (1811)

  People v. Ruggles (1811) is one of the few convictions for blasphemy in the U.S. despite a state constitution provision, similar to the First Amendment,...

• United States v. Hudson and Goodwin (1812)

  In 1812, the Supreme Court overturned the criminal libel convictions of the owners of the Hartford Courant who had published an article accusing the president...

• People v. Philips (1813)

  People v. Phillips  has been called the first free exercise case and the origin of priest-penitent privilege. It affirmed the First Amendment’s right to free...

• Terrett v. Taylor (1815)

  Terrett v. Taylor (1815) did not cite the First Amendment because it did not apply to states at the time, but it was one of the most important church-state...

• Commonwealth v. Sharpless (Pa) (1815)

  Commonwealth v. Sharpless (1815) led to the first obscenity prosecution in the United States. This case took place before First Amendment rights were extended...

• Commonwealth v. Wolf (Penn. Supreme Court) (1817)

  In 1817, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld a fine against a Jewish man who worked on a Sunday in violation of the state's law prohibiting work on the...

• Trustees of Philadelphia Baptist Association v. Hart's Executors (1819)

  Trustees of Philadelphia Baptist Association v. Hart’s Executors (1819) was designed to keep courts out of the business of deciding matters of internal church...

• Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819)

  In Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819), the Supreme Court ruled that New Hampshire had violated the contract clause and signaled church-state disestablishment...

• State v. Gruber (Md., Cty. Ct.) (1819)

  In State v. Gruber (Md. Cty. Ct. 1819), Jacob Gruber's First Amendment right of speech was defended after he was prosecuted for an antislavery sermon...

• Baker v. Fales (1820)

  Baker v. Fales (Mass. Supreme Court, 1820) illustrates some of the problems that states with established churches faced prior to their abolition in 1833...

• Anderson v. Dunn (1821)

  Anderson v. Dunn (1821) upheld the right of Congress to cite individuals for contempt but recognized that contempt citations could suppress First Amendment...

• State v. Willson (S.C. App.) (1823)

  State v. Willson (1823 S.C. App.) offers insight into the early understanding of religious liberty in allowing exemptions to laws based on religious beliefs...

• Updegraph v. Commonwealth (Pa.) (1824)

  In 1824, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld a blasphemy conviction against a man who said the Bible was full of fables and lies. In Updegraph v. Commonwealth...

• Commonwealth v. Blanding (Mass.) (1825)

  Commonwealth v. Blanding (Mass. 1825) epitomized the common law libel understanding of some state judiciaries at the time: “the greater the truth, the greater...

• Commonwealth v. Lesher (Penn. S.C.) (1828)

  In a case that offers insight into how early American courts viewed liberty of conscience, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld a judge’s decision to remove...

• Phillips et al. (Simon's Executors) v. Gratz (1831)

  Phillips et al. v. Gratz (1831) ruled that a Jewish man had to attend trial on the Sabbath. The decision was issued before the application of the First...

• Barron v. Baltimore (1833)

  In Barron v. Baltimore (1833), the Court said framers of the Constitution did not intend the Bill of Rights to extend to the states, thus limiting it to the...

• Wheaton v. Peters (1834)

  Wheaton v. Peters (1834) was one of the first cases to deal with copyrights, the protection of which is an exception to general First Amendment protections...

• State v. Chandler (Del.) (1837)

  In early America, blasphemy was not protected by the First Amendment. State v. Chandler (Del. 1837) reasoned that blasphemy laws punished disturbances of the...

• Commonwealth v. Kneeland (Mass.) (1838)

  Commonwealth v. Kneeland (Mass. 1838) was the last case in the United States in which a court sustained a conviction for blasphemy. Blasphemy is protected by...

• Folsom v. Marsh (C.C.D. Mass.) (1841)

  Although Folsom v. Marsh (C.C.D. Mass. 1841) did not reference the First Amendment, it was an early copyright case which said a book violated fair use by...

• Vidal v. Girard's Executors (1844)

  Vidal v. Girard’s Executors (1844) implicated some issues that, if presented to the Court today, would be decided in the context of the First Amendment...

• Permoli v. New Orleans (1845)

  Permoli v. New Orleans (1845) shows the limits of the free exercise clause of the First Amendment in the years before the Bill of Rights was applied to the...

• White v. Nicholls (1845)

  White v. Nicholls (1845) said that letters sent about the fitness for office of public officials could be found to be libelous. Libel is not protected by the...

• Smith v. Swormstedt (1853)

  Although church and state institutions operate separately under the First Amendment, government has intervened on internal church matters such as in Smith v....

• Beatty v. Kurtz (1853)

  The Supreme Court ruling in Beatty v. Kurtz (1853) is an example of favoring church rights despite the First Amendment's clause against establishment of...

• Donahoe v. Richards (Maine Supreme Court) (1854)

  In Donahoe v. Richards (1854), the Maine Supreme Court considered a 15-year-old Roman Catholic girl's expulsion from public school for refusing to read the King...

• Commonwealth v. Cronin, 2 Va. Cir. 488 (1855)

  In an early state case about religious freedom, Commonwealth v. Cronin, a Virginia judge ruled that a priest could not be forced to testify about information...

• Baker v. Nachtrieb (1856)

  Baker v. Nachtrieb (1856) does not mention the First Amendment, but it furthered religious free exercise by sustaining an agreement between a religious society...

• Ex Parte Newman (Calif. Supreme Court) (1858)

  In Ex Parte Newman, the California Supreme Court in 1858 issued what is believed to be the only 19th-century case in the U.S. that overturned a law designed to...

• Richardson v. Goddard (1859)

  Richardson v. Goddard (1859) said that state days of prayer were not required to be observed after a firm sued for losing cargo they left out due to a day of...

• Commonwealth v. Cooke (Mass.) (1859)

  Commonwealth v. Cooke (Mass. 1859) involved a student who refused to read a King James Bible. The First Amendment which protects such rights was not yet applied...

• Lander v. Seaver (Vermont Supreme Court) (1859)

  An Vermont Supreme Court decision demonstrates that courts early in America's history permitted fairly harsh discipline of students, even for actions that took...

• Ex parte Vallandigham (1863)

  In Ex parte Vallandigham (1863), the Court said it had no jurisdiction to hear appeals from a military tribunal in a First Amendment case during the Civil War...

• Watson v. Jones (1871)

  Watson v. Jones (1871) said the Court would resolve church property disputes on a basis other than church doctrine, furthering the goals of the First Amendment...

• Board of Education of the City of Cincinnati v. Minor (1872)

  Board of Education v. Minor (1872), a state supreme court decision, preceded later First Amendment debates in the Supreme Court about religious instruction in...

• Slaughterhouse Cases (1873)

  The Slaughterhouse Cases (1873) suggested that the First Amendment could be incorporated to the states through the 14th Amendment. Incorporation officially...

• United States v. Cruikshank (1876)

  U.S. v. Cruikshank (1876), which arose out of the Colfax Massacre, is important in First Amendment jurisprudence for statements made about freedom of peaceable...

• Ex parte Jackson (1877)

  In Ex parte Jackson (1877), the Supreme Court said Congress did not violate the First Amendment by closing the postal system to literature about lotteries...

• Reynolds v. United States (1879)

  In Reynolds v. United States (1879), the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that a federal law prohibiting polygamy did not violate the free exercise clause of the...

• Ex parte Curtis (1882)

  The dissent in Ex parte Curtis (1882), a case involving a form of political patronage, specifically evoked the First Amendment freedoms of speech, press, and...

• Murphy v. Ramsey (1885)

  In Murphy v. Ramsey (1885), the Supreme Court upheld a federal law that denied polygamists the right to vote, denying that the law was an ex post facto...

• Gibbons v. District of Columbia (1886)

  In Gibbons v. District of Columbia, the court affirmed that Congress could tax church property that had been used “for any business purpose...

• Spies v. Illinois (Ill.) (1887)

  Before First Amendment protections were applied to state laws, the Illinois Supreme Court upheld convictions based on speech in the Haymarket Riot in Spies v....

• Charles B. Reynolds Blasphemy Trial (New Jersey) (1887)

  A New Jersey jury in 1887 convicted a former Methodist minister for blasphemy despite a passion defense by leading attorney and freethinker Robert Ingersoll,...

• Late Corporation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints v. United States (1890)

  In 1890, the Court ruled that Congress could dissolve the Mormon church because of its practice of polygamy. That action is now considered a clear violation of...

• Davis v. Beason (1890)

  In Davis v. Beason (1890) upheld a law withdrew the right to vote from polygamists. The Court said the First Amendment freedom of religion must be subordinate...

• State ex rel. Weiss v. City of Edgerton (Wisc.) (1890)

  Weiss v. City of Edgerton (Wisc. 1890) prohibited Bible readings in public schools, relying on the state constitution before the First Amendment was applied to...

• McAuliffe v. Mayor of New Bedford (Mass.) (1892)

  McAuliffe v. Mayor of New Bedford (Mass., 1892) limited a public employee’s First Amendment rights. The Supreme Court granted more protection to public...

• McAuliffe v. Mayor of New Bedford (1892)
• Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States (1892)

  Supreme Court Justice David Brewer called the United States a "Christian nation" in an 1892 opinion favoring a church who had violated a law on foreign labor...

• In re Rapier (1892)

  In re Rapier affirmed that federal statutes prohibiting the use of the mail to send lottery cards or advertisements do not violate First Amendment freedom of...

• Grimm v. United States (1895)

  In Grimm v. United States, the Supreme Court upheld on a conviction for using the mail to convey information about where to purchase pornographic pictures...

• Hennington v. Georgia (1896)

  Hennington v. Georgia (1896) upheld a state law forbidding trains from running on Sundays. Later "Sunday blue laws" were challenged on First Amendment grounds...

• Rosen v. United States (1896)

  Rosen v. United States (1896) upheld an obscenity conviction by relying on the Hicklin test, which would eventually be discarded in light of First Amendment...

• Swearingen v. United States (1896)

  The First Amendment case Swearingen v. United States (1896) overturned the conviction of a newspaper publisher who mailed a newspaper with an allegedly obscene...

• Dailey v. Superior Court of City and County of San Francisco (Calif. Supreme Court) (1896)
• Davis v. Massachusetts (1897)

  Davis v. Massachusetts (1897) dismissed a First Amendment claim and gave municipalities unlimited authority over open-air speech in a case involving unlicensed...

• Pfeiffer v. Board of Education (1898)

  Pfeiffer v. Board of Education (1898) illustrates developments in the states regarding religious exercises in public schools, before the First Amendment was...

• Bradfield v. Roberts (1899)

  Bradfield v. Roberts (1899), the first case challenging federal expenses as a First Amendment violation, said funding a Catholic hospital did not violate the...

• State v. McKee (Conn.) (1900)

  State v. McKee (Conn. 1900) offered an early look at how state courts viewed freedom of the press before the Supreme Court applied First Amendment protections...

• American School of Magnetic Healing v. McAnnulty (1902)

  American School of Magnetic Healing v. McAnnulty (1902) furthered First Amendment freedoms by limiting the discretion of the postmaster general concerning mail...

• United States ex rel. Turner v. Williams (1904)

  In 1904, the Supreme Court upheld the planned deportation of anarchist and alien John Turner under the Anarchist Exclusion Act. In Turner v. Williams, the Court...

• Jacobson v. Massachusetts (1905)

  In 1905, the U.S. Supreme Court said that Massachusett's compulsory smallpox vaccination program did not violate a pastor's religious freedom rights under the...

• Patterson v. Colorado (1907)

  Patterson v. Colorado (1907), which upheld a contempt citation against a paper that criticized a state supreme court, has been superseded by new First Amendment...

• Halter v. Nebraska (1907)

  Halter v. Nebraska (1907) upheld a state law that prohibited the use of the American flag in advertising. Modern flag desecration is protected by the First...

• Municipality of Ponce v. Roman Catholic Apostolic Church in Porto Rico (1908)

  Municipality of Ponce v. Roman Catholic Apostolic Church in Porto Rico (1908) does not directly mention the First Amendment, but it illuminates the...

• Bobbs-Merrill Co. v. Straus (1908)

  In Bobbs-Merrill Co. v. Straus (1908), the Supreme Court said authors could not control the price of subsequent sales of a book by copyrighting the book...

• Quick Bear v. Leupp (1908)

  Quick Bear v. Leupp (1908) ruled that expenditures from Native American treaty trust funds for Catholic schools on reservations did not violate the First...

• United States v. Smith (Ind.) (1909)

  A federal district judge in 1909 stopped the prosecution of the Indianapolis Star for allegedly libelous stories about President Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt...

• Gompers v. Buck's Stove and Range Co. (1911)

  In Gompers v. Buck’s Stove and Range Co., the Court rejected the claim that First Amendment rights protect individuals who violate injunctions against labor...

• United States v. Press Publishing Co. (1911)

  In what has been described as "the last gasp of seditious libel" in the United States, the Supreme Court in 1911 quashed federal indictments against several New...

• Gandia v. Pettingill (1912)

  Gandia v. Pettingill served as a precedent for protecting First Amendment rights by making libel judgments difficult to win...

• Lewis Publishing Company v. Morgan (1913)

  Lewis Publishing Company v. Morgan (1913) said requiring newspapers to submit the names of editors and owners to the Post Office did not violate the First...

• Order of St. Benedict v. Steinhauser (1914)

  Order of St. Benedict v. Steinhauser (1914) said a religious order was entitled to the estate of one of its deceased members, protecting the First Amendment...

• Fox v. Washington (1915)

  The ruling in Fox v. Washington (1915), dealing with an article on nude bathing, was issued before the Court recognized that the First Amendment limited state...

• Mutual Film Corp. v. Industrial Commission of Ohio (1915)

  Mutual Film Corp. v. Industrial Commission of Ohio (1915), which has been modified since, severely restricted the application of First Amendment freedoms to the...

• Masses Publishing Co. v. Patten (S.D.N.Y) (1917)

  Masses Publishing Co. v. Patten (S.D.N.Y. 1917) stands as testament to Judge Learned Hand's attempt to maintain First Amendment freedoms during World War I...

• Toledo Newspaper Co. v. United States (1918)

  Toledo Newspaper Co. v. United States (1918), which upheld a contempt citation a judge had issued to a newspaper, reflected early views on First Amendment...

• Schenck v. United States (1919)

  Schenck v. United States (1919) demonstrated the limits to the First Amendment during wartime and affirmed the conviction of Charles Schenck for violating the...

• Debs v. United States (1919)

  In Debs v. United States (1919), a low point in the protection of free speech during wartime, the Court sustained a socialist leader's conviction under the...

• Abrams v. United States (1919)

  In Abrams v. U.S., the Supreme Court in 1919 upheld the convictions of several individuals under the 1918 Sedition Act for distributing leaflets opposed to U.S...

• Frohwerk v. United States (1919)

  Frohwerk v. United States (1919) upheld a conviction for an article criticizing World War I while also affirming that First Amendment rights do not disappear...

• Sugarman v. United States (1919)

  Sugarman v. United States (1919) upheld a conviction under the Espionage Act against a challenge that the judge had not given instructions about First Amendment...

• Schaefer v. United States (1920)

  Schaefer v. United States (1920), which upheld convictions for reports hindering the war effort, was representative of setbacks to First Amendment freedoms...

• Gilbert v. Minnesota (1920)

  In Gilbert v. Minnesota, the Supreme Court upheld the conviction of Joseph Gilbert for criticizing conscription and U.S. participation in World War I...

• Pierce v. United States (1920)

  Pierce v. United States (1920), the last ruling regarding the criminal sections of the Espionage Act, represented another setback for civil liberties in the...

• United States ex rel. Milwaukee Social Democratic Publishing Co. v. Burleson (1921)

  Milwaukee Social Democratic Publishing Co. v. Burleson (1921) denied mailing privileges to a socialist newspaper. Dissenters said the decision violated the...

• Prudential Insurance Co. of America v. Cheek (1922)

  Prudential Insurance Co. of America v. Cheek (1922) gives a glimpse into First Amendment doctrine prior to the incorporation of the free speech clause to the...

• Balzac v. People of Porto Rico (1922)

  Balzac v. People of Porto Rico (1922) affirmed a libel decision. The main issues were jurisdiction and whether a right to a jury trial applied in Puerto Rico...

• Leach v. Carlile (1922)

  Leach v. Carlile (1922), which upheld a mail fraud order, is best known for a dissent emphasizing that the First Amendment was designed to prevent prior...

• Craig v. Hecht (1923)

  In Craig v. Hecht (1923), the Court upheld a contempt citation issued by a judge after the New York City comptroller published a letter critical of his decision...

• Meyer v. Nebraska (1923)

  In Meyer v. Nebraska (1923) invalidated a state law that banned teaching foreign languages to schoolchildren. The law violated the Fourteenth Amendment’s due...

• Evans v. Selma Union High School District of Fresno County (California Supreme Court) (1924)

  Evans v. Selma Union High School District of Fresno County (Cal. 1924) said a high school buying copies of the Bible for its library did not violate the First...

• Gitlow v. New York (1925)

  In Gitlow v. New York, the Court applied free speech and press protection to the states through the due process clause of the the Fourteenth Amendment...

• Pierce v. Society of Sisters (1925)

  Pierce v. Society of Sisters (1925), although never mentioning the First Amendment, has become an important precedent both for the rights of parents to educate...

• Ruthenberg v. Michigan (1927)

  Although Ruthenberg v. Michigan (1927) was dismissed, Justice Brandeis's used his dissent to later form arguments that expanded speech protection under the...

• Whitney v. California (1927)

  Justice Louis D. Brandeis’s concurring opinion in defense of free speech in Whitney v. California (1927) has become a milestone in First Amendment...

• Burns v. United States (1927)

  In Burns v. United States (1927), with companion cases, the Supreme Court ruled that the California Syndicalism Act did not violate the First Amendment...

• Fiske v. Kansas (1927)

  Fiske v. Kansas (1927) overturned a conviction under a Kansas law, saying the law violated the First Amendment. The law made it a crime to advocate crime to...

• New York ex rel. Bryant v. Zimmerman (1928)

  New York ex rel. Bryant v. Zimmerman (1928) upheld the conviction of an individual who belonged to the Ku Klux Klan who had not registered according to state...

• United States v. Schwimmer (1929)

  A historic dissent in United States v. Schwimmer (1929) by Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. calls for toleration of free thought as a principle of the First Amendment...

• Cochran v. Board of Education (1930)

  Cochran v. Board of Education (1930) upheld a law against First Amendment challenges that allowed the state to give textbooks to students in parochial school...

• United States v. Macintosh (1931)

  United States v. Macintosh (1931) rejected that the First Amendment's protection of conscientious objectors extended to those applying for citizenship...

• Stromberg v. California (1931)

  Stromberg v. California (1931) said the conviction of a California woman for flying the red flag of the Soviet Union violated the First Amendment free speech...

• Near v. Minnesota (1931)

  Near v. Minnesota (1931) fashioned the First Amendment doctrine opposing prior restraint and reaffirmed that the incorporation of the First Amendment...

• Hamilton v. Regents of the University of California (1934)

  In this case, the Supreme Court upheld the right of states to require university students to receive military training, declaring that the free exercise clause...

• Grosjean v. American Press Co. (1936)

  In Grosjean v. American Press Co. (1936), the Supreme Court invalidated a law that imposed a tax on the gross receipts of newspapers with larger circulations...

• De Jonge v. Oregon (1937)

  De Jonge v. Oregon (1937) said that state governments may not violate the First Amendment right of peaceable assembly. The decision contributed to symbolic...

• Herndon v. Lowry (1937)

  Herndon v. Lowry (1937) said Georgia's conviction of a man for possessing Communist literature violated the First Amendment rights of free speech and assembly...

• Senn v. Tile Layers Protective Union (1937)

  Senn v. Tile Layers Protective Union (1937) upheld a state law that allowed peaceful picketing. Peaceful picketing is protected by the First Amendment...

• Associated Press v. National Labor Relations Board (1937)

  Associated Press v. National Labor Relations Board (1937) upheld the application of a labor law to the Associated Press, saying press had no special exemption...

• Palko v. Connecticut (1937)

  Palko v. Connecticut (1937) laid the basis for the idea that some freedoms in the Bill of Rights, including the First Amendment, are more important than others...

• Lovell v. City of Griffin (1938)

  Lovell v. City of Griffin (1938) overturned the conviction of a Jehovah's Witness who sold a pamphlet without getting prior permission from the city on First...

• New Negro Alliance v. Sanitary Grocery Co., Inc. (1938)

  In New Negro Alliance v. Sanitary Grocery Co., Inc. (1938), the Supreme Court ruled that pickets that were a peaceful and orderly dissemination of information...

• Schneider v. State (1939)

  Schneider v. State (1939) invalidated several city ordinances that restricted the distribution of handbills, ruling that the laws infringed on the First...

• Hague v. Committee for Industrial Organization (1939)

  Hague v. Committee for Industrial Organization (1939) dealt with the freedom of assembly and set the precedent for the public forum doctrine in First Amendment...

• Cantwell v. Connecticut (1940)

  A 1940 Supreme Court landmark decision in Cantwell v. Connecticut affirmed the religious freedom rights of a Jehovah's Witness man to go door-to-door, despite...

• Minersville School District v. Gobitis (1940)

  Minersville School District v. Gobitis (1940) ruled that states could require public school students to salute the U.S. flag without violating students’ First...

• Carlson v. California (1940)

  Carlson v. California (1940) struck down an ordinance that prohibited loitering or picketing with the intent to stop people working. Picketing is protected by...

• Thornhill v. Alabama (1940)

  Thornhill v. Alabama (1940) found that a law that made it illegal for a person to “loiter” around or “picket” a business denied the First Amendment...

• Bridges v. California (1941)

  Bridges v. California (1941) used the First Amendment to overturn contempt convictions against a newspaper and an individual who had criticized judicial...

• National Labor Relations Board v. Virginia Electric and Power (1941)

  National Labor Relations Board v. Virginia Electric and Power (1941) examined if illegal activity can be shown on the basis of words otherwise protected by the...

• American Federation of Labor v. Swing (1941)

  American Federation of Labor v. Swing (1941) held that the state’s policy of forbidding picketing when there was no employer-employee dispute violated the...

• Milk Wagon Drivers Union v. Meadowmoor (1941)

  Milk Wagon Drivers Union v. Meadowmoor (1941), upheld an injunction by an Illinois court against peaceful picketing, which the state court believed was related...

• Cox v. New Hampshire (1941)

  Cox v. New Hampshire (1941) upheld Jehovah's Witnesses' conviction for parading without a permit, ruling that their First Amendments rights had not been...

• Valentine v. Chrestensen (1942)

  Valentine v. Chrestensen (1942) ruled that commercial speech is not protected by the First Amendment. It has made assessing commercial speech under the First...

• Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire (1942)

  Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire (1942) established that fighting words are not protected by the First Amendment. The Court has since narrowed the fighting words...

• Bakery and Pastry Drivers and Helpers Local v. Wohl (1942)

  Bakery and Pastry Drivers and Helpers Local v. Wohl (1942) struck down an injunction against picketers, applying freedom of speech to New York via the 14th...

• Carpenters and Joiners Union of America, Local No. 213 v. Ritter's Cafe (1942)

  Carpenters and Joiners Union of America v. Ritter's Cafe (1942) said that a state could bar a labor union's picketing against a restaurant that was not part of...

• Hotel and Restaurant Employees International Alliance v. Wisconsin Employment Relations Board (1942)

  Hotel and Restaurant Employees’ International Alliance v. Wisconsin Employment Relations Board (1942) said only peaceful picketing is protected by the First...

• Barber v. Time (1942)

  Barber v. Time (Mo. 1942) ruled that press freedom and individual privacy are not absolute rights and must be balanced. Courts must consider the "proper public...

• Jones v. City of Opelika (1942, 1943)

  The two Jones v. City of Opelika (1942, 1943) cases, dealing with licenses for religious booksellers, raised important First Amendment issues regarding free...

• National Broadcasting Co. v. United States (1943)

  National Broadcasting Co. v. United States (1943) upheld FCC content-based regulations on broadcast media, finding they did not violate First Amendment free...

• Largent v. Texas (1943)

  Largent v Texas (1943) said giving a city mayor the power to determine who can distribute pamphlets is censorship and not allowed under the First Amendment...

• Martin v. City of Struthers (1943)

  In Martin v. City of Struthers (1943), the Court overturned a ruling that upheld the conviction of a door-to-door religious solicitor in a case focusing on...

• Murdock v. Pennsylvania (1943)

  Murdock v. Pennsylvania (1943) invalidated a city ordinance that required solicitors to obtain a license. The Court found the law infringed on the First...

• Taylor v. Mississippi (1943)

  Taylor v. Mississippi (1943) struck down a state law that convicted individuals who spoke against saluting the flag, finding it in violation of the First...

• West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (1943)

  West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (1943) said requiring students to salute the American flag infringed upon First Amendment freedoms of belief...

• Cafeteria Employees Union v. Angelos (1943)

  Cafeteria Employees Union v. Angelos (1943) ruled a court had violated the First Amendment rights of peaceful picketers in issuing two broad injunctions against...

• Jamison v. Texas (1943)

  In Jamison v. Texas, the Court, on First Amendment grounds, overturned the conviction of a Jehovah’s Witness who distributed handbills on the streets...

• Douglas v. City of Jeannette (1943)

  In Douglas v. City of Jeannette (1943), the Supreme Court focused on the jurisdiction of federal courts in First Amendment cases during pending state...

• Schneiderman v. United States (1943)

  In Schneiderman v. United States, the Supreme Court invoked First Amendment protection of freedom of belief in deciding that the United States could not revoke...

• Follett v. Town of McCormick (1944)

  Follett v. Town of McCormick (1944) invalidated a tax on selling religious publications door-to-door using the First Amendment to reject this restriction on...

• Prince v. Massachusetts (1944)

  Prince v. Massachusetts (1944) upheld a state regulation prohibiting children from selling newspapers in public places, finding it was not in violation of the...

• Hartzel v. United States (1944)

  Hartzel v. United States (1944) overturned a conviction under the Espionage Act of 1917, shifting toward tolerance of First Amendment speech criticizing the war...

• United States v. Ballard (1944)

  In United States v. Ballard (1944), the Supreme Court ruled that the First Amendment prohibited courts from inquiring into the truth or falsity of religious...

• Feldman v. United States (1944)

  In a 1944 case involving self-incrimination, Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black focused on the connection between the First Amendment and other provisions in the...

• Associated Press v. United States (1945)

  Associated Press v. United States (1945) upheld an injunction against The Associated Press for violating anti-trust laws, saying the anti-trust law promoted the...

• Thomas v. Collins (1945)

  In Thomas v. Collins (1945), a labor case, the Supreme Court enunciated the preferred position doctrine for First Amendment freedoms of speech and assembly...

• In re Summers (1945)

  In re Summers (1945) upheld that denying an attorney's admission to the bar because he was a conscientious objector to war did not violate the free exercise of...

• Bridges v. Wixon (1945)

  Bridges v. Wixon (1945) ruled that the U.S. could not deport a legal immigrant for his Communist Party affiliation. The Court said legal aliens had First...

• Girouard v. United States (1946)

  In Girouard v. United States, the Supreme Court held that citizenship applicants do not have to swear they will bear arms if they have religious objections...

• Pennekamp v. Florida (1946)

  Pennekamp v. Florida (1946) overturned a contempt citation issued to an editor of the Miami Herald. The Court found that the contempt citation violated the...

• Cleveland v. United States (1946)

  Cleveland v. United States (1946) upheld the convictions of a fundamentalist group of polygamous Mormons. Polygamy is not historically protected by the First...

• Mabee v. White Plains Publishing Co. (1946)

  Mabee v. White Plains Publishing Co. (1946) emphasized that First Amendment protections for freedom of the press do not exempt them from general governmental...

• Oklahoma Press Publishing Co. v. Walling (1946)

  Oklahoma Press Publishing Co. v. Walling (1946) said a wage-hour administrator could issue a subpoena to a newspaper without violating the First Amendment...

• Marsh v. Alabama (1946)

  In Marsh v. Alabama (1946) the Court held that a person distributing religious literature on the sidewalk of a “company town” was protected by the First...

• Tucker v. Texas (1946)

  Tucker v. Texas (1946) ruled that, under the First Amendment, a town manager could not prohibit door-to-door canvassing in a town owned by the national...

• Hannegan v. Esquire (1946)

  Hannegan v. Esquire (1974) overturned a decision revoking a mail permit issued to Esquire magazine, affirming First Amendment freedoms of speech and press...

• Craig v. Harney (1947)

  In Craig v. Harney (1947), the Court overturned contempt of court convictions against three Texas Journalist on grounds of First Amendment free speech and press...

• Everson v. Board of Education (1947)

  Everson v. Board of Education (1947) said spending tax funds to bus children to religious schools did not breach the First Amendment establishment clause...

• United Public Workers of America v. Mitchell (1947)

  The U.S. Supreme Court in 1947 upheld the Hatch Act against a challenge that it restricted the free speech rights of government employees by preventing them...

• United States v. Congress of Industrial Organizations (1948)

  United States v. CIO (1948), which involved an indictment against a union for its periodical, said the law in question was not intended to infringe upon First...

• Saia v. New York (1948)

  Saia v. New York (1948) invalidated a sound truck ordinance that allowed the police chief to act as a censor on speech for violating the First Amendment...

• Winters v. New York (1948)

  Winters v. New York (1948) said a state obscenity law that prohibited the distribution of magazines made up primarily of crime news violated the First Amendment...

• Illinois ex rel. McCollum v. Board of Education (1948 )

  Illinois ex rel. McCollum v. Board of Education (1948) overturned an arrangement whereby public schools provided religious training during regular school hours...

• Donaldson v. Read Magazine (1948)

  In Donaldson v. Read Magazine (1948), the Court said First Amendment freedoms of speech and press did not prohibit Congress from trying to prevent mail fraud...

• Kovacs v. Cooper (1949)

  Kovacs v. Cooper (1949) upheld the conviction of a man under a city ordinance that prohibited the use of sound trucks that emitted “loud and raucous”...

• Terminiello v. Chicago (1949)

  Terminiello v. Chicago (1949) overturned on First Amendment grounds a disorderly conduct conviction against a suspended Catholic priest for making inflammatory...

• Giboney v. Empire Storage and Ice Co. (1949)

  In Giboney v. Empire Storage and Ice Co., the court ruled that First Amendment freedoms do not protect conduct that breaks valid laws...

• American Federation of Labor v. American Sash and Door Co. (1949)

  American Federation of Labor v. American Sash and Door Co. (1949) upheld a right-to-work amendment to the Arizona constitution against First Amendment...

• Lincoln Federal Labor Union v. Northwestern Iron and Metal Co. (1949)

  In Lincoln Federal Labor Union v. Northwestern Iron and Metal Co. (1949), the Supreme Court upheld anti-closed shop laws against a First Amendment challenge...

• Hughes v. Superior Court of California (1950)

  Hughes v. Superior Court of California Court (1950) said an injunction against picketing to pressure employers to hire on a racial basis didn't violate the...

• Building Service Employees International Union v. Gazzam (1950)

  Building Service Employees International Union v. Gazzam (1950) said the First Amendment did not protect picketers who were coercing employers to break state...

• International Brotherhood of Teamsters Union v. Hanke (1950)

  In International Brotherhood of Teamsters Union v. Hanke (1950), the Court sustained an injunction against the picketing of a self-employer’s place of...

• American Communications Association v. Douds (1950)

  American Communications Association v. Douds (1950) said the requiring unions to affirm their leaders were not Communists did not violate the First Amendment...

• Lorain Journal Co. v. United States (1951)

  Lorain Journal Co. v. United States (1951) said punishing a newspaper for attempting to monopolize interstate commerce did not infringe on the First Amendment...

• Dennis v. United States (1951)

  Dennis v. United States (1951) applied the First Amendment clear and present danger test to uphold the convictions of U.S.-based communists for their political...

• Breard v. Alexandria (1951)

  Breard v. Alexandria (1951) upheld a city ordinance prohibiting unsolicited door-to-door sales, ruling that the ordinance did not violate the First Amendment...

• International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers v. National Labor Relations Board (1951)

  International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers v. National Labor Relations Board affirmed a decision that a union’s peaceful picketing had illegally induced...

• Niemotko v. Maryland (1951)

  Niemotko v. Maryland (1951) found that a conviction for holding a Bible study in a park without a permit was a denial of the First Amendment right to exercise...

• Kunz v. New York (1951)

  Kunz v. New York (1951) overturned a city ordinance which refused to renew a street preaching permit. The Court struck down the law as a prior restraint of...

• Garner v. Board of Public Works of Los Angeles (1951)

  In Garner v. Board of Public Works of Los Angeles, the court upheld the constitutionality of loyalty oaths examining subversive associations of employees...

• Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee v. McGrath (1951)

  In Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee v. McGrath (1951), the Court furthered First Amendment rights of association by ruling that blacklisted organizations...

• Gerende v. Board of Supervisors of Elections of Baltimore (1951)

  In Gerende v. Board of Supervisors of Elections of Baltimore, the court upheld a Maryland requirement that all candidates seeking access to the ballot must take...

• Feiner v. New York (1951)

  Feiner v. New York (1951) addressed the issue of whether speech that incites a “breach of the peace” constitutes a categorical exception to the First...

• Burstyn v. Wilson (1952)

  In Burstyn v. Wilson (1952), the Supreme Court said a New York law allowing a film to be banned on the basis of its being sacrilegious violated the First...

• Kedroff v. Saint Nicholas Cathedral (1952)

  In Kedroff v. Saint Nicholas Cathedral (1952), the Supreme Court ruled that a New York law exercised unconstitutional legislative interference in the freedom of...

• Gelling v. Texas (1952)

  In Gelling v. Texas, the court reversed a Texas court decision that convicted W. L. Gelling. Gelling had shown a motion picture prohibited by the Board of...

• Public Utilities Commission v. Pollak (1952)

  Public Utilities Commission v. Pollak (1952) determined that First Amendment freedoms were not unreasonably inhibited by the broadcast of radio programs on...

• Harisiades v. Shaughnessy (1952)

  Harisiades v. Shaughnessy upheld a provision of the Alien Registration Act of 1940, requiring deportation of resident aliens who advocate the unlawful overthrow...

• Beauharnais v. Illinois (1952)

  Beauharnais v. Illinois (1952) is the precedent for the constitutionality of state group-libel laws, but later precedents were so powerful that the decision...

• Doremus v. Board of Education (1952)

  Doremus v. Board of Education (1952) said a parent and taxpayer who raised a First Amendment challenge to daily Bible reading in a public school had no standing...

• Zorach v. Clauson (1952)

  Zorach v. Clauson (1952) said the released time policy of New York violated neither the free exercise nor establishment clause of the First Amendment...

• Adler v. Board of Education (1952)

  Adler v. Board of Education (1952) upheld a state law that prevented members of subversive groups from teaching. Dissenters said the law violated First...

• Wieman v. Updegraff (1952)

  In Wieman v. Updegraff (1952), the Court said a loyalty oath requirement for Oklahoma state employees violated the First Amendment freedoms of speech and...

• Carlson v. Landon (1952)

  Carlson v. Landon (1952) upheld the detention of resident aliens without bail. The decision split the court over the First Amendment rights of aliens...

• United States v. Rumely (1953)

  The Supreme Court in 1953 affirmed the invalidation of a contempt conviction of Edward Rumely, who had refused to tell a congressional committee who purchased...

• United Association of Journeymen Plumbers and Steamfitters v. Graham (1953)

  The Supreme Court in 1953 upheld an injunction preventing union members from picketing in front of a school that used non-union members, reasoning that the...

• Fowler v. Rhode Island (1953)

  Fowler v. Rhode Island (1953) said preventing a Jehovah’s Witness from holding a religious service in a public park, but allowing other worship, violated the...

• Poulos v. New Hampshire (1953)

  Poulos v. New Hampshire (1953) found a state ordinance that banned holding religious services in public parks without a permit did not violate the First...

• Tudor v. Board of Education of Borough of Rutherford (N.J.) (1953)

  The New Jersey Supreme Court in 1953 ruled that Bible distribution in public schools by the Gideons violated the First Amendment establishment clause in Tudor v...

• Superior Films v. Department of Education (1954)

  Superior Films v. Department of Education (1954) said state laws allowing administrative agencies to refuse licenses to objectionable movies violated the First...

• United States v. Harriss (1954)

  In 1954, the Supreme Court upheld a federal lobbyist law under a First Amendment challenge that it violates right to speech and petition government. In United...

• Communist Control Act of 1954 (1954)

  The Communist Control Act of 1954, which outlawed the Communist Party, impinged upon numerous constitutional rights, including First Amendment rights...

• Sicurella v. United States (1955)

  Sicurella v. United States (1955) overturned the conviction of a Jehovah’s Witness who was refused conscientious objector status. The First Amendment protects...

• Pennsylvania v. Nelson (1956)

  Pennsylvania v. Nelson (1956) addresses federal preemption and illustrates how the Court protected civil liberties such as the First Amendment during the era of...

• Railway Employees' Department v. Hanson (1956)

  Railway Employees' Department v. Hanson (1956) ruled that the Railway Labor Act's provision for union shops was not a violation of the First Amendment's right...

• Sweezy v. New Hampshire (1957)

  Sweezy v. New Hampshire (1957) overturned a contempt citation of professor who refused to disclose the contents of a speech. The Court said First Amendment...

• Kingsley Books, Inc. v. Brown (1957)

  In Kingsley Books, Inc. v. Brown (1957), the Court upheld a state statute that allowed for the destruction of obscene materials after an expedited hearing...

• United States v. Auto Workers (1957)

  In 1957, the Supreme Court held that the use of general union treasury funds to sponsor commercial television broadcasts touting 1954 congressional candidates...

• Yates v. United States (1957)

  Yates v. United States (1957) was one of the last cases involving the prosecution of American Communists and ruled that that the First Amendment protects...

• Watkins v. United States (1957)

  Watkins v. United States (1957) implicated First Amendment rights and overturned the conviction of a man who refused to answer questions of a Congressional...

• Alberts v. California (1957)

  Alberts v. California (1957) marks the first time the Supreme Court specifically ruled that obscenity does not fall under the protection of the First Amendment...

• Butler v. Michigan (1957)

  Butler v. Michigan (1957) struck down a law against obscene materials that could be harmful to youths. The law violated the First Amendment by being overbroad...

• One, Inc. v. Olesen (9th Cir.) (1957)

  One, Inc. v. Olesen (9th Cir. 1957) ruled that a homosexual magazine was obscene and not constitutionally protected under the First Amendment rights of free...

• Roth v. United States (1957)

  Roth v. United States (1957) resulted in a new test to determine what could be prosecuted under obscenity laws and what was protected under the First Amendment...

• International Brotherhood of Teamsters Union v. Vogt (1957)

  International Brotherhood of Teamsters Union v. Vogt (1957) reaffirmed that some state limits on picketing did not infringe upon First Amendment freedom of...

• Beilan v. Board of Education (1958)

  Beilan v. Board of Education (1958) glossed over First Amendment concerns and upheld a teacher's dismissal for refusing to answer questions about membership in...

• NAACP v. Alabama (1958)

  In NAACP v. Alabama (1958), the Court ruled that the First Amendment protected the free association rights of the NAACP and its rank-and-file members...

• Staub v. City of Baxley (1958)

  Staub v. City of Baxley (1958) invalidated a city ordinance requiring a permit before soliciting residents to join their organization, ruling it violated the...

• Speiser v. Randall (1958)

  In Speiser v. Randall (1958), the Supreme Court ruled that the state cannot condition the receipt of a tax exemption on a loyalty oath to not overthrow the...

• In re Sawyer (1959)

  In re Sawyer (1959) reversed a suspension of an attorney who had criticized the court handling her case. She had argued her speech was protected by the First...

• Cammarano v. United States (1959)

  Cammarano v. United States (1959) said businesses cannot deduct from their taxes money spent to influence legislation. The Court said the law did not violate...

• Barenblatt v. United States (1959)

  Barenblatt v. United States (1959) held that government could compel answers to political affiliation questions and that Communism justified limiting First...

• Katzev v. County of Los Angeles (Cal.) (1959)

  In Katzev v. County of Los Angeles (Cal. 1959), the California Supreme Court used the First Amendment to strike down an ordinance prohibiting the sale of crime...

• Kingsley International Pictures v. Board of Regents (1959)

  In Kingsley International Pictures v. Board of Regents (1959) the Court reviewed constitutional issues of prior restraint raised by the practice of states...

• Smith v. California (1959)

  Smith v. California (1959) overturned a California law that criminalized the sale of obscene books, saying it was too vague and infringed upon First Amendment...

• Barr v. Matteo (1959)

  In Barr v. Matteo (1959), the Supreme Court affirmed immunity from prosecution for libel involving statements made by officers of the executive branch...

• Farmers Educational and Cooperative Union of America, North Dakota Division v. WDAY, Inc. (1959)

  Farmers Educational and Cooperative Union of America v. WDAY (1959), did not mention the First Amendment, but involved a libel issue dealing with right of reply...

• Uphaus v. Wyman (1959, 1960)

  The Supreme Court in 1959 and 1960 upheld the contempt conviction that led to the jailing of Methodist pacifist minister Dr. Willard Uphaus for refusing to...

• Talley v. California (1960)

  Talley v. California (1960) ruled that an ordinance requiring all handbills to identify the person who published them violated the First Amendment freedoms of...

• Bates v. Little Rock (1960)

  In Bates v. Little Rock (1960), the Court affirmed that freedom of association finds protection within the First Amendment’s free speech and assembly clauses...

• Shelton v. Tucker (1960)

  Shelton v. Tucker (1960) said an Arkansas law requiring schoolteachers to submit the organizations to which they belonged violated First Amendment freedom of...

• Kimm v. Rosenberg (1960)

  The Court decision in Kimm v. Rosenberg (1960 focused chiefly on the self-incrimination provision of the Fifth Amendment, but it also had implications for First...

• Nostrand v. Little (1960)

  Nostrand v. Little (1960) looked at a state law that required public employees to take loyalty oaths. The Court dismissed the First Amendment questions raised...

• Eastern Railroad Presidents Conference v. Noerr Motor Freight, Inc. (1961)

  Eastern Railroad Presidents Conference v. Noerr Motor Freight, Inc. (1961) held that the First Amendment protected a railroad publicity campaign against...

• Louisiana ex rel. Gremillion v. NAACP (1961)

  Louisiana ex rel. Gremillion v. NAACP (1961) said a Louisiana law requiring the NAACP to submit its membership list violated the First Amendment freedom of...

• In re Anastaplo (1961)

  In In re Anastaplo (1961) the Court held that a plaintiff’s exclusion from the Illinois state bar did not violate First Amendment freedoms of speech and...

• Konigsberg v. State Bar (1961)

  Konigsberg v. State Bar (1961) addressed bar applicants' First Amendment rights after an applicant refused to answer questions about his Communist affiliation...

• Braunfeld v. Brown (1961)

  Braunfeld v. Brown (1961) ruled that a state law that required retail businesses to close on Sunday did not violate the First Amendment’s free exercise clause...

• Gallagher v. Crown Kosher Super Market of Massachusetts (1961)

  A Massachusetts law required supermarkets to remain closed on Sundays. A kosher supermarket appealed the law, but the court ruled that the law was...

• McGowan v. Maryland (1961)

  In McGowan v. Maryland (1961) the Court found that the law limiting business operations on Sundays did not violate the establishment clause of the First...

• Two Guys from Harrison- Allentown, Inc. v. McGinley (1961)

  Two Guys from Harrison-Allentown, Inc. v. McGinley (1960) ruled that Sunday blue laws did not violate the the establishment clause of the First Amendment...

• Garner v. Louisiana (1961)

  In Garner v. Louisiana, the court ruled that a Louisiana breach of the peace law was too vague to be applied to the peaceful sit-ins used by civil rights...

• Communist Party of the United States v. Subversive Activities Control Board (1961)

  Community Party of the United States v. Subversive Activities Control Board (1961) revoked the Communist Party's First Amendment freedom of association due to...

• Noto v. United States (1961)

  Noto v. United States (1961) said that the First Amendment prohibits convicting individuals for the mere abstract teaching of the moral propriety of violence...

• Scales v. United States (1961)

  Scales v. United States (1961) looked at the First Amendment right of association and upheld the conviction of Scales for being a member of the Communist Party...

• Braden v. United States (1961)

  Braden v. United States (1961) upheld the conviction of a man who refused to answer questions before the HUAC. Justice Hugo Black dissented on First Amendment...

• Wilkinson v. United States (1961)

  In Wilkinson v. United States (1961), the Supreme Court rejected claims that the work of the House Un-American Activities Committee violated the First Amendment...

• Times Film Corp. v. City of Chicago (1961)

  In Times Film Corp. v. City of Chicago (1961) ruled that requiring film exhibitors to apply for licenses before showing their motion pictures did not violate...

• Marcus v. Search Warrant (1961)

  In Marcus v. Search Warrant (1961), the Court found that the seizure of material considered obscene violated the First Amendment and the Fourteenth Amendment...

• Torcaso v. Watkins (1961)

  Torcaso v. Watkins (1961) found that requiring an oath to affirm belief in “the existence of God” in order to hold public office violated the First...

• International Association of Machinists v. Street (1961)

  International Association of Machinists v. Street (1961) overturned a decision that declared the union-shop provisions of the Railway Labor Act of 1926...

• Cramp v. Board of Public Instruction of Orange County (1961)

  Cramp v. Board of Public Instruction of Orange County (1961) struck down a state loyalty oath law for being vague and possibly infringing upon First Amendment...

• Wood v. Georgia (1962)

  Wood v. Georgia (1962) said a Georgia sheriff's criticism of local judges did not present a clear and present danger and was protected by the First Amendment...

• Manual Enterprises v. Day (1962)

  In Manual Enterprises v. Day (1962) the Supreme Court held that three physique magazines featuring nudity were not obscene and could not be barred from the...

• Engel v. Vitale (1962)

  Engel v. Vitale (1962) ruled that school-sponsored prayer in public schools violated the First Amendment even though participation in the prayer was voluntary...

• Edwards v. South Carolina (1963)

  Edwards v. South Carolina (1963) said South Carolina violated students’ First Amendment rights when the police dispersed a peaceful protest against...

• NAACP v. Button (1963)

  NAACP v. Button (1963) was important not only to First Amendment jurisprudence but also to the vitality of public interest law firm litigation in general...

• Gibson v. Florida Legislative Investigation Committee (1963)

  In Gibson v. Florida Legislative Investigation Committee, the court held that the state must show compelling interest to intrude on First Amendment rights...

• Bantam Books, Inc. v. Sullivan (1963)

  Bantam Books, Inc. v. Sullivan (1963) ruled that states must provide adequate procedural safeguards when establishing a mechanism to declare books obscene...

• Abington School District v. Schempp (1963)

  Abington School District v. Schempp (1963) ended devotional exercises in public schools because the First Amendment forbade the recognition of one religion over...

• Sherbert v. Verner (1963)

  Sherbert v. Verner (1963) said that denying unemployment benefits to an applicant who refused to work on Saturday, her Sabbath, violated First Amendment rights...

• A Quantity of Books v. Kansas (1964)

  In A Quantity of Books v. Kansas (1964), the Court held that a state statute allowing obscene materials to be seized and confiscated violated the First...

• Grove Press v. Gerstein (1964)

  Grove Press v. Gerstein rejected a ban of Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer, one of the most censored books in history, by saying it had some redeeming literary...

• Jacobellis v. Ohio (1964)

  In Jacobellis v. Ohio (1964) the Court overturned on First Amendment grounds the conviction of a movie theater manager prosecuted for showing a film deemed to...

• National Labor Relations Board v. Fruit and Vegetable Packers (1964)

  National Labor Relations Board v. Fruit and Vegetable Packers (1964) protected the rights of picketers using the the NLRA instead of First Amendment protections...

• Cooper v. Pate (1964)

  In Cooper v. Pate (1964), the Court decided that the Bill of Rights, including the First Amendment, applied to prisoners and reinstated the claim of a Muslim...

• Garrison v. Louisiana (1964)

  In Garrison v. Louisiana, the court determined the criminal libel law in Louisiana to be unconstitutional. The ruling continued the refinement of libel laws...

• New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964)

  New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964) required public officials to show prove actual malice in libel cases, enhancing First Amendment protection of government...

• Chamberlin v. Dade County Board of Public Instruction (1964)

  Chamberlin v. Dade County Board of Public Instruction (1964) struck down Bible readings and prayers in the public schools based on First Amendment court...

• Aptheker v. Secretary of State (1964)

  Aptheker v. Secretary of States (1964) overturned a law allowing the state department to deny passports to American Communists because it violated the First...

• Bell v. Maryland (1964)

  Bell v. Maryland (1964) arose from the trespass convictions of civil rights demonstrators who in 1960 held a “sit-in” to protest a restaurant's policy of...

• Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen v. Virginia ex rel. Virginia State Bar (1964)

  Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen v. Virginia ex rel. Virginia State Bar (1964) said preventing union members from recommending legal counsel violated First...

• Baggett v. Bullitt (1964)

  Baggett v. Bullitt (1964) struck down a state law that mandated loyalty oaths for state employees, thereby interfering with their First Amendment rights of...

• Cox v. Louisiana (1965)

  In Cox v. Louisiana, the Supreme Court overturned a state law used to arrest civil rights marchers saying the law infringed upon freedoms of assembly and speech...

• American Committee for Protection of Foreign Born v. Subversive Activities Control Board (1965)

  American Committee for Protection of Foreign Born v. Subversive Activities Control Board (1965) said the control board should reconsider a group's communist...

• Stanford v. Texas (1965)

  Stanford v. Texas (1965) ruled that a general warrant to seize books and pamphlets from a person's home was overly broad and implicated First Amendment freedoms...

• United States v. Seeger (1965)

  In 1965, the Supreme Court expanded the concept of religion that is protected under the First Amendment in a case involving a conscientious objector who did not...

• Freedman v. Maryland (1965)

  Freedman v. Maryland (1965) ruled that prior restraint under a state film censorship statute unduly restricted the First Amendment rights of film exhibitors...

• Dombrowski v. Pfister (1965)

  Dombrowski v. Pfister (1965) said federal courts may step in when a state statute substantially chills First Amendment free expression through overbreadth...

• Estes v. Texas (1965)

  Estes v. Texas (1965) overturned a conviction based on the presence of cameras in the courtroom and explored relations between the First Amendment and the right...

• Henry v. Collins (1965)

  Henry v. Collins (1965) reversed a libel conviction after public officials could not meet the standard to prove libel. Libel is not protected by the First...

• Griswold v. Connecticut (1965)

  Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) elaborated the right to privacy by invalidating a law that made it a crime to use birth control devices or to advise about their...

• Zemel v. Rusk (1965)

  Zemel v. Rusk (1965) refused to interpret the First Amendment so as to grant a citizen an absolute right of travel to other countries to assess the effects of U...

• Cameron v. Johnson (1965, 1968)

  Cameron v. Johnson (1968) said an anti-picketing law did not violate the First Amendment when taken on its face. It applied to blocking entrances of public...

• Adderley v. Florida (1966)

  In Adderly v. Florida (1966), the Supreme Court said stopping protestors from blocking access to a jail did not suppress their First Amendment freedoms...

• Bond v. Floyd (1966)

  Bond v. Floyd (1966) held that legislators do not forfeit their right to speak on public issues, reaffirming that the First Amendment protects controversial...

• DeGregory v. Attorney General of New Hampshire (1966)

  DeGregory v. Attorney General of New Hampshire (1966) used the First Amendment to overturn a prison term for a man who refused to testify regarding previous...

• Ginzburg v. United States (1966)

  In Ginzburg v. United States, the Court upheld the conviction of a publisher who had violated a federal statute by mailing advertising for obscene publications...

• Memoirs v. Massachusetts (1966)

  In Memoirs v. Massachusetts (1966), the Supreme Court revisited its obscenity test that an obscene work must be “utterly without redeeming social value...

• Mishkin v. New York (1966)

  Mishkin v. New York (1966) ruled that adult materials pandering to a deviant sexual group rather than the community at large are not protected by the First...

• Mills v. Alabama (1966)

  In Mills v. Alabama (1966), the Court concluded that a state law placing criminal liability on an election day newspaper editorial violated the First Amendment...

• Sheppard v. Maxwell (1966)

  Sheppard v. Maxwell (1966), which involved a murder trial, epitomized how a circus-like “media” trial can pit First Amendment freedom against the right to a...

• Ashton v. Kentucky (1966)

  Ashton v. Kentucky (1966) held that most criminal libel laws violated the First Amendment. The laws had allowed charges against those who published false and...

• Linn v. United Plant Guard Workers of America (1966)

  Linn v. United Plant Guard Workers of America (1966), which dealt with a union organizing campaign, affirmed that libel is not protected by the First Amendment...

• Rosenblatt v. Baer (1966)

  Following a landmark First Amendment case, Rosenblatt v. Baer (1966) remanded a libel case for determination of whether a manager of a county-owned ski resort...

• Burnside v. Byars (5th Cir.) (1966)

  Burnside v. Byars (5th Cir. 1966) protected students’ First Amendment rights on school grounds. The decision served as a key precedent for Tinker v. Des...

• Brown v. Louisiana (1966)

  Brown v. Louisiana (1966) ruled that a sit-in demonstration protesting segregation in a public library was protected symbolic speech under the First Amendment...

• Elfbrandt v. Russell (1966)

  Elfbrandt v. Russell (1966) said an Arizona statute requiring state employees to sign a loyalty oath infringed on First Amendment freedom of political...

• Keyishian v. Board of Regents (1967)

  In Keyishian v. Board of Regents (1967) was an important decision by the Supreme Court for the concept of academic freedom as a constitutionally protected value...

• Zwickler v. Koota (1967)

  Zwickler v. Koota (1967) overturned a district court ruling that had turned down an appeal against a law criminalizing distribution of anonymous handbills...

• Walker v. City of Birmingham (1967)

  In Walker v. City of Birmingham (1967), the Court refused to look at whether a court order against Birmingham civil rights protestors violated the First...

• United States v. Robel (1967)

  Basing the decision on the freedom of association under the First Amendment, the Supreme Court in 1967 upheld the dismissal of an indictment against a Communist...

• W.E.B. DuBois Clubs of America v. Clark (1967)

  The Supreme Court in 1967 rejected a claim by the W.E.B. Dubois Clubs of America, the youth arm of the Communist Party in the United States, that the McCarran...

• Redrup v. New York (1967)

  Redrup v. New York (1967) outlined three guideposts for state obscenity laws to overcome First Amendment concerns, yet the Court could not unite on an obscenity...

• Associated Press v. Walker (1967)

  In Associated Press v. Walker (1967), the Supreme Court ruled that public figures should be treated differently from public officials when they sue for libel...

• Curtis Publishing Co. v. Butts (1967)

  Curtis Publishing Co. v. Butts (1967) upheld a libel judgment and gave the Court the opportunity to clarify the First Amendment standard of libel for public...

• Time, Inc. v. Hill (1967)

  Time, Inc. v. Hill (1967) extended the actual malice standard to a false light invasion of privacy to ensure the First Amendment freedom of the press was not...

• United Mine Workers of America, District 12 v. Illinois State Bar Association (1967)

  United Mine Workers of America v. Illinois State Bar Association (1967) said preventing a union from having a salaried attorney violated First Amendment...

• Whitehill v. Elkins (1967)

  Whitehill v. Elkins (1967) struck down a loyalty oath requirement at a university after a teacher who had been offered a job challenged it on First Amendment...

• Carroll v. President and Commissioners of Princess Anne (1968)

  Carroll v. President and Commissioners of Princess Anne (1968) said an injunction to keep a white supremacist group from rallying violated the First Amendment...

• Epperson v. Arkansas (1968)

  Epperson v. Arkansas (1968) struck down a state law that criminalized the teaching of evolution in public schools, finding that the law violated the First...

• Interstate Circuit, Inc. v. Dallas (1968)

  Interstate Circuit, Inc. v. Dallas (1968) rejected a city’s film censorship ordinance that was too vague for determining whether films were suitable for...

• Teitel Film Corp. v. Cusack (1968)

  In Teitel Film Corp. v. Cusack (1968) didn’t address the censorship and First Amendment issues but dealt with the administrative details of America’s...

• Ginsberg v. New York (1968)

  In Ginsberg v. New York, the Supreme Court upheld a harmful to minors law, affirming the illegality of selling minors expressions and depictions of nudity and...

• Rabeck v. New York (1968)

  Rabeck v. New York (1968) dealt with First Amendment protection of explicit material and overturned the obscenity conviction of a man charged with selling "...

• Board of Education v. Allen (1968)

  Board of Education v. Allen (1968) rejected First Amendment challenges and upheld a state law allowing loans of textbooks to all schoolchildren, including in...

• Epton v. New York (1968)

  Epton v. New York (1968) declined to review the convictions of Marxist leader William Epton, who said his convictions violated his First Amendment free speech...

• Amalgamated Food Employees Union Local 590 v. Logan Valley Plaza (1968)

  In Amalgamated Food Employees v. Logan Valley Plaza (1968), the Court held that state courts could not enjoin peaceful picketing in a private shopping mall...

• St. Amant v. Thompson (1968)

  St. Amant v. Thompson (1968) said reckless disregard for the truth in libel cases meant a person doubted the truth of a statement. Libel is unprotected by the...

• Flast v. Cohen (1968)

  Flast v. Cohen (1968) said that taxpayers had standing under the First Amendment to sue to prevent the use of their taxes to fund religious instruction...

• Pickering v. Board of Education (1968)

  Pickering v. Board of Education (1968), the seminal case on public employees' First Amendment rights, said they do not give up their right to speak on matters...

• United States v. O'Brien (1968)

  The Supreme Court in 1968 upheld a law that prohibited the mutilation of draft cards against a challenge by an anti-war protester who said it violated his First...

• Williams v. Rhodes (1968)

  In Williams v. Rhodes (1968), the Supreme Court said a ballot access rule in Ohio violated the First Amendment and placed too heavy a burden on third-party...

• Lee Art Theatre v. Virginia (1968)

  Lee Art Theatre v. Virginia (1968) ruling that a warrant to seize obscene film based on a police officer’s personal observations violated the First Amendment...

• Citizen Publishing Co. v. United States (1969)

  Citizen Publishing Co. v. United States (1969) affirmed that two newspapers run under a joint operating agreement were not exempt from antitrust laws by the...

• Red Lion Broadcasting Co. v. Federal Communications Commission (1969)

  Red Lion Broadcasting v. FCC (1969) said a regulation using the fairness doctrine to give a journalist airtime to respond to allegations did not violate the...

• Presbyterian Church in the United States v. Mary Elizabeth Blue Hull Memorial Presbyterian Church (1969)

  Presbyterian Church in the United States v. Mary Elizabeth Blue Hull Memorial Presbyterian Church (1969) denied courts the authority to interpret doctrine in...

• Shuttlesworth v. Birmingham (1969)

  Shuttlesworth v. Birmingham (1969) ruled that the conviction of the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth for leading a protest march without a permit violated the First...

• Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969)

  In Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969), the Court ruled that speech advocating illegal conduct is protected by the First Amendment unless it is likely to incite “...

• Street v. New York (1969)

  Street v. New York (1969) ruled in a flag-burning case by citing the First Amendment’s protection of “words” but side-stepped the controversial “action...

• Stanley v. Georgia (1969)

  Stanley v. Georgia (1969) the Supreme Court said that criminalizing the mere possession of obscenity violated the First Amendment right to receive information...

• Johnson v. Avery (1969)

  In Johnson v. Avery (1969), the Supreme Court affirmed that inmates retain the First Amendment right to petition the courts for a redress of grievances...

• Gregory v. City of Chicago (1969)

  In Gregory v. City of Chicago, the Court upheld the First Amendment rights of peaceful protestors over police attempting to quell anticipated civil disorder...

• Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (1969)

  Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (1969) established that public school students have First Amendment rights. It is the seminal...

• Watts v. United States (1969)

  Watts v. United States (1969) determined that the First Amendment does not protect true threats but that a threat made against President Johnson was political...

• Byrne v. Karalexis (1969, 1971)

  Byrne v. Karalexis (1969) stayed an injunction against prosecutions of theater owners for showing an obscene movie. Dissenters said the movie was protected by...

• Maryland and Virginia Eldership of the Churches of God v. Church of God at Sharpsburg (1970)

  In Maryland and Virginia Eldership of the Churches of God v. Church of God at Sharpsburg (1970) affirmed that in settling church disputes, courts do not raise...

• Welsh v. United States (1970)

  In a case about religious exemptions from the military draft, Welsh v. United States (1970) sought to define the meaning of religion under the First Amendment...

• Schacht v. United States (1970)

  Schacht v. United States (1970) said prohibiting the wearing of an armed forces uniform in theatrical productions that discredited the military violated the...

• Cain v. Kentucky (1970)

  Cain v. Kentucky (1970) reversed a state court opinion which had said the movie I, A Woman was obscene. Obscenity is not protected by the First Amendment...

• Greenbelt Cooperative Publishing Association v. Bresler (1970)

  Greenbelt Cooperative Publishing Association v. Bresler held that rhetorical hyperbole is not actionable as defamation if a reasonable reader would not...

• Bachellar v. Maryland (1970)

  Bachellar v. Maryland (1970) dealt with the First Amendment and protestors who may have been convicted simply for their views against the Vietnam War...

• Norton v. Discipline Committee of East Tennessee State University (1970)

  Norton v. Discipline Committee of East Tennessee State University (1970) involved college students’ First Amendment rights to distribute “inflammatory”...

• Walz v. Tax Commission of the City of New York (1970)

  Walz v. Tax Commission of the City of New York (1970) held that a property tax exemption for churches did not violate the establishment clause of the First...

• Rowan v. U.S. Post Office Department (1970)

  Rowan v. U.S. Post Office (1970) held that a person's right to privacy prevailed over First Amendment claims of publisher mailing sexual materials to a person's...

• Coates v. City of Cincinnati (1971)

  Coates v. City of Cincinnati (1971) said an ordinance making it a crime for three or more to gather in public and engage in “annoying conduct" violated the...

• Baird v. State Bar of Arizona (1971)

  Baird v. State Bar of Arizona (1971) is one of several Supreme Court rulings that extended greater First Amendment protection to admission to the bar...

• In re Stolar (1971)

  In In re Stolar (1971), the Court ruled that the First Amendment prohibits states from penalizing attorneys solely on the basis of membership in a specific...

• Law Students Civil Rights Research Council v. Wadmond (1971)

  Law Students Civil Rights Research Council v. Wadmond (1971) said a state bar requirement for attorneys to prove loyalty to the United States did not violate...

• Clay v. United States (1971)

  In Clay v. United States (1971) rejected a denial of conscientious objector status to Cassius Clay. “Right to conscience” is protected by the First...

• Gillette v. United States (1971)

  In Gillette v. United States, the court denied a draft exemption to a man who refused to participate in the Vietnam War but would have fought in a war of self...

• Cohen v. California (1971)

  In Cohen v. California (1971) established that criminalizing the display of profane words in public places — in this case on a jacket —violates the First...

• Blount v. Rizzi (1971)

  In Blount v. Rizzi (1971) nullified provisions allowing the postmaster general to refuse to mail obscene matter. The First Amendment requires safeguards for...

• Grove Press v. Maryland State Board of Censors (1971)

  Grove Press v. Maryland State Board of Censors let stand an appeals court decision banning the Swedish film I Am Curious (Yellow) on the grounds of obscenity...

• United States v. Reidel (1971)

  The Supreme Court in 1971 affirmed a federal law forbidding the distribution of obscene material through the mail despite an earlier ruling that held a person...

• United States v. Thirty-seven Photographs (1971)

  United States v. 37 Photographs (1971) said a law allowing custom officials to seize obscene materials did not provide procedural safeguards against First...

• Lemon v. Kurtzman I (1971)

  Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971) said the First Amendment prohibited government from providing funds to church-run schools. It established the Lemon Test for...

• New York Times Co. v. United States (1971)

  New York Times Co. v. United States (1971), also called the "Pentagon Papers" case, defended the First Amendment right of free press against prior restraint by...

• Organization for a Better Austin v. Keefe (1971)

  Organization for a Better Austin v. Keefe (1971) held that those seeking a prior restraint on expression carry a heavy burden to show justification for the...

• Monitor Patriot Co. v. Roy (1971)

  Monitor Patriot Co. v. Roy (1971) affirmed the actual malice standard from New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964) for judging whether an article constitutes...

• Ocala Star-Banner Co. v. Damron (1971)

  Ocala Star-Banner Co. v. Damron (1971) showed how the “actual malice” test of the landmark libel case extended to individuals running for public office...

• Dietemann v. Time (1971)

  Dietemann v. Time (9th Cir. 1971) ruled that First Amendment freedom of the press does not give reporters special license to violate individuals’ privacy...

• Rosenbloom v. Metromedia, Inc. (1971)

  Rosenbloom v. Metromedia, Inc. (1971) balanced First Amendment rights against reputation interests and applied the actual malice standard to public interest...

• Time, Inc. v. Pape (1971)

  In Time, Inc. v. Pape (1971), the Supreme Court dismissed a conviction against Time magazine, finding that the magazine did not engage in “actual malice...

• Perez v. Ledesma (1971)

  Perez v. Ledesma (1971), one of a series of cases decided with Younger v. Harris, arose from district court decisions granting relief against an obscenity...

• Samuels v. Mackell (1971)

  In Samuels v. Mackell (1971), the Supreme Court refused to look at the constitutionality of state anarchy laws. One justice said the First Amendment does not...

• Younger v. Harris (1971)

  In 1978, the Supreme Court limited when federal courts could enjoin state prosecution involving state laws argued to violate the First Amendment. In Younger v....

• Boyle v. Landry (1971)

  Boyle v. Landry (1971) reversed injunctions against enforcement statutes and ordinances prohibiting intimidation, despite a First Amendment plea by African-...

• Tilton v. Richardson (1971)

  Tilton v. Richardson (1971) found an act permitting federal aid for secular buildings at religious universities did not violate the religious clauses of the...

• Connell v. Higginbotham (1971)

  Connell v. Higginbotham (1971) used the First Amendment to strike down a loyalty oath that required teachers to affirm they did not believe in the violent...

• Jenness v. Fortson (1971)

  Jenness v. Fortson (1971), the Court upheld a Georgia law requiring minor-party candidates to obtain the signatures of 5 percent of eligible voters on their...

• United Transportation Union v. State Bar of Michigan (1971)

  In 1971, the Supreme Court reversed an injunction that prevented a union from providing legal advice and services to members, saying it interfered with the...

• California v. LaRue (1972)

  California v. LaRue (1972) said that provisions regulating adult entertainment presented in establishments licensed to sell liquor did not violate the First...

• Melton v. Young (6th Cir.) (1972)

  Melton v. Young (6th Cir. 1972) represents a time a court had to grapple with the troubling question of the First Amendment and Confederate flag clothing in...

• Gooding v. Wilson (1972)

  Gooding v. Wilson (1972) limited the scope of the “fighting words” exception to the First Amendment and enhanced the development of the overbreadth doctrine...

• Flower v. United States (1972)

  Flower v. United States (1972) used the First Amendment to overturn the conviction of a man for distributing leaflets at a military base after officials had...

• Laird v. Tatum (1972)

  Laird v. Tatum (1972) upheld an Army surveillance program on U.S. citizens despite arguments that the surveillance had a chilling effect on their First...

• Rabe v. Washington (1972)

  Rabe v. Washington (1972) overturned on First Amendment grounds the conviction of a drive-in theater manager who had been convicted under anti-obscenity laws...

• Grayned v. City of Rockford (1972)

  In Grayned v. City of Rockford, the Supreme Court ruled that a city’s anti-picketing ordinance was over broad, but their anti-noise ordinance was...

• Kleindienst v. Mandel (1972)

  In Kleindienst v. Mandel (1972), the Court held that First Amendment protections did not extend to non-citizens, even if invited to the country for academic...

• Police Department of Chicago v. Mosley (1972)

  Police Department of Chicago v. Mosley (1972) held that the government could not, under the First Amendment, selectively exclude speakers based on the content...

• Cruz v. Beto (1972)

  Cruz v. Beto (1972) said trial courts could not dismiss a prisoner's First Amendment claim without a finding of facts. Cruz claimed he faced discrimination for...

• Lloyd Corporation, Ltd. v. Tanner (1972)

  Lloyd Corporation, Ltd. v. Tanner (1972) said that a shopping mall is private property and people do not have a First Amendment right to stage protests there...

• Rosenfeld v. New Jersey (1972)

  In Rosenfeld v. New Jersey (1972), which involved profanity and the First Amendment, the Court vacated the conviction of a man who used profane language at a...

• Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972)

  Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972) addressed the First Amendment right of free exercise of religion in allowing parents to withdraw their children from school for...

• Healy v. James (1972)

  Healy v. James (1972) dealt with student groups at public colleges. The Court affirmed college students' First Amendment rights of free speech and association...

• Branzburg v. Hayes (1972)

  Branzburg v. Hayes (1972) ruled that the First Amendment did not create a constitutional privilege protecting reporters from having to testify in grand jury...

• Perry v. Sindermann (1972)

  Perry v. Sindermann (1972) said that public university officials violated the First Amendment when they terminated a professor for publicly criticizing the...

• Cole v. Richardson (1972)

  Cole v. Richardson (1972) upheld a loyalty oath required for state employees against a First Amendment challenge. The Court did not think the oath was too vague...

• Olff v. East Side Union High School District (1972)

  Although the Supreme Court never accepted a case on hair length of public school students, Justice Douglas dissented many times from the decision not to hear...

• California Motor Transport Co. v. Trucking Unlimited (1972)

  California Motor Transport Co. v. Truckers Unlimited (1972) said the First Amendment does not protect companies when they work together to prevent others from...

• Russo v. Central School District (2nd Circuit) (1972)

  In Russo v. Central School District (1972), the 2nd Circuit Court said that teachers have First Amendment rights to stay silent during the Pledge of Allegiance...

• Columbia Broadcasting System v. Democratic National Committee (1973)

  Columbia Broadcasting System v. Democratic National Committee (1973) held that a radio station did not violate the First Amendment’s guarantee of a free press...

• Pittsburgh Press Co. v. Pittsburgh Commission on Human Relations (1973)

  Pittsburgh Press Co. v. Pittsburgh Commission on Human Relations (1973) found that banning employment discrimination did not violate the First Amendment...

• Heller v. New York (1973)

  Heller v. New York (1973) remanded an obscenity conviction after it had set new standards for determining which materials were obscene and unprotected by the...

• Kaplan v. California (1973)

  Kaplan v. California, 413 U.S. 115 (1973) affirmed that a book, even without illustrations, can be obscene and thus unprotected by the First Amendment...

• Miller v. California (1973)

  In Miller v. California (1973), the Supreme Court established the test used to determine whether expressive materials cross the line into unprotected obscenity...

• Paris Adult Theatre I v. Slaton (1973)

  The Supreme Court ruled in Paris Adult Theatre I v. Slaton (1973) that there is no First Amendment right to show obscene films, even to consenting adults...

• Roaden v. Kentucky (1973)

  In Roaden v. Kentucky (1973), the Supreme Court ruled that seizing an obscene film without a warrant constituted impermissible prior restraint under the First...

• United States v. Orito (1973)

  Although the First Amendment protects the right of an individual to possess pornography inside his home, the right does not extend to transporting material, the...

• United States v. Twelve 200-Ft. Reels of Film (1973)

  US v. Twelve 200-Ft. Reels of Film (1973) upheld a statute banning importation of obscene materials for personal use, finding such action was not protected by...

• Lemon v. Kurtzman II (1973)

  Lemon v. Kurzman II (1973) said the ruling prohibiting government from funding religious schools did not mean retroactive payments violated the First Amendment...

• Levitt v. Committee for Public Education and Religious Liberty (1973)

  Levitt v. Committee for Public Education and Religious Liberty (1973) said that payments to religious schools for state-mandated testing violated the First...

• Norwood v. Harrison (1973 )

  Norwood v. Harrison (1973) found a program that provided textbooks to private schools violated the Fourteenth Amendment but not the establishment clause of the...

• Sloan v. Lemon (1973)

  Sloan v. Lemon (1973) struck down a Pennsylvania law providing tuition reimbursement for children in private schools, finding it violated the First Amendment...

• Papish v. Board of Curators of the University of Missouri (1973)

  Papish v. Board of Curators of the University of Missouri (1973) reaffirmed that universities cannot punish students for indecent speech that does not disrupt...

• Broadrick v. Oklahoma (1973)

  Broadrick v. Oklahoma (1973) held that states can limit their employees’ partisan political activities without violating their First Amendment rights...

• United States Civil Service Commission v. National Association of Letter Carriers (1973 )

  In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court for a second time upheld the constitutionality of the Hatch Act against claims that it violated the free speech rights of...

• Hunt v. McNair (1973)

  In Hunt v. McNair (1973), the Court said allowing religious colleges to use state bonds to finance non-religious buildings did not violate the First Amendment...

• Hess v. Indiana (1973)

  Hess v. Indiana (1973) overturned a demonstrator's conviction and affirmed that advocacy of illegal activity in the indefinite future is protected by the First...

• Committee for Public Education and Religious Liberty v. Nyquist (1973)

  Committee for Public Education and Religious Liberty v. Nyquist (1973) determined that a tuition and tax break program for parochial school parents violated the...

• New Rider v. Board of Education, Pawnee County, Oklahoma (1973)

  In a case involving two Native American students, Justice William Douglas argued that the Supreme Court should settle the disputes in lower courts over the...

• Communist Party of Indiana v. Whitcomb (1974)

  Communist Party of Indiana v. Whitcomb (1974) overturned a law requiring a loyalty oath for party ballot access. The law violated the First Amendment right of...

• Johnson v. Robison (1974)

  In Johnson v. Robison (1974), the Court ruled that making veterans’ education benefits unavailable to conscientious objectors who performed alternate service...

• Karlan v. City of Cincinnati (1974)

  In Karlan v. City of Cincinnati (1974), the Court was asked to decide whether a city ordinance prohibiting words uttered in an "insulting" manner violated the...

• Lucas v. Arkansas (1974)

  Lucas v. Arkansas (1974) vacated convictions for making derogatory remarks against the police since an earlier case said that such ordinances violated the First...

• Smith v. Goguen (1974)

  In Smith v. Goguen (1974), the Supreme Court said a Massachusetts law that criminalized contemptuous treatment of the American flag violated the First Amendment...

• Spence v. Washington (1974)

  In Spence v. Washington (1974), the Supreme Court held that the First Amendment protects the right to desecrate the American flag as a form of symbolic protest...

• Parker v. Levy (1974)

  Parker v. Levy (1974) established for the first time the limits of free political expression usually protected under the First Amendment for those serving in...

• Secretary of the Navy v. Avrech (1974)

  Secretary of the Navy v. Avrech (1974) said the military law under which a former serviceman was convicted had already withstood a First Amendment challenge...

• Hamling v. United States (1974)

  Hamling v. United States (1974) upheld convictions for mailing obscene advertising. A dissenting justice said the conviction violated the First Amendment...

• Jenkins v. Georgia (1974)

  In Jenkins v. Georgia (1974), the Court overturned the conviction of a theater manager who had been prosecuted for showing a film deemed obscene by local and...

• American Radio Association, AFL-CIO v. Mobile Steamship Association (1974)

  American Radio Association v. Mobile Steamship Association (1974) held that an injunction against picketing of foreign ships did not violate the First Amendment...

• Pell v. Procunier (1974)

  In Pell v. Procunier (1974), the Court upheld a ban on face-to-face media interviews with inmates, rejecting arguments that it interfered with First Amendment...

• Saxbe v. Washington Post Co. (1974)

  In Saxbe v. Washington Post Co. (1974), the Supreme Court established that the press has no general First Amendment right to interview specific prison inmates...

• Procunier v. Martinez (1974)

  Procunier v. Martinez (1974) established a protective standard of inmate First Amendment rights. Specifically, reviewed the constitutionality of inmate mail...

• Wolff v. McDonnell (1974)

  Wolff v. McDonnell (1974) said prisoners can receive confidential attorney correspondence, but the correspondence can be opened to ensure that the letters...

• Cantrell v. Forest City Publishing Co. (1974)

  Cantrell v. Forest City Publishing Co. (1974) ruled against a newspaper for an article casting the plaintiff in false light, showing the limits of First...

• Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc. (1974)

  In Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc., the court ruled that the First Amendment does not require a private individual who is libeled to prove actual malice in a...

• Lehman v. City of Shaker Heights (1974)

  Lehman v. City of Shaker Heights (1974) said that prohibiting political advertisements on public transportation does not violate a candidate’s First Amendment...

• Miami Herald Publishing Co. v. Tornillo (1974)

  Miami Herald Publishing Co. v. Tornillo (1974) struck down a Florida law granting a right to reply to political candidates who had been attacked by newspapers...

• Storer v. Brown (1974)

  Storer v. Brown (1974) said a California law requiring disaffiliation of independent candidates who wanted to be on the ballot did not violate the First...

• Lewis v. City of New Orleans (1974)

  Lewis v. City of New Orleans (1974) overturned a conviction for cursing at police, saying the state law was overly broad and thus violated the First Amendment...

• Letter Carriers v. Austin (1974)

  Letter Carriers v. Austin (1974) ruled the term "scab" could not be the basis of a libel claim by a non-union member as rhetorical hyperbole is protected by the...

• Doran v. Salem Inn (1975)

  Doran v. Salem Inn (1975) considered a First Amendment challenge to an ordinance banning topless dancing in nightclubs. The ruling touched briefly on freedom of...

• Bigelow v. Virginia (1975)

  Bigelow v. Virginia (1975) involved an ad printed for an abortion clinic and established that at least some commercial advertising should receive First...

• Erznoznik v. City of Jacksonville (1975)

  Erznoznik v. City of Jacksonville (1975) held that under the First Amendment government may not censor expression simply because it offends some people...

• Meek v. Pittenger (1975)

  Meek v. Pittenger (1975) concerns an establishment clause challenge to state statutes that permitted its public schools to lend resources to nonpublic schools...

• Cox Broadcasting Corp. v. Cohn (1975)

  In Cox Broadcasting v. Cohn (1975), the Supreme Court said journalists had a First Amendment right to release information found in public domain records...

• Southeastern Promotions, Ltd. v. Conrad (1975)

  Southeastern Promotions v. Conrad (1975) said a city's denial of theater space for a performance of the controversial musical Hair violated the First Amendment...

• Young v. American Mini Theatres (1976)

  In 1976, the Supreme Court introduced the secondary effects doctrine in upholding zoning of adult businesses in Detroit. In Young v. American Mini Theaters, the...

• Buckley v. Valeo (1976)

  Buckley v. Valeo (1976) said limits on campaign contributions did not violate the First Amendment freedom of expression, but limits on campaign spending were...

• Serbian Eastern Orthodox Diocese v. Milivojevich (1976)

  Serbian Eastern Orthodox Diocese v. Milivojevich (1976) ruled that the First Amendment prevented the state from becoming entangled in hierarchical church...

• Virginia State Board of Pharmacy v. Virginia Citizens Consumer Council, Inc. (1976)

  In Virginia State Board of Pharmacy v. Virginia Citizens Consumer Council, Inc., the Court ruled that purely commercial speech deserves First Amendment...

• Hynes v. Mayor of Oradell (1976)

  In Hynes v. Mayor of Oradell (1976), the Court said an ordinance requiring door-to-door canvassers to notify the police was vague and violated the First...

• Kelley v. Johnson (1976)

  In Kelley v. Johnson (1976), the Supreme Court found that a county regulation limiting the length of county policemen’s hair did not violate the First or...

• Nebraska Press Association v. Stuart (1976)

  In Nebraska Press Association v. Stuart (1976), the Court ruled that a gag order prior to jury impanelment violated the First Amendment right of freedom of the...

• Greer v. Spock (1976)

  Greer v. Spock decided that, despite First Amendment protections, areas on military bases open to the public were not necessarily open for engagement in...

• McKinney v. Alabama (1976)

  McKinney v. Alabama (1976) found that the defendant’s First Amendment right had been violated because he was not allowed to contest the obscenity of the...

• Hudgens v. National Labor Relations Board (1976)

  In Hudgens v. National Labor Relations Board, the Supreme Court ruled that there was no right to exercise free speech in privately owned malls under the First...

• Elrod v. Burns (1976)

  Elrod v. Burns (1976) said a sheriff violated the First Amendment when he conditioned the retention of a government job upon membership in a specific political...

• Time, Inc. v. Firestone (1976)

  In Time, Inc. v. Firestone (1976) provided more guidance in determining when a person suing for libel (or defamation) is a public figure or a private person...

• Liles v. Oregon (1976)

  In Liles v. Oregon (1976), which raised First Amendment obscenity issues, the Court denied a writ of certiorari. A dissent by Justice Brennan involved the...

• City of Madison v. Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission (1976)

  City of Madison v. Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission (1976) said nonunion teachers could not be stopped from speaking at school board meetings...

• Roemer v. Board of Public Works of Maryland (1976)

  Roemer v. Bd. of Public Works of Maryland (1976) said a program that gave grants to private colleges, including religious universities, did not violate the...

• Minarcini v. Strongsville City School District (6th Circuit) (1976)

  Minarcini v. Strongsville City School District (6th Cir. 1976) upheld that school board officials do not have unfettered discretion to remove books from library...

• Department of the Air Force v. Rose (1976)

  Department of Air Force v. Rose (1976) looked at privacy rights in interpreting the FOIA to require disclosure of summaries of ethics hearings at the Air Force...

• Bates v. State Bar of Arizona (1977)

  Bates v. State Bar of Arizona (1977) held that attorney advertising was a form of commercial speech protected by the First Amendment, similar to pharmacy...

• Carey v. Population Services International (1977)

  Carey v. Population Services International (1977) struck down a law that banned contraceptive advertising. The Court said the advertising was protected by the...

• Linmark Associates, Inc. v. Township of Willingboro (1977)

  Linmark Associates, Inc. v. Township of Willingboro (1977) invalidated an ordinance that limited "For Sale" signs in neighborhoods on First Amendment grounds...

• Abood v. Detroit Board of Education (1977)

  Abood v. Detroit Board of Education (1977) said that requiring government employees to pay union dues that weren't used for political purposes did not violate...

• Wooley v. Maynard (1977)

  Wooley v. Maynard (1977) found that fining a man who covered up the state motto on his license plate for religious reasons violated the First Amendment...

• Oklahoma Publishing Co. v. Oklahoma County District Court (1977)

  Oklahoma Publishing Co. v. Oklahoma County District Court (1977) found that a gag order on news obtained in an open hearing violated the First Amendment...

• Marks v. United States (1977)

  Marks v. United States (1977) found that the Court violated due process by applying the obscenity standards of Miller v. California rather than those of Memoirs...

• Smith v. United States (1977)

  Smith v. United States (1977) upheld a jury decision in an obscenity case, saying that the jury can determine community standards in evaluating whether...

• New York v. Cathedral Academy (1977)

  New York v. Cathedral Academy (1977) invalidated a state law to reimburse parochial schools because it violated the First Amendment by requiring excessive...

• Wolman v. Walter (1977)

  Wolman v. Walter (1977) struck down parts of a law that provided funds to nonpublic schools, including religious schools, as a violation of the First Amendment...

• Jones v. North Carolina Prisoners' Union (1977)

  In Jones v. North Carolina Prisoners’ Union (1977), the Supreme Court upheld state prison restrictions on union meetings, distribution, and soliciting...

• Mount Healthy City School District Board of Education v. Doyle (1977)

  Mount Healthy City School District Board of Education v. Doyle (1977) dealt with claims that a school teacher was denied tenure for his First Amendment-...

• Zacchini v. Scripps-Howard Broadcasting Co. (1977)

  Zacchini v. Scripps-Howard (1977) said the First Amendment did not shield the press from publicity law after a news station showed the entire Human Cannonball...

• Trans World Airlines v. Hardison (1977)

  Trans World Airlines v. Hardison (1977) dealt with accommodations that private employers were required to make for employees whose religious views limit their...

• Sherrill v. Knight (D.C. Cir.) (1977)

  In Sherrill v. Knight (1977), a circuit court said the First Amendment limited the right of the White House to arbitrarily deny a press pass to a journalist...

• National Society of Professional Engineers v. United States (1978)

  National Society of Professional Engineers v. United States (1978) said First Amendment protections did not prevent the government from limiting anti-...

• Ohralik v. Ohio State Bar Association (1978)

  Ohralik v. Ohio State Bar Association (1978) said that states can prohibit direct, face-to-face solicitation by attorneys without running afoul of the First...

• Federal Communications Commission v. National Citizens Committee for Broadcasting (1978)

  FCC v. National Citizens Committee for Broadcasting (1978) said the FCC had the right to further the First Amendment by restricting media concentration in...

• Federal Communications Commission v. Pacifica Foundation (1978)

  In FCC v. Pacifica Foundation (1978), the Supreme Court reaffirmed that there is less First Amendment protection for broadcast media than other forms of media...

• First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti (1978)

  First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti (1978) ruled that a state restriction on political contributions by corporations violated the First Amendment...

• Pinkus v. United States (1978)

  Pinkus v. United States (1978) centered on jury instructions in an obscenity case relating to contemporary community standards. The instructions violated due...

• Landmark Communications, Inc. v. Virginia (1978)

  Landmark Communications Inc. v. Virginia (1978) said punishing the press for divulging information from a judicial commission violated the First Amendment...

• Zurcher v. Stanford Daily (1978)

  Zurcher v. Stanford Daily (1978) held that the First Amendment’s freedom of the press does not bar the execution of a probable cause search warrant against...

• Houchins v. KQED (1978)

  In Houchins v. KQED (1978), the Supreme Court said that First Amendment freedom of the press did not give the press an unlimited right to gather information...

• Village of Skokie v. National Socialist Party of America (Ill) (1978)

  The decision in Village of Skokie v. National Socialist Party of America, 373 N. E. 2d 21 (Ill. 1978) would set the foundation for later hate speech cases...

• McDaniel v. Paty (1978)

  McDaniel v. Paty (1978) ruled that a Tennessee law prohibiting clergy members from serving as political delegates violated the free exercise clause of the First...

• In re Primus (1978)

  In In re Primus (1978), the Court ruled that the First Amendment limits the ability of the state to sanction non-profit attorneys for solicitation activities...

• Federal Communications Commission v. Midwest Video Corp. (1979)

  FCC v. Midwest Video Corp. (1979) said FCC regulations of cable stations interfered with the First Amendment journalistic freedom of cable station owners...

• Jones v. Wolf (1979)

  In Jones v. Wolf, 443 (1979), the Court ruled that, under the First Amendment, a state could resolve church property disputes by applying neutral principles of...

• Friedman v. Rogers (1979)

  In Friedman v. Rogers (1979), the Court struck down a First Amendment challenge to a Texas law that prohibited optometrists from advertising under a trade name...

• Lo-Ji Sales, Inc. v. New York (1979)

  Lo-Ji Sales, Inc. v. New York (1979) overturned an obscenity conviction of an adult business after saying that the search and seizure violated the First...

• Smith v. Daily Mail Publishing Co. (1979)

  Smith v. Daily Mail Publishing (1979) said a West Virginia law that criminalized the publication of a juvenile offender's name violated the First Amendment...

• United States v. Progressive Inc. (W.D. Wis.) (1979)

  United States v. Progressive Inc. (W.D. Wis. 1979), which dealt with the First Amendment, is one of the few times the American press has been restrained from...

• Gannett Co. v. DePasquale (1979)

  In Gannett Co. v. DePasquale, the Supreme Court ruled that trials closed to the press and public were a violation of neither the First nor Sixth Amendment...

• Bell v. Wolfish (1979)

  Bell v. Wolfish (1979) said a New York prison restriction against pretrial detainees' receiving hardcover books did not violate the First Amendment as it was...

• Herbert v. Lando (1979)

  Herbert v. Lando (1979) held there is no protection under the First Amendment shielding the editorial process for new stories when the stories provoke libel...

• Hutchinson v. Proxmire (1979)

  Hutchinson v. Proxmire (1979) ruled that Congress members do not have protection under the Constitution or First Amendment for libelous statements made outside...

• Givhan v. Western Line Consolidated School District (1979)

  In Givhan v. Western Line Consolidated School District, the Court said public employees do not forfeit First Amendment rights when communicating privately to a...

• Wolston v. Reader's Digest Association (1979)

  Wolston v. Reader's Digest (1979) said that private individuals did not transform into public figures in libel cases where they had involuntarily become...

• Thomas v. Board of Education, Granville (2d Cir.) (1979)

  Thomas v. Board of Education, Granville (2d Cir. 1979) ruled that a school violated the First Amendment rights when they punished students for creating an off-...

• Smith v. Arkansas State Highway Employees (1979)

  Smith v. Arkansas State Highway Employees (1979) ruled that the commission did not violate First Amendment rights by refusing to accept grievances through a...

• Illinois State Board of Elections v. Socialist Workers Party (1979)

  Illinois State Board of Elections v. Socialist Workers Party (1979) struck down a law requiring more signatures to qualify for the Chicago ballot than for a...

• Schaumburg v. Citizens for a Better Environment (1980)

  Schaumburg v. Citizens for a Better Environment (1980) said requiring 75 percent of donations from door-to-door solicitations to be used for charity violated...

• Central Hudson Gas and Electric Corp. v. Public Service Commission (1980)

  Central Hudson Gas and Electric Corp. v. Public Service Commission (1980) clarified First Amendment protection of commercial speech, determining when it could...

• Consolidated Edison Co. v. Public Service Commission (1980)

  In Consolidated Edison Co. v. Public Service Commission (1980), the Court recognized and expanded the First Amendment free speech rights of corporations...

• Brown v. Glines (1980)

  Brown v. Glines (1980) said military service members have the right to petition Congress may not circulate petitions without approval from a base commander...

• Secretary of the Navy v. Huff (1980)

  Secretary of the Navy v. Huff (1980) was decided in conjunction with another case that said limiting the right of the military to petition does not violate the...

• Vance v. Universal Amusement Co., Inc. (1980)

  Vance v. Universal Amusement Co., Inc. (1980) said a Texas law regulating obscene films was unconstitutional prior restraint in violation of the First Amendment...

• Committee for Public Education and Religious Liberty v. Regan (1980)

  Committee for Public Education and Religious Liberty v. Regan (1980) said a law that gave funds to private, and religious schools, for testing did not violate...

• Carey v. Brown (1980)

  Carey v. Brown (1980) struck down a law against almost all residential picketing. The Court said the law violated the First Amendment by being content-based...

• Richmond Newspapers, Inc. v. Virginia (1980)

  In Richmond Newspapers, Inc. v. Virginia (1980), the Supreme Court ruled that the First Amendment generally prohibits closing criminal trial proceedings to the...

• PruneYard Shopping Center v. Robins (1980)

  PruneYard Shopping Center v. Robins (1980) reaffirmed that states could grant greater free expression rights to their citizens than granted by the First...

• Branti v. Finkel (1980)

  Branti v. Finkel (1980) ruled that the First Amendment protects public employees from dismissal based on their political beliefs. It pitted workers' rights...

• Snepp v. United States (1980)

  Snepp v. United States (1980) said requiring pre-publication review of books by government employees did not violate the First Amendment rights of the authors...

• Stone v. Graham (1980)

  Stone v. Graham (1980) said a law requiring the posting of the Ten Commandments in every school classroom violated the establishment clause of the First...

• Schad v. Mount Ephraim (1981)

  Schad v. Mount Ephraim (1981) ruled that a city's zoning laws must conform to the First Amendment and struck down a regulation that banned all live performances...

• CBS, Inc. v. Federal Communications Commission (1981)

  In CBS v. Federal Communications Commission (1981), the Court gave more weight to the First Amendment rights of political candidates than to those of...

• Citizens Against Rent Control v. Berkeley (1981)

  Citizens Against Rent Control v. Berkeley (1981) said no compelling interest exists for restricting First Amendment rights of those donating to defeat or pass a...

• Chandler v. Florida (1981)

  Chandler v. Florida (1981) dealt with the First Amendment issue of press access and ruled that states can allow broadcast coverage of criminal trials...

• Heffron v. International Society for Krishna Consciousness (1981)

  Heffron v. International Society for Krishna Consciousness (1981) upheld a content neutral regulation on religious practices against a First Amendment challenge...

• Widmar v. Vincent (1981)

  Widmar v. Vincent (1981) said that prohibiting religious use of the University of Missouri's buildings while allowing secular use violated the First Amendment...

• New York State Liquor Authority v. Bellanca (1981)

  New York State Liquor Authority v. Bellanca (1981) found that banning nude dancing in places where alcohol is sold is not a violation of the First Amendment’s...

• Haig v. Agee (1981)

  Haig v. Agee (1981) raised and answered First Amendment questions regarding the right to travel in order to prevent speech deemed harmful to national security...

• Thomas v. Review Board of Indiana Employment Security Division (1981)

  Thomas v. Review Board of Indiana Employment Security Division (1981) ruled that states could not deny unemployment benefits for quitting his job due to a...

• Metromedia, Inc. v. City of San Diego (1981)

  Metromedia, Inc. v. City of San Diego (1981) invalidated a city ordinance prohibiting outdoor advertising display signs because it reached “too far" into...

• United States Postal Service v. Greenburgh Civic Associations (1981)

  USPS v. Greenburgh Civic Associations (1981) said a law against putting unstamped messages in mailboxes was content neutral and did not violate the First...

• Democratic Party of United States v. Wisconsin ex rel. LaFollette (1981)

  Democratic Party of United States v. Wisconsin (1981) ruled that laws dictating how delegates vote at national conventions violate the First Amendment rights of...

• In re R.M.J. (1982)

  In In re R.M.J. (1982), the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that a Missouri ethics rule restricting advertising by lawyers was unconstitutional under the First...

• Board of Education, Island Trees Union Free School District v. Pico (1982)

  Board of Education, Island Trees Union Free School District v. Pico (1982) held that public schools can't remove books to suppress ideas. Schools must follow...

• Brown v. Socialist Workers Campaign Committee (1982)

  Brown v. Socialist Workers ’74 Campaign Committee (1982) said the First Amendment prohibits states from forcing minor political parties to reveal...

• Federal Election Commission v. National Right to Work Committee (1982)

  FEC v. National Right to Work Committee (1982) upheld regulations on PAC contributions solicited by corporations and said the regulations outweighed certain...

• Larson v. Valente (1982)

  Larson v. Valente (1982) said a statute requiring churches who received less than 50 percent of their funds from members to file certain reports violated the...

• Village of Hoffman Estates v. Flipside (1982)

  Village of Hoffman Estates v. Flipside (1982) upheld an ordinance regulating the sale of drug paraphernalia against charges that it was unconstitutionally...

• New York v. Ferber (1982)

  New York v. Ferber (1982) is the foundational decision in which the Supreme Court held that the First Amendment does not protect child pornography...

• Globe Newspaper Co. v. Superior Court (1982)

  Globe Newspaper Co. v. Superior Court established that the First Amendment guarantees the “presumptive” right of the public to attend criminal trials...

• Valley Forge Christian College v. Americans United for Separation of Church and State (1982)

  Valley Forge Christian College v. Americans United for Separation of Church and State (1982) limited suits brought to prevent expenditures that might violate...

• Larkin v. Grendel's Den, Inc. (1982)

  In Larkin v. Grendel's Den (1982), the Supreme Court said a state law giving churches the ability to veto liquor license applications violated the First...

• United Steelworkers of America v. Sadlowski (1982)

  In 1982, the Supreme Court upheld a federal law that prohibited candidates for union leadership positions from accepting contributions from non-union members in...

• United States v. Lee (1982)

  The Supreme Court in 1982 declined to rule that religious liberty guaranteed in the First Amendment allowed an Amish farmer to not pay Social Security taxes on...

• Brown v. Hartlage (1982)

  Brown v. Hartlage (1982) struck down a decision invalidating an election of a candidate who retracted a promise. The Court said political candidates had First...

• NAACP v. Claiborne Hardware Co. (1982)

  NAACP v. Claiborne Hardware Co. (1982) ruled that an economic boycott constitutes a form of constitutionally protected expression akin to traditional means of...

• Bob Jones University v. United States (1983)

  Bob Jones University v. United States (1983) held that the IRS may deny tax-exempt status to institutions that violate racial policy, even if the violations are...

• Marsh v. Chambers (1983)

  Marsh v. Chambers (1983) found that the practice of hiring a chaplain to open the legislative day with prayer did not violate the establishment clause of the...

• Connick v. Myers (1983)

  Connick v. Myers (1983) clarified First Amendment protection for public employees by explaining how courts should balance an employee’s rights against an...

• Perry Education Association v. Perry Local Educators' Association (1983)

  Perry Education Association v. Perry Local Educators’ Association (1983) used the public forum doctrine to define First Amendment rights granted on government...

• United States v. Grace (1983)

  In 1983, the Supreme Court ruled that a federal law that prohibited picketing outside the U.S. Supreme Court building was improperly applied to the sidewalks in...

• Bill Johnson's Restaurants, Inc. v. National Labor Relations Board (1983)

  Bill Johnson’s Restaurants, Inc. v. NLRB (1983) vacated an NLRB decision halting a libel suit. It implicated First Amendment freedoms of petition and press...

• Minneapolis Star and Tribune Co. v. Minnesota Commissioner of Revenue (1983)

  Minneapolis Star and Tribune Co. v. Minnesota Commissioner of Revenue (1983) ruled that a tax on papers that spent over $100,000 a year on supplies violated the...

• Mueller v. Allen (1983)

  Mueller v. Allen (1983) found that a law allowing tax deductions benefiting parochial schools was not in violation of the establishment clause of the First...

• Regan v. Taxation With Representation of Washington (1983)

  Regan v. Taxation with Representation of Washington (1983) said that denying tax-exempt status to lobbying organizations did not violate the First Amendment...

• Bolger v. Youngs Drug Products Corp. (1983)

  Bolger v. Youngs Drug Products Corp. (1983) invalidated a rule against mailing unsolicited contraceptive ads. The Court invoked First Amendment free-speech...

• Anderson v. Celebrezze (1983)

  Anderson v. Celebrezze (1983) struck down on First Amendment grounds a state law that imposed early filing requirements for an independent presidential...

• Roberts v. United States Jaycees (1984)

  Roberts v. United States Jaycees (1984) was the first Supreme Court decision to balance the First Amendment right of association with anti-discrimination laws...

• Federal Communications Commission v. League of Women Voters of California (1984)

  In FCC v. League of Women Voters of California (1984), the Court said that banning noncommercial educational stations from editorializing violated the First...

• Secretary of State of Maryland v. Joseph H. Munson Co., Inc. (1984)

  Secretary of State of Maryland v. Joseph H. Munson Co. (1984) said a law restricting how much charities could spend on fundraising violated the First Amendment...

• Regan v. Time, Inc. (1984)

  When Sports Illustrated ran afoul of a counterfeiting law, Regan v. Time, Inc. (1984) said the law was not a reasonable restriction on speech and violated the...

• Bose Corp. v. Consumers Union of United States, Inc. (1984)

  Bose Corp. v. Consumers Union of United States, Inc. (1984) overturned the libel conviction of a magazine. Appeals courts hearing libel cases must independently...

• Ellis v. Brotherhood of Railway, Airline and Steamship Clerks (1984)

  Ellis v. Brotherhood of Railway, Airline and Steamship Clerks (1984) said a rebate scheme for dissenting nonunion members failed to protect their First...

• Minnesota Board for Community Colleges v. Knight (1984)

  Minnesota Board for Community Colleges v. Knight (1984) upheld a state law that restricted colleges from listening to any but designated representatives at...

• Clark v. Community for Creative Non-Violence (1984)

  Clark v. Community for Creative Non-Violence (1984) said camping ban near the White House was a reasonable time, place and manner restriction on First Amendment...

• Lynch v. Donnelly (1984)

  Lynch v. Donnelly (1984) upheld the inclusion of a manger scene in a Christmas display on government property against a First Amendment establishment clause...

• City Council of Los Angeles v. Taxpayers for Vincent (1984)

  City Council of Los Angeles v. Taxpayers for Vincent (1984) upheld an ordinance banning signs on utility poles, saying it did not violate the First Amendment...

• Hishon v. King & Spalding (1984)

  Hishon v. King & Spalding (1984) said that First Amendment freedom of association did not excuse a law firm from laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of...

• Seattle Times Co. v. Rhinehart (1984)

  Seattle Times v. Rhinehart (1984) said that an order prohibiting a newspaper from publishing material it received during a lawsuit discovery did not violate the...

• Press-Enterprise Co. v. Superior Court of California (1984, 1986)

  The Supreme Court ruled in 1984 and 1986 that the public has a presumptive right of access to pretrial criminal proceedings under the First Amendment...

• Zauderer v. Office of Disciplinary Counsel of the Supreme Court of Ohio (1985)

  Zauderer v. Office of Disciplinary Counsel of the Supreme Court of Ohio (1985) widened protection for commercial speech by striking down restrictions on...

• Federal Election Commission v. National Conservative PAC (1985)

  In Federal Election Commission v. National Conservative PAC (1985), the Court said that a ban on certain independent PAC spending violated the First Amendment...

• Harper and Row v. Nation Enterprises (1985)

  Harper & Row v. Nation Enterprises (1985) ruled that copyright infringement of the unpublished memoir of Gerald Ford was not protected by the First Amendment...

• United States v. Albertini (1985)

  United States v. Albertini (1985) upheld a conviction for entering an air force base despite being barred. The court said barring reentry did not violate the...

• American Booksellers Association v. Hudnut (7th Cir.) (1985)

  In American Booksellers Association v. Hudnut (1985), the 7th Circuit Court said an Indianapolis anti-pornography ordinance violated the First Amendment...

• Brockett v. Spokane Arcades, Inc. (1985)

  Brockett v. Spokane Arcades, Inc. (1985) upheld a law concerning lewd films and gave a First Amendment clarification of the 'prurient interest' prong of the...

• Aguilar v. Felton (1985)

  Aguilar v. Felton (1958) said that New York had violated the First Amendment by paying public school teachers to teach low-income students in private religious...

• Grand Rapids School District v. Ball (1985)

  In Grand Rapids School District v. Ball, the Supreme Court struck down two government education programs that employed parochial school teachers and facilities...

• McDonald v. Smith (1985)

  McDonald v. Smith (1985) held that the petition clause of the First Amendment does not endow individuals with absolute immunity from charges of slander and...

• Lowe v. Securities and Exchange Commission (1985)

  Lowe v. SEC (1985) ruled that under the First Amendment, the Securities and Exchange Commission could not prevent a financial manager from publishing an...

• Dun and Bradstreet, Inc. v. Greenmoss Builders, Inc. (1985)

  Dun and Bradstreet, Inc. v. Greenmoss Builders, Inc. (1985) said nonmedia distributors of information do not enjoy First Amendment protections as defendants in...

• Cornelius v. NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (1985)

  Cornelius v. NAACP Legal Defense Fund (1985) said excluding some organizations from soliciting contributions from federal employees didn't violate the First...

• Wallace v. Jaffree (1985)

  Wallace v. Jaffree (1985) struck down a state law requiring a minute of silence in public schools. The Court said the law had a religious purpose and violated...

• Board of Trustees of Scarsdale v. McCreary (1985)

  Board of Trustees of Scarsdale v. McCreary (1985) said that a Christmas display on public property did not violate the establishment clause of the First...

• Thornton v. Caldor (1985)

  Thornton v. Caldor (1985) found a state law that gave employees an absolute right not to work on their chosen Sabbath violated the establishment clause of the...

• Wayte v. United States (1985)

  In Wayte v. United States (1985), the Supreme Court upheld the prosecution methods for not registering for the draft against a due process and First Amendment...

• Tony and Susan Alamo Foundation v. Secretary of Labor (1985)

  Tony and Susan Alamo Foundation v. Secretary of Labor (1985) ruled that FLSA regulations did not violate the First Amendment when applied to religious...

• Board of Education of Oklahoma City v. National Gay Task Force (1985)

  Board of Education of Oklahoma City v. National Gay Task Force (1985) affirmed a ruling striking down a law punishing teachers for “public homosexual conduct...

• City of Renton v. Playtime Theatres, Inc. (1986)

  City of Renton v. Playtime Theaters (1986) said that zoning laws aimed at undesirable secondary effects of sexually oriented businesses may not violate the...

• Federal Election Commission v. Massachusetts Citizens for Life (1986)

  FEC v. Massachusetts Citizens for Life (1986) found that while a nonprofit corporation violated the Federal Election Campaign Act, its application violated the...

• Posadas de Puerto Rico Associates v. Tourism Company of Puerto Rico (1986)

  The Court later reversed their stance in Posadas de Puerto Rico Associates v. Tourism Company of Puerto Rico (1986), which dealt with First Amendment rights of...

• Goldman v. Weinberger (1986)

  In Goldman v. Weinberger, the Court ruled that the U.S. military did not violate First Amendment rights by prohibiting soldiers from wearing religious apparel...

• Arcara v. Cloud Books, Inc. (1986)

  Arcara v. Cloud Books, Inc. (1986) upheld the application of a public health law to close an adult bookstore. The store contended the closure violated the First...

• New York v. P.J. Video, Inc. (1986)

  New York v. P.J. Video, Inc. (1986) clarified that the First Amendment does not require a higher standard of probable cause when officials seize books or films...

• Witters v. Washington Department of Services for the Blind (1986 )

  Witters v. Washington Department of Services for the Blind (1986) said a program that provided funds that a man used for religious education did not violate the...

• Anderson v. Liberty Lobby (1986)

  In Anderson v. Liberty Lobby (1986), the Supreme Court required application of the clear and convincing evidence standard to decide if a journalist had...

• Philadelphia Newspapers, Inc. v. Hepps (1986)

  A case against The Philadelphia Inquirer led the Supreme Court to rule in 1986 that a private figure plaintiff who sues a news organization for libel bears the...

• Bender v. Williamsport Area School District (1986)

  Bender v. Williamsport Area School District (1986) highlighted the importance of standing for anyone wishing to challenge perceived violations of the First...

• Bethel School District No. 403 v. Fraser (1986)

  In Bethel School District No. 403 v. Fraser (1986), an important First Amendment precedent, the Supreme Court said public school officials can prohibit...

• Chicago Teachers Union v. Hudson (1986)

  Chicago Teachers Union v. Hudson (1986) ruled a union's dues collection procedures were insufficient to protect First Amendment free association rights...

• Ansonia Board of Education v. Philbrook (1986)

  Ansonia Board of Education v. Philbrook (1986) dealt with religious accommodation and the First Amendment in considering a teacher's request for time off for...

• Bowen v. Roy (1986)

  Bowen v. Roy (1986) ruled that the government did not violate the First Amendment by assigning a Native American a Social Security number for welfare benefits...

• Munro v. Socialist Workers Party (1986)

  Munro v. Socialist Workers Party (1986) considered whether ballot access restrictions placed on minor party candidates violated rights protected by the First...

• Tashjian v. Republican Party of Connecticut (1986)

  Tashjian v. Republican Party of Connecticut (1986) decided that states cannot impose a closed primary system because it denies political parties their First...

• City of Newport v. Iacobucci (1986)

  City of Newport v. Iacobucci (1986) said a Kentucky city’s interest in maintaining order outweighed the First Amendment protected expression of dancing nude...

• City of Los Angeles v. Preferred Communications (1986)

  In City of Los Angeles v. Preferred Communications (1986), the Court demonstrated that cable television activities are protected by the First Amendment...

• Corporation of the Presiding Bishop of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints v. Amos (1987)

  Corporation of the Presiding Bishop of the LDS Church v. Amos (1987) said that religious bodies can discriminate based on religion without violating the First...

• Board of Directors of Rotary International v. Rotary Club of Duarte (1987)

  In Board of Directors of Rotary International v. Rotary Club of Duarte (1987), the Supreme Court said Rotary had no First Amendment right to exclude women...

• Pacific Gas and Electric Co. v. Public Utilities Commission (1987)

  Pacific Gas and Electric Co. v. Public Utilities Commission (1986) established the right of a corporation as a publisher to refuse to print messages with which...

• San Francisco Arts and Athletics v. U.S. Olympic Committee (1987)

  San Francisco Arts & Athletics v. the U.S. Olympics Committee (1987) said there was no First Amendment violation in giving exclusive use of the the word '...

• Edwards v. Aguillard (1987)

  Edwards v. Aguillard (1987) said a state law mandating teaching “creation science” alongside evolution in public school violated the First Amendment's...

• City of Houston v. Hill (1987)

  City of Houston v. Hill (1987) found that a Houston ordinance prohibiting verbal abuse of police officers to a criminalization of First Amendment protected...

• Meese v. Keene (1987)

  Meese v. Keene (1987) upheld the authority of the government to classify foreign films as propaganda. The Court held that the enabling statute did not abridge...

• Pope v. Illinois (1987)

  Pope v. Illinois (1987) confirmed that the third prong of the Miller obscenity test warrants the reasonable person test and should not be based on contemporary...

• Board of Airport Commissioners of the City of Los Angeles v. Jews for Jesus, Inc. (1987)

  Board of Airport Commissioners of the City of Los Angeles v. Jews for Jesus, Inc. (1987) invalidated an airport rule declaring the terminal closed to First...

• O'Lone v. Estate of Shabazz (1987)

  O’Lone v. Estate of Shabazz (1987) held that inmate religious rights may be restricted for security concerns without being in violation of the First Amendment...

• Turner v. Safley (1987)

  Turner v. Safley (1987) determined that restrictions on inmates’ constitutional rights, including those of the First Amendment, were subject to a rational...

• Rankin v. McPherson (1987)

  Rankin v. McPherson (1987) ruled that firing a government worker who made a controversial remark about the Reagan assassination attempt violated her First...

• Hobbie v. Unemployment Appeals Commission of Florida (1987)

  Hobbie v. Unemployment Appeals Commission of Florida (1987) said denying benefits to an individual who refused to work on the Sabbath violated the First...

• Arkansas Writers' Project, Inc. v. Ragland (1987)

  Arkansas Writers’ Project, Inc. v. Ragland (1987) struck down a law exempting newspapers and other publications, but not general interest magazines, from the...

• New York State Club Association, Inc. v. City of New York (1988)

  New York State Club Association, Inc. v. City of New York (1988) held that a city ordinance prohibiting discrimination in places of public accommodation was...

• Lyng v. International Union, UAW (1988)

  Lyng v. International Union, UAW (1988) ruled that a law that withheld food stamps from people with family members on strike did not infringe upon First...

• Shapero v. Kentucky Bar Association (1988)

  Shapero v. Kentucky Bar Association (1988) struck down a Kentucky rule that barred lawyers from sending targeted direct mail advertisements as a violation of...

• Riley v. National Federation of the Blind (1988)

  Riley v. National Federation of the Blind (1988) ruled that a state's charitable solicitation fees and rules infringed upon First Amendment free speech...

• United States v. Morison (4th Cir.) (1988)

  United States v. Morison (4th Cir. 1988) upheld the conviction of a Navy employee who had leaked top secret photos. Judges ruled the leak was not protected by...

• Lyng v. Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective Association (1988)

  Lyng v. Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective Association (1988) said that building a road through sacred Native American sites did not violate the First...

• Virginia v. American Booksellers Association (1988)

  Virginia v. American Booksellers Association remanded two questions about a state’s “harmful to juveniles” statute regulating the commercial display of...

• Meyer v. Grant (1988)

  Meyer v. Grant (1988) invalidated a provision of a Colorado statute that made it a felony to pay people circulating petitions to include initiatives on state...

• Boos v. Barry (1988)

  Boos v. Barry (1988) ruled that a D.C. law violated the First Amendment by banning the display of signs criticizing a foreign government outside that government...

• Frisby v. Schultz (1988)

  Frisby v. Schultz (1988) upheld a city ordinance banning picketing in neighborhoods. Dissenting justices said the law suppressed First Amendment-protected...

• Hustler Magazine v. Falwell (1988)

  In Hustler Magazine v. Falwell, the Court ruled that the First Amendment protects publishers’ rights from claims by public figures regarding materials labeled...

• Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier (1988)

  Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier (1988) decided that schools may limit student First Amendment rights if student speech is inconsistent with an...

• City of Lakewood v. Plain Dealer Publishing Co. (1988)

  City of Lakewood v. Plain Dealer Publishing Co. (1988) invalidated an city news rack licensing scheme that gave the mayor complete discretion on First Amendment...

• City of Dallas v. Stanglin (1989)

  City of Dallas v. Stanglin (1989) said that social dancing is not an expressive association protected by the First Amendment when upholding age limits on teen...

• Board of Trustees of State University of New York v. Fox (1989)

  In Board of Trustees of State University of New York v. Fox (1989), the Supreme Court said a ban on private commerce in state university facilities was “‘...

• Texas v. Johnson (1989)

  Texas v. Johnson (1989) struck down on First Amendment grounds a flag desecration law. The has decision served as the crux of the debate about burning of the U....

• Ward v. Rock against Racism (1989)

  Ward v. Rock against Racism (1989) ruled that cities could control the volume of amplified music at rock concerts without violating the First Amendment...

• Fort Wayne Books, Inc. v. Indiana (1989)

  Fort Wayne Books, Inc. v. Indiana (1989) said a state provision allowing pretrial seizure of allegedly obscene material imposed a prior restraint, violating the...

• Massachusetts v. Oakes (1989)

  Massachusetts v. Oakes (1989) involved a potentially overbroad state law that criminalized photographing a child younger than age 18 years in a state of nudity...

• Thornburgh v. Abbott (1989)

  Thornburgh v. Abbott (1989) held that federal prison restrictions relative to incoming publications or letters did not violate the First Amendment right to free...

• Harte-Hanks Communications v. Connaughton (1989)

  Harte-Hanks Communications v. Connaughton (1989) decided that public figures can establish libel by showing that a publisher acted with reckless disregard for...

• Florida Star v. B.J.F. (1989)

  In Florida Star v. B.J.F. (1989), the Supreme Court said the First Amendment stopped a newspaper from being held liable for publishing a rape victim's name...

• Sable Communications of California v. Federal Communications Commission (1989)

  Sable Communications of California v. Federal Communications Commission (1989) established the principle that indecent speech for adults is protected by the...

• County of Allegheny v. American Civil Liberties Union (1989)

  A splintered Supreme Court in 1989 held that a nativity creche display inside a county courthouse in Pittsburgh violated the First Amendment’s establishment...

• Frazee v. Illinois Department of Employment Security (1989)

  Frazee v. Illinois Department of Employment Security (1989) said belief need not be part of established religious doctrine to be considered under the First...

• Hernandez v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue (1989)

  Hernandez v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue (1989) said preventing tax deductions from monies used for religious "training" sessions did not violate the First...

• Texas Monthly, Inc. v. Bullock (1989)

  Texas Monthly, Inc. v. Bullock (1989) struck down a state tax exemption used solely for religious books and periodicals. The exemption violated the First...

• Eu v. San Francisco County Democratic Central Committee (1989)

  Eu v. San Francisco County Democratic Central Committee (1989) said California’s regulation of political parties' operations violated their members’ First...

• Department of Justice v. Reporters Committee For Freedom of the Press (1989)

  DOJ v. Reporters Comm. for Free Press (1989) reiterated that the First Amendment does not give the press special access to information not available to the...

• Webster v. Reproductive Health Services (1989)

  In his dissent in Webster v. Reproductive Health Services (1989), Justice Stevens said that a legislative declaration that life begins at conception violated...

• Hirsh v. City of Atlanta (1990)

  Hirsh v. City of Atlanta (1990) said an injunction prohibiting an anti-abortion group from demonstrating near abortion clinics did not violate the First...

• Federal Trade Commission v. Superior Court Trial Lawyers Association (1990)

  FTC v. Superior Court Trial Lawyers Association (1990) said the First Amendment didn't protect a boycott of a system of reduced-fee legal services for sheer...

• Peel v. Attorney Disciplinary Commission of Illinois (1990)

  In Peel v. Attorney Disciplinary Commission of Illinois (1990), the Court reaffirmed the general First Amendment principle favoring the disclosure of...

• Keller v. State Bar of California (1990)

  In Keller v. State Bar of California (1990), the Court upheld a state bar's use of compulsory membership fees if such fees were used to support "germane"...

• Metro Broadcasting, Inc. v. Federal Communications Commission (1990)

  Metro Broadcasting v. Federal Communications Commission (1990) upheld affirmative action policies favoring minorities in broadcast licensing to promote...

• Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce (1990)

  Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce (1990) upheld against a First Amendment challenge a law prohibiting nonprofit corporations from using general revenues...

• Osborne v. Ohio (1990)

  Osborne v. Ohio (1990) established that the First Amendment right to free speech did not forbid states from enforcing laws against private possession of child...

• United States v. Eichman (1990)

  United States v. Eichman (1990) said the Flag Protection Act of 1989, which banned desecrating an American flag, violated First Amendment freedom of expression...

• Butterworth v. Smith (1990)

  Butterworth v. Smith (1990) said prohibiting grand jury witnesses from disclosing their testimony after the grand jury term has expired violated First Amendment...

• Employment Division, Department of Human Resources of Oregon v. Smith (1990)

  Employment Division, Department of Human Resources of Oregon v. Smith (1990) greatly changed First Amendment religious free exercise law, abandoning the...

• Milkovich v. Lorain Journal Co. (1990)

  Milkovich v. Lorain Journal Co.(1990) ruled that opinions can be defamatory and that no First Amendment shield for the expression of defamatory opinions is...

• United States v. Kokinda (1990)

  In 1990, the Supreme Court upheld a federal regulation that prohibited solicitation on post office property, including the sidewalks outside. In United States v...

• Rutan v. Republican Party of Illinois (1990)

  Rutan v. Republican Party of Illinois (1990) said a governor's order requiring his approval for all public employee hiring and firing violated the First...

• Board of Education of the Westside Community Schools v. Mergens (1990)

  In Board of Education of the Westside Community Schools v. Mergens (1990) the Court upheld the Equal Access Act, which barred religious discrimination against...

• FW/PBS, Inc. v. City of Dallas (1990)

  FW/PBS, Inc. v. City of Dallas (1990) said that a licensing scheme regulating sexually-oriented businesses imposed a prior restraint, violating the First...

• Jimmy Swaggart Ministries v. Board of Equalization of California (1990)

  In Jimmy Swaggart Ministries v. Board of Equalization of California (1990), the Court ruled that the same taxes on the sales of a minister and other retailers...

• Jimmy Swaggart Ministries v. Board of Equalization of California (1990)
• University of Pennsylvania v. EEOC (1990)

  University of Pennsylvania v. EEOC (1990) found that disclosure of documents related to tenure decisions did not infringe on First Amendment academic freedom...

• Barnes v. Glen Theatre, Inc. (1991)

  Barnes v. Glen Theatre, Inc. (1991) ruled that states could regulate nude dancing without violating the First Amendment, even though such performances were...

• Gentile v. State Bar of Nevada (1991)

  In Gentile v. State Bar of Nevada, the court struck down Nevada's limit on attorney speech as too vague while upholding some restrictions on attorney speech...

• Rust v. Sullivan (1991)

  In a First Amendment case, Rust v. Sullivan (1991) upheld regulations prohibiting doctors receiving federal funding from providing information on abortion...

• Simon and Schuster v. Members of the New York State Crime Victims Board (1991)

  In Simon and Schuster v. New York State Crime Victims Board (1991), the Supreme Court said that New York's Son of Sam law violated the First Amendment...

• Masson v. New Yorker Magazine (1991)

  In Masson v. New Yorker Magazine (1991), the Court ruled that altering interviewees' words was not libelous unless the alterations resulted in a change in the...

• Lehnert v. Ferris Faculty Association (1991)

  Lehnert v. Ferris Faculty Association (1991) addressed First Amendment protections and the expenditure of contributions nonunion members are required to pay to...

• Cohen v. Cowles Media Co. (1991)

  In Cohen v. Cowles Media Co. (1991), the Court declined to give First Amendment protection to a paper that was being sued for divulging a confidential source...

• Leathers v. Medlock (1991)

  Leathers v. Medlock (1991) established the principle that a generally applicable tax that may fall harder on one form of media than others does not violate the...

• Hunter v. Bryant (1991)

  "True threats" are not protected by the First Amendment. Hunter v. Bryant (1991) upheld the warrantless arrest of a man who made a supposed threat against the...

• Bishop v. Aronov (11th Circuit Court) (1991)

  The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the University of Alabama's actions to stop a professor from interjecting religious views in a physiology class in...

• Dawson v. Delaware (1992)

  In Dawson v. Delaware (1992), the Court said that the First Amendment imposes limits on introducing a criminal defendant’s group associations during...

• International Society for Krishna Consciousness v. Lee (1992)

  International Society for Krishna Consciousness v. Lee (1992) said airports are not public forums, and a ban on soliciting funds in them did not violate the...

• R.A.V. v. St. Paul (1992)

  In R.A.V. v. St. Paul (1992), the Court, citing violation of the First Amendment, overturned a rule that made it a crime to use a burning cross to intimidate...

• Forsyth County, Georgia v. Nationalist Movement (1992)

  Forsyth County v. Nationalist Movement (1992) said an ordinance violated the First Amendment by letting officials vary protest permit costs based on the cost of...

• Lee v. International Society for Krishna Consciousness (1992)

  In Lee v. International Society for Krishna Consciousness (1991), the Supreme Court said the First Amendment prohibited a ban on leafleting in an airport...

• Lee v. Weisman (1992)

  Lee v. Weisman (1992) ruled that public schools violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment when they lead students in public prayer at school...

• Chandler v. McMinnville School District (9th Cir.) (1992)

  Chandler v. McMinnville School District (9th Cir. 1992) decided that restrictions on student speech should be evaluated in one of three categories to determine...

• Burdick v. Takushi (1992)

  Burdick v. Takushi (1992) upheld a ban on write-in voting. The Court ruled that such bans do not violate First Amendment rights of free expression and political...

• Burson v. Freeman (1992)

  Burson v. Freeman (1992) upheld a law providing for a “campaign free zone” around polling places. It is rare that a law limiting First Amendment rights...

• Norman v. Reed (1992)

  Norman v. Reed (1992) struck down a state law requiring minor political parties to obtain 25,000 signatures to appear on the ballot, finding it violated the...

• Luke Records v. Navarro (11th Cir.) (1992)

  Luke Records v. Navarro (11th Cir. 1992) said the rap album As Nasty As They Wanna Be by 2 Live Crew was not obscene and therefore was protected by the First...

• Bray v. Alexandria Women's Health Clinic (1993)

  Bray v. Alexandria Women’s Health Clinic (1993) dealt with the First Amendment right of protest and ruled that protesters’ actions were not a conspiracy...

• United States v. Edge Broadcasting Co. (1993)

  In 1993, the U.S. Supreme Court in United States v. Edge Broadcasting Co. upheld a federal law prohibiting the broadcasting of advertisements for state-run...

• Edenfield v. Fane (1993)

  In Edenfield v. Fane (1993), the Supreme Court said direct solicitation of clients was within the First Amendment rights of certified public accountants...

• Alexander v. United States (1993)

  Alexander v. United States (1993) rejected claims that the First Amendment rights of a petitioner convicted under obscenity and racketeering laws had been...

• Wisconsin v. Mitchell (1993)

  Wisconsin v. Mitchell (1993) said a hate crime law that allowed enhanced punishment in crimes motivated by the victim's race or other factors did not violate...

• Zobrest v. Catalina Foothills School District (1993)

  Zobrest v. Catalina Foothills School District (1993) said the First Amendment did not prohibit a school district from providing a sign-language interpreter to...

• El Vocero de Puerto Rico v. Puerto Rico (1993)

  El Vocero de Puerto Rico v. Puerto Rico (1993) said closed preliminary trial hearings in Puerto Rico violated the First Amendment, as in the United States...

• Lamb's Chapel v. Center Moriches Union Free School District (1993)

  Lamb's Chapel v. Center Moriches School District (1993) said that a law banning a religious group from using a public school to show a religious film violated...

• City of Cincinnati v. Discovery Network (1993)

  City of Cincinnati v. Discovery Network (1993) held that Cincinnati’s restrictions on the distribution of commercial flyers in news racks violated the First...

• Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah (1993)

  Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah (1993) said that a city ordinance against animal sacrifice practiced by a new church violated the First...

• Madsen v. Women's Health Center, Inc. (1994)

  Madsen v. Women’s Health Center, Inc. (1994) addressed the conflict between the First Amendment rights of antiabortion protestors and women’s constitutional...

• Ibanez v. Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation Board (1994)

  Ibanez v. Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation Board (1994) held that the First Amendment takes precedence over regulatory agencies in...

• Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc. (1994)

  Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc. (1994) protected a parody from copyright infringement, illustrating how the Court viewed the relationship between the First...

• Waters v. Churchill (1994)

  Waters v. Churchill (1994) looked at the First Amendment rights of public employees and what should be done when there is a dispute about the nature of the...

• Board of Education of Kiryas Joel Village School District v. Grumet (1994)

  Board of Education of Kiryas Joel Village School District v. Grumet (1994) said a school district created for disabled children of a religious sect violated the...

• City of Ladue v. Gilleo (1994)

  City of Ladue v. Gilleo (1994) said a city could not stop homeowners from posting political signs. Banning these signs stopped First Amendment protected...

• Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. v. Federal Communications Commission (1994, 1997)

  Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. v. Federal Communications Commission (1994) held that different First Amendment standards applied to cable television and...

• American Life League v. Reno (4th Cir.) (1995)

  American Life League v. Reno (4th Cir. 1995) upheld the constitutionality of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act against a First Amendment challenge...

• McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission (1995)

  In McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission (1995), the Court ruled that an Ohio statute requiring author identification on election-related publications violated...

• Hurley v. Irish-American Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Group of Boston (1995)

  Hurley v. Irish-American Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Group of Boston (1995) said the First Amendment expression rights of a group holding a parade trumped anti-...

• Florida Bar v. Went for It, Inc. (1995)

  Florida Bar v. Went for It, Inc. (1995) challenged on First Amendment grounds a ban on direct mail attorney solicitation within 30 days of an accident, but lost...

• Action for Children's Television v. Federal Communications Commission (D.C. Cir.) (1995)

  Action for Children's Television v. FCC (D.C. Cir. 1995) said the restricting indecent television programming during the day did not violate the First Amendment...

• Rosenberger v. Rectors and Visitors of the University of Virginia (1995)

  Rosenberger v. Rectors and Visitors of the University of Virginia (1995) ruled that the denial of student funds to a Christian-based magazine violated the First...

• United States v. National Treasury Employees Union (1995)

  U.S. v. National Treasury Employees Union (1995) invalidated an honorarium ban that was part of ethics reform, saying it restricted First Amendment rights of...

• Rubin v. Coors Brewing Co. (1995)

  Rubin v. Coors Brewing Co. (1995) said that a law restricting beer labels from displaying alcohol content was an infringement of First Amendment commercial...

• Settle v. Dickson County School Board (6th Cir.) (1995)

  Settle v. Dickson County School Board (6th Cir. 1995) said that a student's First Amendment rights were not violated when her teacher refused to accept her...

• Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board v. Pinette (1995)

  Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board v. Pinette (1995) ruled that a KKK Christmas display did not violate the establishment clause of the First Amendment...

• Cohen v. San Bernardino Valley College (9th Cir.) (1996)

  In Cohen v. San Bernardino Valley College (9th Cir. 1996), a court said the sexual harassment policy of a college was too vague and violated the First Amendment...

• Denver Area Educational Telecommunications Consortium v. Federal Communications Commission (1996)

  Denver Area Educational Telecommunications Consortium v. FCC (1996) ruled on elements of an act that cable programmers and viewers alleged violated the First...

• Colorado Republican Federal Campaign Committee v. Federal Election Commission (1996)

  Colorado Republican Federal Campaign Committee v. Federal Election Commission (1996) said a law that limited independent campaign expenditures ran afoul of the...

• 44 Liquormart, Inc. v. Rhode Island (1996)

  44 Liquormart v. Rhode Island (1996) advanced First Amendment protections for commercial speech when it struck down a state law banning the advertising of...

• Board of County Commissioners v. Umbehr (1996)

  Board of County Commissioners v. Umbehr (1996) ruled that ending a trash hauler’s county contract because of his criticism of the board violated his First...

• O'Hare Truck Service v. City of Northlake (1996)

  O’Hare Truck Service v. City of Northlake (1996) ruled that retaliation by government officials against contractors for political associations violates First...

• City of Edmond v. Robinson (1996)

  The Court denied certiorari in City of Edmond v. Robinson (1996) upholding that a city seal violated the establishment clause of the First Amendment because it...

• Glickman v. Wileman Brothers and Elliott, Inc. (1997)

  In Glickman v. Wileman Brothers and Elliott, Inc., the Court held that requiring farmers to contribute to the cost of generic advertising did not abridge their...

• General Media Communications v. Cohen (2d Cir.) (1997)

  In General Media Communications v. Cohen, the Second Circuit court upheld a law prohibiting the sale of explicit material on military bases...

• Agostini v. Felton (1997)

  Agostini v. Felton (1997) ruled that a New York program allowing public school teachers to provide remedial instruction in private schools did not violate the...

• Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union (1997)

  Reno v. ACLU (1997) said provisions of the Communications Decency Act that regulated Internet speech were too restrictive and violated the First Amendment...

• Zeran v. America Online, Inc. (4th Cir.) (1997)

  Zeran v. America Online, Inc. (4th Cir. 1997) said the Communications Decency Act of 1996 provides broad immunity to Internet service providers (ISPs) from...

• City of Boerne v. Flores (1997)

  City of Boerne v. Flores (1997) said Congress does not have unlimited power to expand First Amendment rights and overturned the Religious Freedom Restoration...

• Schenck v. Pro-Choice Network of Western New York (1997)

  Schenck v. Pro-Choice Network of Western New York (1997) upheld fixed buffer zones around abortion clinics but said floating buffer zones violate the First...

• Bernstein v. United States Department of States (District Court of California) (1997)

  Bernstein v. United States Department of State (1997), in the Northern District Court of California, is the leading case applying First Amendment standards to...

• Timmons v. Twin Cities Area New Party (1997)

  Timmons v. Twin Cities Area New Party (1997) dismissed constitutional claims that so-called fusion ballots are protected by the First Amendment freedom of...

• Arkansas Educational Television Commission v. Forbes (1998)

  In Arkansas Educational Television Commission v. Forbes (1998), the Supreme Court upheld a decision to exclude Ralph P. Forbes, an independent candidate for...

• National Endowment for the Arts v. Finley (1998)

  National Endowment for the Arts v. Finley (1998) ruled that requiring standards of decency and respect to be considered with funding decisions by the NEA was...

• Beussink v. Woodland School District (E.D. Mo.) (1998)

  Beussink v. Woodland School District (1998) used the First Amendment to protect the rights of a student who maintained a website that was critical of his school...

• Greater New Orleans Broadcasting Association v. United States (1999)

  Greater New Orleans Broadcasting Association v. United States (1999) struck down a law that violated the First Amendment by prohibiting broadcasting...

• Los Angeles Police Department v. United Reporting Publishing Co. (1999)

  Los Angeles Police Department v. United Reporting Publishing Co. (1999) said banning release of arrestee information for commercial purposes didn't violate the...

• Wilson v. Layne (1999)

  In Wilson v. Layne (1999), the Supreme Court balanced First and Fourth Amendment rights and found that allowing media into homes on police ride-alongs was...

• City of Chicago v. Morales (1999)

  City of Chicago v. Morales (1999) invalidated a gang loitering ordinance, saying it was too vague. A lower court said the ordinance violated the First Amendment...

• Buckley v. American Constitutional Law Foundation (1999)

  Buckley v. American Constitutional Law Foundation (1999) struck down Colorado’s requirements that people circulating ballot petitions be registered voters and...

• Hill v. Colorado (2000)

  Hill v. Colorado (2000) said a state statute regulating protestors outside of health facilities did not violate the First Amendment and was not content based...

• City of Erie v. Pap's A.M. (2000)

  City of Erie v. Pap’s A.M. (2000) used the secondary effects doctrine to uphold a public nudity ban, saying the ban did not violate the First Amendment...

• Avis Rent-a-Car System v. Aguilar (2000)

  Avis Rent-a-Car System v. Aguilar (2000) dealt with derogatory remarks in the workplace. A justice said the speech in question was protected by the First...

• Boy Scouts of America v. Dale (2000)

  Boy Scouts of America v. Dale (2000) ruled that the Boy Scouts had the First Amendment expressive association right to revoke the membership of a gay assistant...

• United States v. Playboy Entertainment Group (2000)

  U.S. v. Playboy Entertainment Group (2000) said a regulation requiring cable providers to show sexually-oriented material at night only violated the First...

• Nixon v. Shrink Missouri Government PAC (2000)

  Nixon v. Shrink Missouri Government PAC (2000) concluded that Missouri’s political contribution limits did not infringe on First Amendment rights of free...

• West v. Derby Unified School District (10th Cir.) (2000)

  West v. Derby Unified School District (10th. Cir. 2000) ruled that suspending a high school student for drawing a Confederate flag did not violate his First...

• Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System v. Southworth (2000)

  Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System v. Southworth (2000) said universities may charge a fee to fund extracurricular speech through a...

• Mitchell v. Helms (2000)

  In Mitchell v. Helms (2000), the Supreme Court rejected a longstanding establishment clause challenge to public funding of instructional resources for religious...

• Cole v. Oroville Union High School District (2000)

  Cole v. Oroville Union High School District (9th Cir. 2000) used the coercion test to deny students' prayer at graduation because it could violate the First...

• Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe (2000)

  In Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe, the Court ruled that a school policy of beginning football games with student-led prayer violated the First...

• California Democratic Party v. Jones (2000)

  California Democratic Party v. Jones (2000) invalidated a state law that changed political primaries into “open” primaries. The Court based its decision on...

• Federal Election Commission v. Colorado Republican Federal Campaign Committee (2001)

  FEC v. CO Republican Federal Campaign Committee (2001) upheld limits on parties' direct candidate contributions but confirmed the First Amendment right to...

• Lorillard Tobacco Co. v. Reilly (2001)

  In Lorillard Tobacco Co. v. Reilly (2001), the Supreme Court invalidated state advertising restrictions on tobacco products, saying they violated the First...

• United States v. United Foods, Inc. (2001)

  In 2001, the Supreme Court overturned a federal program that required mushroom producers to subsidize generic advertising for mushrooms. In United States v....

• Canady v. Bossier Parish School Board (5th Cir.) (2001)

  Canady v. Bossier Parish School Board (5th Cir. 2001) ruled that a public school district did not violate students’ First Amendment rights when it required...

• Legal Services Corp. v. Velazquez (2001)

  Legal Services Corp. v Velazquez (2001) said a prohibition on using federal funds designated for indigent legal services to challenge welfare law violated the...

• American Amusement Machine Association v. Kendrick (7th Cir.) (2001)

  American Amusement Machine Association v. Kendrick (7th Cir. 2001) ruled that an ordinance limiting minors' access to violent video games violated the First...

• Shaw v. Murphy (2001)

  In Shaw v. Murphy (2001), the Supreme Court said that a prison inmate law clerk did not have a First Amendment right to assist another prisoner in legal matters...

• Good News Club v. Milford Central School (2001)

  Good News Club v. Milford Central School decided that school districts cannot prohibit First Amendment free speech of groups seeking access to the district’s...

• Lavine v. Blaine School District (9th Cir.) (2001)

  Lavine v. Blaine School District (9th Cir. 2001) said a school's decision to emergency expel a student who submitted a violent-themed poem did not violate the...

• Bartnicki v. Vopper (2001)

  In Bartnicki v. Vopper (2001), the Supreme Court found that the First Amendment protects speech that discloses the contents of an illegally intercepted...

• City of Los Angeles v. Alameda Books (2002)

  City of Los Angeles v. Alameda Books (2002) ruled that cities could rely on studies showing the crime impact of adult businesses to zone them without violating...

• Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition (2002)

  Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition (2002) struck down a ban virtual child pornography, which, being neither obscene nor child pornography, was protected by the...

• Borgner v. Florida Board of Dentistry (2002)

  The Court in Borgner v. Florida Board of Dentistry (2002) declined to review a ruling upholding a law requiring dentists to include disclaimers in ads for...

• Thompson v. Western States Medical Center (2002)

  Thompson v. Western States Medical Center (2002) ruled that a federal statutory prohibition on the advertisement of compounded drugs violated the First...

• BE and K Construction Co. v. National Labor Relations Board (2002)

  BE and K Construction Co. v. NLRB (2002) interpreted the First Amendment right to petition and ruled that the employers could not be punished for filing a...

• Watchtower Bible and Tract Society v. Village of Stratton (2002)

  Watchtower Bible and Tract Society v. Village of Stratton (2002) said an ordinance making it a misdemeanor to canvass door-to-door without a permit violated the...

• Thomas v. Chicago Park District (2002)

  Thomas v. Chicago Park District (2002) upheld an ordinance requiring events in a public park to have a permit. The ordinance was sufficient to protect First...

• Planned Parenthood of the Columbia/Willamette, Inc. v. American Coalition of Life Activists (9th Cir.) (2002)

  Planned Parenthood of the Columbia/Willamette, Inc. v. American Coalition of Life Activists (2002) determined that anti-abortion speech was not protected by the...

• Zelman v. Simmons-Harris (2002)

  In Zelman v. Simmons-Harris (2002), the Supreme Court said a state program allowing taxpayer money to fund school vouchers did not violate the First Amendment...

• Republican Party of Minnesota v. White (2002)

  Republican Party of Minnesota v. White (2002) said a rule prohibiting judicial candidates from announcing their views on controversial issues violated the First...

• People v. Boomer (Mich. Ct. App.) (2002)

  In what is known as the "Cussing Canoeist" case, a Michigan profanity law making it illegal to curse in front of women and children was overturned by a state...

• Stewart v. McCoy (2002)

  In Stewart v. McCoy (2002), a case dealing with advising gang members, Justice Stevens sought to clarify the First Amendment doctrine of "incitement to imminent...

• Ashcroft v. American Civil Liberties Union (2002, 2004)

  Ashcroft v. American Civil Liberties Union (2004) struck down a law designed to protect children from Internet pornography on grounds it violated the First...

• Federal Election Commission v. Beaumont (2003)

  FEC v. Beaumont (2003) said laws barring corporations' direct candidate contributions do not violate the First Amendment rights of nonprofit advocacy groups...

• McConnell v. Federal Election Commission (2003)

  McConnell v. Federal Election Commission (2003) upheld major provisions of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, rejecting claims that the act stifled...

• Illinois ex rel. Madigan v. Telemarketing Associates, Inc. (2003)

  Illinois ex rel. Madigan v. Telemarketing Associates, Inc. ruled that pursuing fraud charges against fundraisers for misrepresentation did not violate the First...

• Eldred v. Ashcroft (2003)

  Eldred v. Ashcroft (2003) said that the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998 did not violate the First Amendment. Copyright and the First Amendment were...

• Nike v. Kasky (2003)

  Nike v. Kasky (2003) raised, but did not resolve, contemporary issues regarding First Amendment protection for corporate speech in matters of public concern...

• Virginia v. Black (2003)

  Virginia v. Black (2003) upheld a statute making it illegal to burn a cross in public to intimidate others. Cross burning was a true threat unprotected by the...

• United States v. American Library Association (2003)

  US v. American Library Association (2003) struck down a First Amendment challenge against a law restricting funding to libraries that did not install Internet...

• Overton v. Bazzetta (2003)

  Overton v. Bazzetta (2003) upheld prison non-contact visitation bans, reaffirming that prisons have broad discretion in disciplinary that affect inmates’...

• Virginia v. Hicks (2003)

  Virginia v. Hicks (2003) held that a trespassing policy of a public housing development was not facially invalid under the First Amendment’s overbreadth...

• Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow (2004)

  Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow (2004) avoided addressing whether the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance violated the First Amendment...

• Locke v. Davey (2004)

  Locke v. Davey (2004) said a scholarship program in Washington state that did not allow a student to major in theology did not violate his First Amendment...

• City of Littleton v. Z.J. Gifts D-4, L.L.C. (2004)

  City of Littleton v. Z.J. Gifts D-4 (2004) upheld an adult business licensing system against an adult bookstore that claimed the scheme violated the First...

• Dean v. Utica Community Schools (E.D. Mich.) (2004)

  Dean v. Utica Community Schools (E.D. Mich. 2004) said a high school student newspaper was a limited public forum and rejected censorship of it under the First...

• Seres v. Lerner (Nev.) (2004)

  Seres v. Lerner (Nev. 2004) struck down a Son of Sam law on First Amendment grounds. The law was designed to prevent criminals from profiting from their...

• Johanns v. Livestock Marketing Association (2005)

  In Johanns v. Livestock Marketing Association (2005), the Court, using the government speech doctrine, rejected a First Amendment challenge to a compelled...

• Tory v. Cochran (2005)

  Tory v. Cochran (2005) vacated and remanded a decision that had issued a permanent injunction against Tory, who claimed the injunction infringed on his First...

• City of San Diego v. Roe (2005)

  City of San Diego v. Roe (2005) refined the “public concern” test when determining whether a government employee could be fired for their speech or...

• Doe v. Gonzales (2005)

  In Doe v. Gonzales (2005), Justice Ginsburg upheld part of the USA Patriot Act barring librarians from disclosing that the FBI had requested patron information...

• Hosty v. Carter (7th Cir.) (2005)

  Hosty v. Carter (7th Cir. 2005) applied a high school press censorship case to the colleges. First Amendment advocates fear the decision will lead to student...

• McCreary County v. American Civil Liberties Union (2005)

  McCreary County v. American Civil Liberties Union (2005) held 5-4 that Ten Commandment displays in Kentucky county courthouses violated the First Amendment's...

• Van Orden v. Perry (2005)

  Van Orden v. Perry (2005) ruled that a monument depicting the Ten Commandments in public park did not violate the establishment clause of the First Amendment...

• Cutter v. Wilkinson (2005)

  Cutter v. Wilkinson (2005) upheld a law that strengthened the ability of prisoners to practice their religion in face of a challenge that it violated the First...

• Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District (M.D. Pa.) (2005)

  In Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District (M.D. Pa. 2005), a judge ruled that requiring teachers to teach both Intelligent Design and evolution violated the...

• Clingman v. Beaver (2005)

  Clingman v. Beaver (2005) upheld a state law requiring semi-closed primaries for political parties. The Libertarian Party said the law violated the First...

• O'Connor v. Washburn University (10th Cir.) (2005)

  O’Connor v. Washburn University (10th Cir. 2005) affirmed a district court decision denying damages to those who alleged that a religious sculpture violated...

• Scheidler v. National Organization for Women (2006)

  Scheidler v. National Organization for Women (2006) said racketeering laws could not be invoked to challenge antiabortion protests protected by the First...

• Randall v. Sorrell (2006)

  Randall v. Sorrell (2006) said that Vermont's spending and contribution limits infringed upon the First Amendment's right to free speech and threatened freedom...

• Rumsfeld v. Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights (2006)

  Rumsfeld v. Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights (2006) said that conditioning funding on allowing military recruiters on campus did not violate the...

• American Academy of Religion v. Chertoff (S.D.N.Y) (2006)

  In American Academy of Religion v. Chertoff (2006), a New York court affirmed the First Amendment rights of scholars who had invited an Islamic scholar to teach...

• Beard v. Banks (2006)

  Beard v. Banks (2006) upheld, against a First Amendment challenge, prison restrictions on inmates’ reading materials, reinforcing the Court's deference to...

• Barrett v. Rosenthal (Cal. S. Ct.) (2006)

  Barrett v. Rosenthal (Cal. 2006) ruled that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act gives those who republish defamatory comments online broad immunity...

• Garcetti v. Ceballos (2006)

  In Garcetti v. Ceballos, the court ruled that the First Amendment does not apply to speech issued as part of the routine duties of public employees...

• American Civil Liberties Union v. National Security Agency/Central Security Service (E.D. Mich.) (2006)

  ACLU v. National Security Agency/Central Security Service (E.D. Mich. 2006) issued an injunction based on First Amendment claims against a terrorist...

• Harper v. Poway Unified School District (9th Cir.) (2006)

  Harper v. Poway Unified School District (9th Cir. 2006) ruled that a school did not violate the First Amendment rights of a student punished for wearing anti-...

• Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Beneficente Uniao Do Vegetal (2006)

  Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Beneficente Uniao Do Vegetal upheld the sacramental use of a hallucinogenic substance under the First Amendment free exercise...

• Hartman v. Moore (2006)

  Hartman v. Moore (2006) said that those who allege their First Amendment rights are being retaliated against must prove there is no probable cause for the...

• Carey, Warden v. Musladin (2006)

  Carey, Warden v. Musladin (2006) did not settle First Amendment rights of court spectators but found a fair trial was not compromised when spectators wore...

• Federal Election Commission v. Wisconsin Right to Life, Inc. (2007)

  FEC v. Wisconsin Right to Life, Inc. (2007) ruled that part of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act violated the First Amendment as applied to certain forms of...

• Hein v. Freedom from Religion Foundation (2007)

  Hein v. Freedom from Religion Foundation (2007) decided that taxpayers can't raise a First Amendment challenge to executive branch expenditures on faith-based...

• Morse v. Frederick (2007)

  In Morse v. Frederick, the Supreme Court ruled it is not a denial of First Amendment rights for school officials to censor student speech they believe...

• Davenport v. Washington Education Association (2007)

  Davenport v. Washington Education Association (2007) ruled that a campaign finance law dealing with union dues did not trigger First Amendment scrutiny...

• United States v. Williams (2008)

  The Supreme Court in 2008 upheld a provision of a federal child pornography law that makes it a crimes to advertise, promote or present child pornography even...

• Davis v. Federal Election Commission (2008)

  Davis v. Federal Election Commission (2008) struck down the "Millionaire's Amendment" of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act for violating the First Amendment...

• Locke v. Karass (2009)

  Locke v. Karass (2009) said that as long as union litigation was related to collective bargaining, charging nonmembers for national litigation did not violate...

• Pearson v. Callahan (2009)

  Pearson v. Callahan (2009) involved a Fourth Amendment search and seizure issue but has had a profound impact on much subsequent First Amendment litigation...

• Pleasant Grove v. Summum (2009)

  Pleasant Grove v. Summum (2009) determined a city could refuse to place a monument in a public park because it was a form of government speech immune from First...

• Federal Communications Commission v. Fox (2009) (2009)

  FCC v. Fox (2009) ruled that the FCC did not act capriciously by changing its fleeting expletives policy. The Court declined to address the underlying First...

• Christian Legal Society v. Martinez (2010)

  Christian Legal Society v. Martinez (2010) said not allowing a Christian Legal Society chapter to receive benefits did not violate the First Amendment...

• Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project (2010)

  Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project (2010) rejected First Amendment challenges in upholding a federal law prohibiting material support to terrorist organizations...

• Nurre v. Whitehead (2010)

  Nurre v. Whitehead (2010) involved a student, who alleged her First Amendment rights were violated when the band could not perform a religious instrumental at...

• United States v. Stevens (2010)

  In 2010, the Supreme Court overturned a federal law that made it a crime to create, sell or distribute images depicting animal cruelty for commercial purposes....

• Milavetz, Gallop & Milavetz, P.A. v. United States (2010)

  Milavetz, Gallop & Milavetz, P.A. v. United States (2010) upheld provisions of the BAPCPA that restricted attorneys representing individuals in bankruptcy...

• John Doe #1 v. Reed (2010)

  In Doe No. 1 v. Reed (2010), the Court upheld a state law requiring the disclosure of referendum signers and ruled that the law on its face does not violate the...

• Salazar v. Buono (2010)

  Salazar v. Buono (2010) said that transferring a cross from public land to private land was not an endorsement of religion and did not violate the First...

• Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010)

  In a landmark 2010 decision, a divided Supreme Court used the First Amendment to invalidate a campaign regulation that banned corporate and union spending in...

• Anderson v. City of Hermosa Beach (9th Circuit) (2010)

  Anderson v. City of Hermosa Beach (9th Cir. 2010) struck down a city’s ban on tattoo parlors. The court ruled that tattooing was a form of free speech under...

• Arizona Free Enterprise Club's Freedom Club PAC v. Bennett (2011)

  Arizona Free Enterprise Club's Freedom Club PAC v. Bennett (2011) struck down on First Amendment grounds a law that sought to reduce corruption in Arizona...

• Borough of Duryea v. Guarnieri (2011)

  Borough of Duryea v. Guarnieri (2011) addressed the issue of speech and petition by public employees under the First Amendment. Petitions should involve a...

• Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association (2011)

  Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association (2011) ruled that a state law prohibiting sale of violent video games to minors violated the First Amendment...

• Snyder v. Phelps (2011)

  Snyder v. Phelps (2011) ruled that the First Amendment prohibited the pressing of civil charges upon a church who picketed the funeral of a slain Marine...

• Utah Highway Patrol Association v. American Atheists, Inc. (2011)

  The Supreme Court in 2011 declined to hear a case in which a lower court had ruled Utah Highway Patrol's roadside crosses violated the establishment clause of...

• Sorrell v. IMS Health (2011)

  Sorrell v. IMS (2011) invalidated a state law prohibiting the sale of pharmacy data as an impermissible restriction on free speech guaranteed in the First...

• Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v. Winn (2011)

  Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v. Winn (2011) denied standing to a group of taxpayers who raised a First Amendment objection to a system of tax...

• Nevada Commission on Ethics v. Carrigan (2011)

  Nevada Commission on Ethics v. Carrigan (2011) determined that a recusal provision did not violate a city council’s First Amendment free-speech rights...

• John Doe #1 v. Reed (2011)

  In John Doe # 1 v. Reed (2011), the Court decided not to issue an injunction to prevent disclosure of the names of individuals who had petitioned for an...

• Golan v. Holder (2012)

  Golan v. Holder upheld a U.S. copyright law against First Amendment challenges. The law had taken previously available foreign works out of the public domain...

• Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC (2012)

  Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC (2012) was the first time the Court used a “ministerial exception” as First Amendment basis for rejecting an employment discrimination...

• Knox v. Service Employees International Union (2012)

  In Knox v. Service Employees International Union (2012), the Court struck down a union’s imposition of special dues applied to nonunion members to oppose two...

• Reichle v. Howards (2012)

  In Reichle v. Howards (2012), the Court said there was not a First Amendment right to be free from a retaliatory arrest that is supported by probable cause...

• United States v. Alvarez (2012)

  In 2012, the Supreme Court overturned the Stolen Valor Act as an infringement on free speech after the law was used to prosecute a man who falsely claimed to...

• Federal Communications Commission v. Fox Television Stations (2012) (2012)

  While FCC v. Fox (2012) invalidated the FCC's actions against fleeting expletives on television, it didn't address the First Amendment implications of the...

• Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. v. Sebelius (2012)

  In Hobby Lobby Stores v. Sebelius (2012), a circuit court upheld the Affordable Care Act against a First Amendment challenge, citing a lack of clear legal...

• Agency for International Development v. Alliance for Open Society (2013)

  Agency for International Development v. Alliance for Open Society (2013) said barring funding for NGOs not explicitly opposed to certain policies violated the...

• Clapper v. Amnesty International (2013)

  Clapper v. Amnesty International (2013) rejected a First Amendment challenge to FISA. The petitioners claimed a wiretap provision had a chilling effect on...

• McBurney v. Young (2013)

  In McBurney v. Young (2013), the Court ruled that Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act, which made some public documents accessible only to Virginians, was...

• Elane Photography v. Willock (2013)

  Elane Photography v. Willock (New Mexico 2013) said a law prohibiting wedding photographers from discriminating on basis of sexual orientation did not violate...

• Taylor v. Roswell Independent School District (10th Cir.) (2013)

  Taylor v. Roswell Independent School District (10th Cir. 2013) rejected the First Amendment claims of students prohibited from further distributing rubber fetus...

• Hardwick v. Heyward (4th Cir.) (2013)

  Hardwick v. Heyward (4th. Cir. 2013) ruled that public school officials did not violate the First Amendment rights of a public school student who wore...

• Air Wisconsin Airlines Corp. v. Hoeper (2014)

  Air Wisconsin Airlines Corp. v. Hoeper (2014) dealt with immunity for reporting information that might be considered defamatory and unprotected by the First...

• Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. (2014)

  Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. (2014) said the government could not require corporations to provide coverage for contraceptives that violated the owners...

• Elmbrook School District v. Doe (2014)

  The Court refused to hear Elmbrook School District v. Doe (2014), in which a circuit court said a graduation in a nondenominational church violated the First...

• Lane v. Franks (2014)

  In Lane v. Franks (2014), the Supreme Court said that the First Amendment protected a public employee who was terminated after providing truthful court...

• Town of Greece v. Galloway (2014)

  Town of Greece v. Galloway (2014) ruled a town’s practice of having prayer before town meetings did not violate the Establishment Clause of the First...

• Wood v. Moss (2014)

  Wood v. Moss (2014)said Secret Service agents who removed protestors were entitled to qualified immunity after the protestors claimed their First Amendment...

• McCullen v. Coakley (2014)

  In McCullen v. Coakley (2014) the Court ruled that a state law prohibiting individuals from standing in a buffer zone outside an abortion facility violated the...

• Harris v. Quinn (2014)

  In Harris v. Quinn (2014), the Supreme Court dealt with the First Amendment issues of requiring personal care workers in Illinois to join a union against their...

• United States v. Apel (2014)

  The Supreme Court in United States v. Apel (2014) ruled that the government did not forfeit rights to guard its military bases because of a road easement. An...

• McCutcheon v. FEC (2014)

  McCutcheon v. FEC (2014) invalidated some campaign regulations that imposed limits on political contributions. The Court said the regulations directly limited...

• Susan B. Anthony List v. Driehaus (2014)

  Susan B. Anthony List v. Driehaus (2014) upheld standing for a group who said an Ohio law that criminalized false statements during a campaign violated the...

• Dariano v. Morgan Hills Unified School District (9th Cir.) (2014)

  Dariano v. Morgan Hills U.S.D. (9th Cir. 2014) ruled that telling students wearing American flag shirts remove them on Cinco de Mayo did not violate the First...

• Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Abercrombie & Fitch Stores, Inc. (2015)

  EEOC v. Abercrombie & Fitch Stores, Inc. (2015) ruled that an employer could be liable for refusing to hire an applicant to avoid accommodating a religious...

• Elonis v. United States (2015)

  Elonis v. United States (2015) reversed a conviction of a man convicted of making threats via Facebook posts. True threats are not protected by the First...

• Holt v. Hobbs (2015)

  Holt v. Hobbs (2015) ruled that prison officials violated the First Amendment religious liberty rights of a Muslim inmate by refusing to allow him to grow a...

• Reed v. Town of Gilbert (2015)

  Reed v. Town of Gilbert (2015) invalidated a city ordinance that restricted the size of directional signs after a pastor challenged the law as violating the...

• Walker v. Texas Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans (2015)

  Walker v. Texas Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans (2015) said license plates were a form of government speech and protected from First Amendment challenges...

• Williams-Yulee v. Florida Bar (2015)

  Williams-Yulee v. Florida Bar (2015) said a rule prohibiting judicial candidates from soliciting money for their campaign did not violate the First Amendment...

• Department of Homeland Security v. MacLean (2015)

  The First Amendment-adjacent case Department of Homeland Security v. MacLean (2015) dealt with the TSA firing an air marshal for whistleblowing about a...

• Trusz v. UBS Realty Investors, LLC (Conn.) (2015)

  Trusz v. UBS Realty Investors, LLC (Conn. 2015) provided greater First Amendment protection to public employees under a state constitution than the U.S. Supreme...

• Bell v. Itawamba County School Board (5th Cir.) (2015)

  In Bell v. Itawamba County School Board (2012), the court ruled that school officials did not violate the First Amendment by punishing a student for posting a...

• Buehrle v. City of Key West (11th Cir.) (2015)

  Buehrle v. City of Key West (11th Cir. 2015) said a city couldn't ban new tattoo parlors in its historic district without running afoul of the First Amendment...

• Planet Aid v. City of St. Johns (6th Cir.) (2015)

  In Planet Aid v. City of St. Johns (6th Cir. 2015), a federal appeals court ruled that unattended charitable bins are a form of expression protected by the...

• Bible Believers v. Wayne County (6th Cir.) (2015)

  Bible Believers v. Wayne County (2015) ruled that officials violated First Amendment rights of a Christian group when they were removed from a festival due to a...

• American Freedom Defense Initiative v. King County (2016)

  American Freedom Defense Initiative v. King County (2016), which involved First Amendment implications of advertising on public transit systems, was denied...

• Delaware Strong Families v. Penn (2016)

  The court did not grant certiorari in Delaware Strong Families v. Penn (2016), which dealt with campaign disclosure and First Amendment anonymity rights...

• Heffernan v. City of Paterson (2016)

  The Court said in Heffernan v. City of Paterson (2016) that employees can sue for retaliatory demotion, even if the demotion is based on false First Amendment...

• Stormans, Inc. v. Wiesman (2016)

  Stormans, Inc. v. Wiesman (2016) declined to hear a First Amendment case about a law that prohibited pharmacists from refusing on religious grounds to dispense...

• Keefe v. Adams (8th Cir.) (2016)

  In Keefe v. Adams (8th Cir., 2016), a circuit court ruled that a public college could expel a nursing student for Facebook posts that indicated a lack of...

• Zubik v. Burwell (2016)

  Zubik v. Burwell (2016) dealt with regulations requiring employers to provide contraception coverage to their employees and how these regulations affected...

• Perez v. Florida (2017)

  In Perez v. Florida (2017), the Supreme Court declined to look at the First Amendment issues in the the conviction of a man who drunkenly stated he could blow...

• International Refugee Assistance Project v. Trump (4th Cir.) (2017)

  President Trump signed executive orders suspending immigration from predominantly predominately Muslim nations. Courts said the order violated the First...

• Advocate Health Care Network v. Stapleton (2017)

  In Advocate Health Care Network v. Stapleton (2017), church-related nonprofits argued they were exempt from ERISA pension rules under First Amendment church-...

• Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Inc. v. Comer (2017)

  Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Inc. v. Comer (2017) used the free exercise clause of the First Amendment to rule that a state had improperly excluded a...

• Matal v. Tam (2017)

  In Matal v. Tam (2017), the Supreme Court ruled that a federal law prohibiting disparaging trademark names was unconstitutional under the First Amendment...

• Packingham v. North Carolina (2017)

  Packingham v. North Carolina (2017) invalidated a state law prohibiting sex offenders from accessing social media. The court said the law barred First Amendment...

• Digital Realty Trust, Inc. v. Somers (2018)

  Digital Realty Trust, Inc. v. Somers (2018) shows the Court will interpret whistleblower statutes strictly in accord with definitions that whistleblower laws...

• Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, Council 31 (2018)

  The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that that an Illinois law allowing government employee unions to collect fees from non-members violates the First Amendment....

• Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission (2018)

  Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission (2018) used the First Amendment to uphold the right of the store owner to refuse to custom design a...

• Minnesota Voters Alliance v. Mansky (2018)

  A Minnesota law that prohibited wearing political apparel at polling places was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court as violating the First Amendment...

• Lozman v. City of Riviera Beach, Florida (2018)

  Lozman v. Riviera Beach, Florida (2018) dealt with retaliatory arrests for First Amendment-protected speech after a man was arrested during a city council...

• National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v. Becerra (2018)

  National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v. Becerra (2018) ruled that forcing pregnancy centers to tell patients about abortion services violated the...

• Dahne v. Richey (2019)

  Dahne v. Richey (2019) declined review of an appellate holding that prisoner had a First Amendment-based right to use disrespectful language in a grievance...

• Murphy v. Collier (2019)

  The Supreme Court in 2019 granted a stay of execution to a Texas prisoner who claimed prison rules denying him access to his Buddhist spiritual advisor violated...

• Nieves v. Bartlett (2019)

  The Supreme Court in 2019 ruled that most claims of arrest in retaliation for speech protected by the First Amendment would fail if there was probable cause for...

• Manhattan Community Access Corporation v. Halleck (2019)

  In Manhattan Community Access Corporation v. Halleck (2019), a sharply divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a private corporation that oversees public access...

• Iancu v. Brunetti (2019)

  In this Iancu v. Brunetti, the U.S. Supreme Court in 2019 invalidated a provision of federal trademark law that prohibited “immoral or scandalous” marks....

• American Legion v. American Humanist Association (2019)

  American Legion v. American Humanist Association (2019) ruled that a longstanding cross erected to honor slain servicemen does not violate the First Amendment...

• Thompson v. Hebdon (2019)

  The U.S. Supreme Court in November 2019 vacated a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that had upheld an Alaska state law limiting campaign contributions....

• McKee v. Cosby (2019)

  Justice Clarence Thomas in 2019 called into question the actual malice standard and suggested the Court review libel law. His reasoning was outlined in a...

• Archdiocese of Washington. v. Wash. Metro. Area Transit Authority (2020)

  The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of a case in which the Washington Metro Transit Authority refused to allow an ad from the Catholic Archdiocese...

• Jarchow v. State Bar of Wisconsin (2020)

  The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a First Amendment challenge to a requirement that attorneys pay dues to a state bar association in Wisconsin to support...

• South Bay United Pentecostal Church v. Newsom (2020)

  South Bay United Pentecostal Church v. Newsom (2020) said attendance limits on houses of worship during the COVID-19 pandemic did not violate First Amendment...

• Kansas v. Boettger and Kansas v. Johnson (2020)

  The Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of a Kansas State Supreme Court ruling that invalidated a statute criminalizing threats made with reckless...

• Agency for International Development v. Alliance for Open Society International, Inc. II (2020)

  The Supreme Court in 2020 ruled that First Amendment speech protections did not apply to foreign organizations in affirming a law barring AIDS funding to...

• Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue (2020)

  The Supreme Court in 2020 ruled that states cannot create programs that exclude religious schools from programs that subsidize private schools with public money...

• Barr v. American Association of Political Consultants (2020)

  The Supreme Court on July 6, 2020, struck down a provision in a robocall law that allowed government to use robocalls to collect debt, saying it was an...

• Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Vorrissey-Berru (2020)

  The Supreme Court in July 2020 upheld the termination of two teachers in Catholic elementary schools in Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Vorissey-Berru, saying...

• Little Sisters of the Poor Saints Peter and Paul, Home v. Pennsylvania (2020)

  Little Sisters of the Poor Saints Peter and Paul v. Pennsylvania (2020) said the First Amendment allowed employers to opt out of providing contraceptive...

• Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn v. Cuomo (2020)

  The U.S. Supreme Court in a split 5-4 decision on Nov. 25, 2020, blocked New York's COVID-19 restrictions on the size of religious gatherings, saying although...

• Uzuegbunam v. Preczewski (2021)

  The U.S. Supreme Court case, Uzuegbunam v. Preczewski, arose when a college prevented a student from distributing religious literature. The court said the case...

• Federal Communications Commission v. Prometheus Radio Project (2021)

  The Supreme Court upheld an easing of broadcast ownership rules in Federal Communications Commission vs. Prometheus Radio Project, rejecting that the change...

• Tandon v. Newsom (2021)
• Biden v. Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University (2021)

  In Biden v. Knight First Amendment Institute, the Supreme Court vacated an appellate decision that ruled that President Donald Trump had violated the First...

• Dunn v. Smith (2021)

  In 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court said that Alabama could not prohibit clergy in the execution chamber, noting religious rights of death row inmates, and said the...

• Fulton v. City of Philadelphia (2021)

  The Supreme Court in Fulton v. City of Philadelphia (2021) upheld the religious rights of Catholic Social Services, saying the agency’s refusal to certify...

• Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Bonta (2021)

  In Americans for Prosperity v. Bonta, the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated a California requirement that charities share the names of donors who contributed more...

• Berisha v. Lawson (2021)

  Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch dissented in a July 2021 Supreme Court denial to review a defamation case against "War Dogs" author Guy Lawson, saying...

• Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L. (2021)

  The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L. that school officials violated the First Amendment when it disciplined a cheerleader for...

• Hoggard v. Rhodes (2021)

  Justice Clarence Thomas argued against granting qualified immunity to university officials in a free speech case, but the U.S. Supreme Court refused to take it...

• Gonzalez v. Google, Taamneh v. Twitter (9th Circuit) (2021)

  In Gonzalez v. Google and Taamneh v. Twitter, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2021 addressed the liability of social media platforms for allowing the...

• People v. Counterman (Colo. Court of Appeals) (2021)
• Thompson v. Trump (D.C. District Court) (2022)

  A federal district judge in Thompson v. Trump rejected a presidential immunity claim in a lawsuit that seeks damages for inciting violence at the U.S. Capitol...

• United States v. Zubaydah (2022)

  In a case examining the state secrets privilege, the Supreme Court decided in United States v. Zubaya (2022) that the U.S did not have to release the location...

• Trustees of the New Life in Christ Church v. City of Fredericksburg (2022)

  The Supreme Court decided not to hear an appeal in which a Virginia church argued that the government could not determine who was a minister or not in denying...

• Ramirez v. Collier (2022)

  The Supreme Court in Ramirez v. Collier (2022) said that a death row inmate's religious rights claims would likely prevail after Texas rejected his request for...

• Houston Community College System v. Wilson (2022)

  The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2022 in Houston Community College System v. Wilson that a board member who was censured by the board did not have a First...

• City of Austin v. Reagan National Advertising of Austin, LLC (2022)

  The Supreme Court ruled in 2022 that the city of Austin's regulations that prohibited new digital billboards or conversion of existing billboards to digital are...

• Shurtleff v. Boston (2022)

  The Supreme Court ruled in 2022 in Shurtleff v. Boston determined that, in this instance, flying a Christian flag on a city flagpole at the request of a...

• Federal Election Commission v. Cruz (2022)

  The Supreme Court overturned a regulation that limited how a campaign could repay a candidate's personal loan saying in Federal Election Commission v. Cruz that...

• Arkansas Times v. Waltrip (8th Circuit) (2022)

  The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2022 upheld an Arkansas law that requires contractors with the state to sign a pledge not to boycott Israel despite...

• Kennedy v. Bremerton School District (2022)

  In Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, the Supreme Court ruled that a coach-led prayer on the 50-yard line did not violate the establishment clause of the...

• NetChoice v. Attorney General of Florida (11th Circuit) (2022)

  The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in 2022 upheld an injunction against a Florida law, the "Stop Social Media Censorship Act," saying it likely violated the...

• NetChoice v. Paxton (5th Circuit) (2022)

  The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in NetChoice v. Paxton upheld a Texas law barring social media companies from censoring users based on their viewpoints...

• Twitter v. Taamneh (2023)

  The Supreme Court ruled in Twitter v. Taamneh that social media companies did not "aid and abet" an ISIS terrorist attack simply because their algorithms...

• Gonzalez v. Google (2023)

  The U.S. Supreme Court in Gonzalez v. Google (2023) declined to rule on whether targeted recommendations by a social media company’s algorithms would fall...

• Carson v. Makin (June 21, 2022)

  The Supreme Court in Carson v. Makin ruled in June 2022 that Maine's tuition reimbursement program could not exclude parents who sent their children to...