Topics: Events

• Banned Books Week

  Banned Books Week is intended to make the public more aware of the frequent challenges to the First Amendment’s guarantees of freedom of speech and press...

• Berkeley Free Speech Movement

  The Berkeley Free Speech Movement refers to college students who in the 1960s challenged many University of California campus regulations limiting their First...

• Chicago Seven Trial

  The widely publicized Chicago Seven Trial of 1969 ended in the conviction of five anti-war demonstrators on federal charges of intent to incite a riot. Many...

• Civil Rights Movement

  The expressive actions and protests during the Civil Rights era led to considerable growth in First Amendment precedent. The Court established the right of...

• Civil War, U.S.

  Abraham Lincoln and his administration restricted constitutional liberties during the Civil War, including freedom of speech and freedom of the press...

• Constitutional Convention of 1787

  Delegates to the Constitutional Convention of 1787 in Philadelphia hammered out the U.S. Constitution. Despite discussion of certain rights, including freedom...

• Free Speech During Wartime

  Freedom of speech often suffers during times of war.  Patriotism at times devolves into jingoism and civil liberties take a backseat to security and order...

• McCarthyism

  The term McCarthyism described the practice of publicly accusing government employees of political disloyalty and using unsavory investigatory methods to...

• National Prayer Breakfast

  The National Prayer Breakfast attracts political and religious leaders from around the nation and the world. Some worry that the event borders on violation of...

• Protestant Reformation

  The Protestant Reformation appealed to the founders of America, and some of its concepts of individualism and free expression of religion are incorporated into...

• Red Scare

  In two anti-Communist periods in the United States, known as Red Scares, First Amendment rights providing for free expression and free association were...

• Romantic and Transcendental Movements

  Transcendental and Romantic writers believed that government may not interfere with freedom of expression. Some First Amendment court opinions have roots in...

• Salem Witch Trials

  The Salem witch trials are a testament to the importance of due process in protecting individuals against false accusations, which are not protected by the...

• School Violence

  After school violence became a national issue with the April 1999 shootings at Columbine High School, the federal courts have weighed in on cases to determine...

• Scopes Monkey Trial

  The 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial began as an effort by the ACLU to challenge the constitutionality of a Tennessee law that forbade teaching the theory of evolution...

• Trial of Reuben Crandall (1835-1836)

  In 1835, Reuben Crandall, was prosecuted for seditious libel for possessing abolitionist literature by the author of The Star-Spangled Banner, Francis Scott Key...

• Vietnam War

  The Vietnam War quickly became the focus of symbolic speech and major protests that resulted in increased government attempts to limit First Amendment...

• World War I

  The Espionage Act was passed by Congress during World War I and led to prosecutions of individuals who objected to the war and the draft. These cases lay the...

• World War II

  America in World War II did not see the kinds of restrictions on free speech that ran rampant in World War I. The Supreme Court also began to apply a new...