The First Amendment

The Text

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

What It Says

Congress cannot establish a national church or interfere with religious practice. It cannot restrict what you say, what you publish, whether you gather with others, or whether you formally complain to the government about what it has done to you. Five separate protections, one sentence.

What It Protects Against

State religion and state control of expression. An established church funded by compulsory taxation, licensing of printers, seditious libel prosecutions for criticizing officials, and laws against public assembly. Every one of these was a live practice in England and in several colonies when the amendment was written.

Sourced to a ratification-era document. See Contemporaneous Defense below.

Problem Addressed

Colonial governments licensed printers and prosecuted seditious libel. Several colonies maintained established churches supported by mandatory assessments. The Crown treated criticism of officials as a punishable offense rather than protected speech.

Contemporaneous Defense

Madison’s Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments, 1785, argued against Virginia’s proposed tax to support Christian teachers and laid the groundwork for the establishment clause. In his June 8, 1789 speech introducing the amendments to the House, Madison identified freedom of conscience and of the press as among the rights most in need of explicit protection.