The First Amendment to the United States Constitution prevents Congress from making laws respecting an establishment of religion; prohibiting the free exercise of religion; or abridging the freedom of
The hand-written copy of the proposed articles of amendment passed by Congress in 1789, cropped to show just the text in the third article that would later be ratified as the First Amendment
George Mason was the principal author of the Virginia Declaration of Rights, adopted by the Fifth Virginia Convention on June 12, 1776.
James Madison drafted the Bill of Rights.
The Maryland Toleration Act secured religious liberty in the English colony of Maryland. Similar laws were passed in the Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut and Pennsylvania. These laws stood in direct contrast with the Puritan theocratic rule in the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies.
In the United States, freedom of speech and expression is strongly protected from government restrictions by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, many state constitutions, and state and feder
First Amendment to the United States Constitution
…Constitution prevents Congress from making laws respecting an establishment of religion; prohibiting the free exercise of religion; or abridging the freedom of speech, the freedom of the press, the freedom of peaceable assembly and the right to petition the government for redress of grievances. It was adopted on…
The Newseum's five freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
The free speech zone at the 2004 Democratic National Convention
Original "BONG HITS FOR JESUS" banner, hanging in the Newseum in Washington, D.C.
Export-restricted RSA encryption source code printed on a T-shirt made it an export-restricted munition, as a freedom of speech protest against U.S. encryption export restrictions (see the reverse side here).