Chapter 2: The First Amendment

It would only be fitting to start this summary with the First Amendment itself: "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 to peaceably assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

The meaning of the first amendment is somewhat open to interpretation. Freedom of speech and freedom of the press are often lumped together under "freedom of expression." Justices argue about the intention of the freedom of the press clause being intended to protect journalists and the mass media so that they may check the power of the government. Some discussion and research has gone into finding the original intent of the founding fathers who made the first amendment.

This amendment arose to prevent the oppression that had occurred in England since the invention of the printing press. There, the British Crown controlled all presses, and no one had free speech. They banned books and censored unfavorable ideas. The Founding Fathers did not want this to happen in America, so they passed the First Amendment to protect the rights of the American people to have freedom of speech.

Speech needs to be protected because it promotes the truth, puts a check on government abuse of power, promotes self-governance, and offers a platform for social discontent.

Today, The First Amendment has much broader reaches. There have been many new forms of media since the amendment was created, and the law has to be interpreted for each of these.

Generally, with each free speech case, the court interprets the First Amendment as it applies to that case. Different justices interpret the law in their own ways. Some kinds of speech have more protection than others. The Court has determined almost definitively that the First Amendment has a near absolute ban on prior restraint. This means that the government cannot stop anything from going to "press." Press is obviously a much broader thing now, with so many options of places to publish words, opinions, images, etc. The Court also recognizes that the First Amendment protects a persons right to remain anonymous in their speech, or to not speak at all.