Constitution

The First Amendment: Religion, Speech, Press, Assembly and Petition

The First Amendment bars Congress from establishing religion or restricting its free exercise, and protects speech, press, assembly and petition.

4Conservative Editors · Published November 8, 2026

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.

In plain English

The Amendment has five freedoms in one sentence, aimed at one actor: "Congress shall make no law."

Establishment. Congress may not make "an establishment of religion," that is, set up a national church or give one denomination official preference. Several states kept established churches for decades after 1791; Massachusetts did not end its until 1833.

Free exercise. Congress may not prohibit the free exercise of religion. People are free to believe and, within limits, to act on their beliefs.

Speech and press. Congress may not abridge the freedom of speech or of the press. Both were understood, at the Founding, to bar prior restraints (licensing and pre-publication censorship) as well as punishment of ordinary political criticism.

Assembly. The people may gather "peaceably."

Petition. The people may petition the government "for a redress of grievances," a right with deep roots in English history.

Through the 14th Amendment, these limits now bind the states as well as Congress.

What the Founders said

The Amendment came from the ratifying conventions' demand for a bill of rights. In Federalist No. 84, Hamilton argued a bill of rights was unnecessary and even dangerous: "why declare that things shall not be done which there is no power to do? Why, for instance, should it be said, that the liberty of the press shall not be restrained, when no power is given by which restrictions may be imposed?" Madison, who had opposed a bill of rights, promised to propose one and kept the promise in the First Congress, with the guidance of Jefferson's letters and the Virginia Declaration of Rights.

Jefferson's 1802 letter to the Danbury Baptists, which spoke of "a wall of separation between Church and State," is often quoted, though it is a letter and not constitutional text. Madison's own "Memorial and Remonstrance" (1785) opposed a Virginia tax to support teachers of the Christian religion and is the clearest statement of the Founding-era case against establishment.

How the courts have read it

  • Reynolds v. United States (1879): religious belief is protected absolutely, but conduct may be regulated.
  • Everson v. Board of Education (1947): the Establishment Clause applies to the states, and New Jersey could reimburse bus fares for parochial school students.
  • Near v. Minnesota (1931): prior restraints on the press are almost always unconstitutional.
  • New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964): public officials suing for defamation must show "actual malice."
  • Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969): speech advocating illegal conduct may be punished only if it is directed to inciting imminent lawless action and is likely to do so.
  • Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971): the three-part test for Establishment Clause cases; the Court abandoned it in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District (2022), which looks to history and tradition.
  • Employment Division v. Smith (1990): neutral, generally applicable laws need not give way to religious objections; Congress responded with the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
  • Citizens United v. FEC (2010): the government may not ban independent political spending by corporations and unions.
  • 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis (2023): a state may not compel a website designer to create expressive content that violates her beliefs.

Why it matters now

The First Amendment is the freedom conservatives cite most often today, and with reason. Campus speech codes, pressure on social-media platforms to remove speech, and the use of regulation against religious institutions have all tested it. A conservative reading starts from the text and its history: Congress shall make no law, and the people, not the government, decide which ideas deserve a hearing.

Two principles follow. First, the Amendment protects the speech people dislike most. A free-speech rule that covers only agreeable speech needs no constitutional protection. The classic cases, from the Klansman in Brandenburg to the funeral protesters in Snyder v. Phelps, make that point uncomfortably clear.

Second, free exercise is not a private matter confined to a house of worship. Religious individuals, schools and charities carry their convictions into public life, and the Amendment protects that, subject to ordinary limits. The Court's recent decisions on religious schools, public prayer and compelled speech have moved in that direction. Debates remain over where the lines fall, and they should be argued from text, history and tradition.

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