1st Amendment

By Popsss

  • Chicago Times

    Gen. Ambrose Burnside of the Union Army orders the suspension of the publication of the Chicago Times on account of repeated expression of disloyal and incendiary sentiments. President Lincoln rescinds Burnside's order three days later.

  • New York Journal

    By order of President Lincoln, Gen. John A. Dix, a Union commander, suppresses the New York Journal of Commerce and the New York World and arrests the newspapers' editors after both papers publish a forged presidential proclamation purporting to order another draft of 400,000 men.

  • Patterson vs. Colorado

    In Patterson v. Colorado — its first free-press case — the U.S. Supreme Court determines it does not have jurisdiction to review the "contempt" conviction of U.S. senator and Denver newspaper publisher Thomas Patterson for articles and a cartoon that criticized the state supreme court.

  • Disloyalty and Munity

    Congress passes the Espionage Act, making it a crime "to willfully cause or attempt to cause insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny, or refusal of duty, in the military or naval forces of the United States," or to "willfully obstruct the recruiting or enlistment service of the United States."

  • Roger Baldwin

    Roger Baldwin and others start up a new organization dedicated to preserving civil liberties called the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

  • Gitlow vs. New York

    In Gitlow v. New York, the U.S. Supreme Court upholds under the New York criminal anarchy statute Benjamin Gitlow's conviction for writing and distributing "The Left Wing Manifesto."

  • Bryant vs. Zimmerman

    In People of State of New York ex rel. Bryant v. Zimmerman, the U.S. Supreme Court upholds a New York law which mandates that organizations requiring their members to take oaths file certain organizational documents with the secretary of state.

  • Stromberg vs. California

    In Stromberg v. California, the U.S. Supreme Court reverses the state court conviction of Yetta Stromberg, 19-year-old female member of the Young Communist League, who violated a state law prohibiting the display of a red flag as "an emblem of opposition to the United States government."

  • Thornhill vs. Alabama

    In Thornhill v. Alabama, the U.S. Supreme Court strikes down an Alabama law prohibiting loitering and picketing "without a just cause or legal excuse" near businesses.

  • Everson vs. Board of Education

    In Everson v. Board of Education, the U.S. Supreme Court upholds a New Jersey program that reimburses parents for money spent transporting their children to parochial schools.

  • Dennis vs. United States

    In Dennis v. United States, the U.S. Supreme Court upholds the convictions of 12 Communist Party members convicted under the Smith Act of 1940.

  • Barenblatt vs. United States

    In Barenblatt v. United States, the Court states that, "where First Amendment rights are asserted to bar governmental interrogation, resolution of the issue always involves a balancing by the courts of the competing private and public interests at stake in the particular circumstances shown."

  • Sherbert vs. Verner

    In Sherbert v. Verner, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that South Carolina officials violated the free-exercise rights of Seventh-day Adventist Adele Sherbert when they denied her unemployment-compensation benefits because she refused to work on Saturday, her Sabbath day.

  • Brandenburg vs, Ohio

    In Brandenburg v. Ohio, a leader of a Ku Klux Klan group is convicted under Ohio law and sentenced to prison primarily on the basis of a speech he made at a Klan rally.

  • New York vs. Ferber

    The U.S. Supreme Court rules in New York v. Ferber that child pornography is not protected by the First Amendment.