The First Amendment and You!

Disagree with a new law in your town? You can speak up about it. Worship differently than your friends do? You have the right to follow any faith you choose or none at all. Want the latest scoop? Read as many news sources as you like—or start your own.

We may take these rights for granted, but our nation’s founders did not. Even as they signed the U.S. Constitution in 1787, some of them worried it wouldn’t do enough to protect Americans’ individual freedoms.

So James Madison, the Constitution’s main author, drafted the Bill of Rights to ensure the government didn’t overstep its bounds. Ratified in 1791, the 10 amendments that make up the Bill of Rights protect key individual liberties, such as freedom from unreasonable searches and the right to public trials. 

The First Amendment, however, is arguably the most important part of the Bill of Rights. In just 45 words, the First Amendment establishes freedom of speech, religion, and the press, as well as our right to assemble peaceably and petition the government for change. 

“It gives us the right to criticize the powerful, to demand change, and to learn what is going on in our society so we can organize for political action and be informed voters,” says Catherine Ross, a law professor at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

So how does the First Amendment apply to your life? Read on to find out. After all, knowing your rights is the best way to make sure you use them.

Critics have long argued that including the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance violates the First Amendment, which prohibits the government from establishing a national religion. Still, several courts have ruled over the years that public schools are allowed to lead students in the Pledge anyway—as a patriotic exercise, not as a prayer. And today, schools in 47 states do just that. 

But whether you say the Pledge is up to you. In 1943, the Supreme Court ruled in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette that students have the right to opt out—meaning they don’t have to salute the flag or recite the Pledge if they don’t want to, and that decision still stands.

It sure is. The Supreme Court ruled in 1988’s Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier that administrators have the right to preview and censor school-sponsored publications. School newspapers and yearbooks “are considered to be the school’s speech, so the school does have a say in what’s going to go in there,” says Lata Nott, a First Amendment expert at the Freedom Forum Institute in Laurel, Maryland.

Administrators need to have a legitimate concern such as safety to yank articles, however. In the Kuhlmeier case, the principal pulled articles that he thought invaded some students’ privacy.