This is a chronological list of notable court cases involving First Amendment freedoms from 1804 to present. Each case on the list links to a summary of the ruling in the case. The list includes rulings from the Supreme Court and other significant decisions from state courts and the U.S. Courts of Appeals.
2020s
Moody v Netchoice LLC (2024) Identified “the relevant constitutional principles” involving governmental regulation of social media platforms and remanded the cases for further review.
Murthy v. Missouri (2024) Dismissed claims that the federal government likely violated the First Amendment by pressuring social media companies to censor content.
Groff v. Dejoy (2023) Ruled that an employer must accommodate an employee's religious beliefs, in this case for Sunday off, if it did not cause "undue hardship," dismissing an earlier interpretation that a minimal level of hardship was required.
Counterman v. Colorado (2023) Established that the First Amendment requires that criminal threats, to be prosecuted, must involve some level of awareness of the crime to avoid chilling other speech that is protected.
303 Creative LLC v. Elenis (2023) Ruled that a website designer had a free speech right to refuse to create wedding websites for same-sex couples.
United States v. Hansen (2023) Rejected arguments that a law against encouraging and inducing illegal immigration was unconstitutional under the First Amendment free speech clause.
Jack Daniel’s Properties, Inc. v. VIP Products LLC (2023) Ruled that a chewable dog toy resembling a bottle of Jack Daniel's violated trademark law and was not protected as parody or "fair use" under the First Amendment.
Gonzalez v. Google (2023) Declined to rule on whether targeted recommendations by a social media company’s algorithms would fall outside the liability of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
Twitter v. Taamneh (2023) Ruled that social media companies did not "aid and abet" an ISIS terrorist attack because their algorithms did not remove their content.
Carson v. Makin (June 21, 2022) Ruled that Maine's tuition reimbursement program could not exclude parents who sent their children to private schools.
Kennedy v. Bremerton School District (2022) Ruled that a coach-led prayer on the 50-yard line did not violate the establishment clause of the First amendment.
Federal Election Commission v. Cruz (2022) Overturned a regulation that limited how a campaign could repay a candidate's personal loan saying in Federal Election Commission v. Cruz that the law violated the First Amendment by overburdening free speech.
Shurtleff v. Boston (2022) Ruled that, in this instance, flying a Christian flag on a city flagpole at the request of a resident was a private expression, not government speech.
City of Austin v. Reagan National Advertising of Austin, LLC (2022) Ruled that the city of Austin's regulations that prohibited new digital billboards or conversion of existing billboards to digital are not a violation of the free speech clause of the First Amendment just because the regulations allow digitization of signs that are the premise of a business.
Houston Community College System v. Wilson (2022) Ruled that a board member who was censured by the board did not have a First Amendment claim regarding retaliation for his criticisms of the board.
Ramirez v. Collier (2022) Ruled that a death row inmate's religious rights claims would likely prevail after Texas rejected his request for a pastor to pray over him and lay hands on him at his execution.
Trustees of the New Life in Christ Church v. City of Fredericksburg (2022) Supreme Court decided not to hear an appeal in which a Virginia church argued that the government could not determine who was a minister or not in denying the church a tax exemption for a minister residence.
United States v. Zubaydah (2022) Decided that the U.S. did not have to release the location of so-called black sites in Poland.
Hoggard v. Rhodes (2021) Justice Clarence Thomas argued against granting qualified immunity to university officials in a free speech case, but the U.S. Supreme Court refused to take it up.
Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L. (2021) Ruled that school officials violated the First Amendment when it disciplined a cheerleader for an off-campus, vulgar post on Snapchat.
Berisha v. Lawson (2021) Refused to review a defamation case against "War Dogs" author Guy Lawson.
Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Bonta (2021) Ordered California to stop collecting the names and addresses of top donors to charities, saying the requirement infringed upon rights of association protected under the First Amendment.
Fulton v. City of Philadelphia (2021) Upheld the religious rights of Catholic Social Services, allowing the agency’s refusal to certify same sex couples as foster parents.
Dunn v. Smith (2021) Ruled that Alabama could not prohibit clergy in the execution chamber, noting religious rights of death row inmates.
Biden v. Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University (2021) Vacated an appellate decision that ruled that President Donald Trump had violated the First Amendment by blocking some Twitter users from responding to his tweets.
Tandon v. Newsom (2021) Granted an injunction against enforcing a California COVID-19 law restricting home gatherings because of its effect on religious meetings.
Federal Communications Commission v. Prometheus Radio Project (2021) Upheld an easing of broadcast ownership rules, rejecting that the change could reduce minority ownership.
Uzuegbunam v. Preczewski (2021) Ruled in favor of a Georgia Gwinnett College student who had been prohibited from distributing religious literature on campus.
Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn v. Cuomo (2020) Blocked New York's COVID-19 restrictions on the size of religious gatherings.
Little Sisters of the Poor Saints Peter and Paul, Home v. Pennsylvania (2020) Ruled that the First Amendment allowed employers to opt out of providing contraceptive coverage on moral grounds.
Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Vorrissey-Berru (2020) Upheld the termination of two teachers in Catholic elementary schools citing the First Amendment’s religious freedom clause.
Barr v. American Association of Political Consultants (2020) Struck down a provision in a robocall law that allowed the government to use robocalls to collect debt, saying it was an impermissible speech discrimination under the First Amendment.
Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue (2020) Ruled that states cannot create programs that exclude religious schools from programs that subsidize private schools with public money.
Agency for International Development v. Alliance for Open Society International, Inc. II (2020) Ruled that First Amendment speech protections did not apply to foreign organizations in affirming a law barring AIDS funding to organizations that refused to affirm certain beliefs
Kansas v. Boettger and Kansas v. Johnson (2020) Declined to hear an appeal of a Kansas State Supreme Court ruling that invalidated a statute criminalizing threats made with reckless disregard for the fear they causes
South Bay United Pentecostal Church v. Newsom (2020) Ruled that attendance limits on houses of worship during the COVID-19 pandemic did not violate First Amendment freedoms.
Jarchow v. State Bar of Wisconsin (2020) Declined to hear a First Amendment challenge to a requirement that attorneys pay dues to a state bar association in Wisconsin to support programs they disagreed with.
Archdiocese of Washington. v. Wash. Metro. Area Transit Authority (2020) Refused to hear an appeal of a case in which the Washington Metro Transit Authority refused to allow an ad from the Catholic Archdiocese on its bus because it contained religious content.
2010s
McKee v. Cosby (2019) Refused to review a defamation case against Bill Cosby by a woman who accused him of rape, but was ruled a limited purpose public figure who had to show actual malice.
Thompson v. Hebdon (2019) Vacated a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that had upheld campaign contribution limits in Alaska.
American Legion v. American Humanist Association (2019) Ruled that a longstanding cross erected to honor slain servicemen does not violate the First Amendment.
Iancu v. Brunetti (2019) Invalidated a provision of federal trademark law that prohibited “immoral or scandalous” marks. The Court viewed the provision as sanctioning viewpoint discrimination and also as substantially overbroad.
Manhattan Community Access Corporation v. Halleck (2019) Determined that “operation of public access channels on a cable system is not a traditional exclusive public forum.” A private corporation that oversees public access channels in Manhattan is not a state, or governmental actor, subject to First Amendment constraints.
Nieves v. Bartlett (2019) Ruled that most claims of arrest in retaliation for speech protected by the First Amendment would fail if there was probable cause for the arrest. However, the court held that there could be an exception if someone similarly situated who did not engage in protected speech was not arrested.
Murphy v. Collier (2019) Granted a stay of execution to a Texas prisoner who claimed prison rules denying him access to his Buddhist spiritual advisor violated the establishment clause of the First Amendment.
Dahne v. Richey (2019) Declined review of an appellate holding that a prisoner had a First Amendment-based right to use disrespectful language in a grievance.
National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v. Becerra (2018) Ruled that forcing pregnancy centers to tell patients about abortion services violated the First Amendment.
Lozman v. City of Riviera Beach, Florida (2018) Ruled that a man, who was arrested for comments he made at a public city council meeting about a recently arrested former county official, could proceed with a retaliatory arrest lawsuit.
Minnesota Voters Alliance v. Mansky (2018) A Minnesota law that prohibited wearing political apparel at polling places was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court as violating the First Amendment.
Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission (2018) The court used the principle of religious neutrality to overturn a decision penalizing a shop owner for refusing to design a cake for a same-sex wedding.
Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, Council 31 (2018) Ruled that an Illinois law allowing government employee unions to collect fees from non-members violates the First Amendment.
Digital Realty Trust, Inc. v. Somers (2018) Set the precedent that the Court will interpret whistleblower statutes strictly in accord with the definitions that individual whistleblower laws provide.
Packingham v. North Carolina (2017) Invalidated a state law prohibiting sex offenders from accessing social media. The court said the law barred First Amendment rights.
Matal v. Tam (2017) Ruled that a federal law prohibiting disparaging trademark names was unconstitutional under the First Amendment.
Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Inc. v. Comer (2017) Ruled that Missouri had improperly excluded a church from a grant, citing the free exercise clause.
Advocate Health Care Network v. Stapleton (2017) Church-related nonprofits argued they were exempt from ERISA pension rules under First Amendment church-state separation; the court said that the law exempted church-affiliated organizations.
Perez v. Florida (2017) Declined to review the conviction of a man who apparently stated, while drunk, that he could blow up a liquor store and the whole world.
Zubik v. Burwell (2016) Vacated judgments from four federal courts of appeals that found federal regulations requiring employers to provide contraception coverage to their employees did not violate non-profit religious organization-employers’ religious liberty rights under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 (RFRA).
Stormans, Inc. v. Wiesman (2016) Refused to hear an appeal by pharmacy owners who argued their First Amendment freedom was being violated through a state law that prohibited them from refusing to dispense the contraceptive pill Plan B.
Heffernan v. City of Paterson (2016) Overturned a federal district and federal appeals court decision to rule that an employer could be sued in a First Amendment retaliation action for violating an employee’s free-speech rights even though the employer was mistaken in thinking that the employee had exercised those rights.
American Freedom Defense Initiative v. King County (2016) A case which involved First Amendment implications of advertising on public transit systems was denied certiorari.
Department of Homeland Security v. MacLean (2015) Upheld a decision by an appellate court which decided that the Transportation Security Agency (TSA) had erred when it fired an air marshal because he had blown the whistle on its decision not to put marshals on flights that were under threat of hijacking.
Williams-Yulee v. Florida Bar (2015) Upheld a provision of the Florida Code of Judicial Conduct banning judicial candidates from personally soliciting funds.
Walker v. Texas Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans (2015) Ruled that the state of Texas could deny a specialty license plate to the Sons of the Confederate Veterans without violating the First Amendment.
Reed v. Town of Gilbert (2015) Invalidated a city ordinance that restricted the size of directional signs after a pastor challenged the law as violating the First Amendment.
Holt v. Hobbs (2015) Ruled that Arkansas prison officials violated the religious liberty rights of a Muslim inmate under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) by refusing to allow him to grow a short beard.
Elonis v. United States (2015) Reversed a trial court conviction of a man found guilty under a federal stalking statute on the grounds that the man was convicted under instructions that required only that the jury find that he communicated what a reasonable person would regard as a threat.
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Abercrombie & Fitch Stores, Inc. (2015) Ruled that an employer could be liable under civil rights law for refusing to hire an applicant to avoid accommodating a religious practice even though the potential employee had not informed the employer that she wore a headscarf because of her Muslim faith.
Susan B. Anthony List v. Driehaus (2014) Ruled that those who challenged the constitutionality of an Ohio law that criminalized the making of false statements during a campaign had standing to pursue their legal claims.
McCutcheon v. FEC (2014) Invalidated provisions of the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) and the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) that imposed aggregate, or total, limits on contributions to political candidates and other contributions to party committees.
United States v. Apel (2014) Upheld a military base commander’s authority to exclude a protestor from publicly accessible areas of the base after the protestor engaged in trespassing and vandalism.
Harris v. Quinn (2014) Refused to extend the precedent in Abood v. Detroit Board of Education (1977) and required personal care workers in Illinois to join a union against their will.
McCullen v. Coakley (2014) Ruled that a Massachusetts law prohibiting individuals from standing on a public sidewalk within 35 feet of an abortion facility was unconstitutional.
Wood v. Moss (2014) Decided that Secret Service agents were entitled to qualified immunity for moving protestors away from President George W. Bush.
Town of Greece v. Galloway (2014) Ruled that a New York town’s practice of having prayer before town meetings did not violate the Establishment Clause.
Lane v. Franks (2014) Ruled that the First Amendment protected a public employee who was terminated by his employer after he provided truthful court testimony pursuant to a subpoena.
Elmbrook School District v. Doe (2014) Denied certiorari in a case in which the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had found that a suburban Milwaukee school decision had violated the First Amendment’s establishment clause by holding a high school graduation in a nondenominational church.
Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. (2014) Ruled that the government could not require corporations to provide coverage for contraceptives that violated the owners’ religious beliefs.
Air Wisconsin Airlines Corp. v. Hoeper (2014) The court sought to clarify cases in which individuals might have immunity for reporting information that might otherwise be considered defamatory. In this case, a manager reported a pilot over concerns for their mental stability.
McBurney v. Young (2013) Ruled that Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which provided access to some public documents to Virginia citizens that it did not extend to others, did not violate the Privileges and Immunities Clause or the dormant Commerce Clause.
Clapper v. Amnesty International (2013) Rejected a First and 14th Amendment challenge to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, saying the petitioners lacked standing.
Agency for International Development v. Alliance for Open Society (2013) Ruled that barring funding for HIV/AIDS NGOs not explicitly opposed to certain sexual policies violated the First Amendment.
Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. v. Sebelius (2012) Denied an injunction against the federal government for implementing provisions in the Affordable Care Act, specifically in regards to contraceptives, saying the court could only issue such injunctions sparingly and when the rights were "indisputably clear."
Federal Communications Commission v. Fox Television Stations (2012) Ruled that an FCC decision to modify its indecency enforcement regime to include fleeting expletives was neither arbitrary or capricious and remanded the case to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
United States v. Alvarez (2012) Ruled that the Stolen Valor Act, a federal law that prohibited lying about receiving military medals, violated the First Amendment.
Reichle v. Howards (2012) The court held that two Secret Service agents were entitled to immunity for actions that they had taken in arresting Steven Howards, whom they had probable cause to detain under the Fourth Amendment even though there were allegations that they had made the arrest in retaliation for statements that might be protected by the First Amendment.
Knox v. Service Employees International Union (2012) Struck down a union’s imposition of special dues to oppose two referenda, which it applied to nonunion members under an agency-shop agreement. One of the referenda was designed to protect nonunion members’ First Amendment rights by exempting them from providing money for political advocacy.
Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC (2012) For the first time, the U.S. Supreme Court used “ministerial exception” as the basis for rejecting a Lutheran teacher’s suit alleging discrimination after the teacher was fired after returning from disability leave, saying that under the First Amendment the government could not award Perich without punishing the church.
Golan v. Holder (2012) Upheld U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder’s defense of a U.S. copyright law against challenges brought by orchestra conductors, musicians, publishers and others.
John Doe #1 v. Reed (2011) Decided not to issue an injunction to prevent disclosure of the names of individuals who had petitioned for an unsuccessful referendum to overturn a law that had provided benefits to gay partners.
Nevada Commission on Ethics v. Carrigan (2011) Determined that Nevada’s recusal provision did not violate a city council’s First Amendment free-speech rights because a legislator does not have a personal First Amendment right to vote.
Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v. Winn (2011) Ruled that state residents did not have standing as taxpayers to challenge a program that provided tax credits for contributions to school-tuition organizations.
Sorrell v. IMS Health (2011) Struck down Vermont’s Prescription Confidentiality Law, which restricted the disclosure, sale and use of pharmacy records that revealed the prescribing practices of individual doctors.
Utah Highway Patrol Association v. American Atheists, Inc. (2011) The court refused to hear an appeal from the Utah Highway Patrol Association, which had sponsored efforts to post white roadside crosses on the side of highways to memorialize slain police officers
Snyder v. Phelps (2011) Ruled that the First Amendment prohibited the imposition of civil liability upon a church and its members who picketed the funeral of a slain Marine.
Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association (2011) Ruled that a California law prohibiting the sale or rental of violent video games to minors violated the First Amendment.
Borough of Duryea v. Guarnieri (2011) Addressed the issue of speech and petition by public employees under the First Amendment, saying petitions should involve a public concern.
Arizona Free Enterprise Club's Freedom Club PAC v. Bennett (2011)
Invalidated a provision in the Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Act of 1998 that sought to reduce corruption in Arizona elections.
Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010)
In this controversial First Amendment case, the court invalidated a provision of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) that prohibited corporations and unions from using their general treasury funds for express advocacy or electioneering communications.
Ruled that the government could transfer land upon which a cross sat since 1934 to a private party without violating the Establishment Clause.
upheld a Washington state law that required the disclosure of referendum petition signers and ruled that such a law on its face does not violate the First Amendment.
Milavetz, Gallop & Milavetz, P.A. v. United States (2010)
Upheld provisions of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act that regulated what debt relief agencies could advise bankruptcy clients.
United States v. Stevens (2010)
Invalidated a federal law criminalizing the creation, distribution, or possession of images of animal cruelty as substantially overbroad.
The court declined to review an appeal filed by an Everett, Washington-based high school student, who alleged her free-speech rights were violated when school officials refused to allow band students to perform an instrumental version of “Ave Marie” at high school graduation.
Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project (2010)
Upheld a federal law that prohibited the providing of service, training, and “expert advice or assistance” to groups designed as foreign terrorist organizations.
Christian Legal Society v. Martinez (2010)
Upheld lower court decisions that allowed the law school at the University of California at Hastings to deny recognizing a chapter of the Christian Legal Society (CLS) as a “Registered Student Organization” (RSO).
2000s
Federal Communications Commission v. Fox (2009)
Determined that the FCC did not act arbitrarily and capriciously under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) by changing its policy with regard to fleeting expletives.
Pleasant Grove v. Summum (2009)
Determined that the city of Pleasant Grove, Utah could refuse to place a permanent monument in a public park, because permanent monuments are a form of government speech immune from First Amendment review.
Decided that a court reviewing a qualified immunity defense can rule on the issue by deciding that a right is not clearly established without first determining a constitutional violation
Ruled that a local union could charge nonmembers for national litigation expenses as long as the subject matter of the litigation is related to collective bargaining and the arrangement is reciprocal.
Davis v. Federal Election Commission (2008)
Struck down Section 319(A) of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, which said “when a candidate running for the U.S. House of Representatives spends $350,000 or more of the candidate’s own money, the opposing candidate would then be able to accept treble the amount from contributors.”
United States v. Williams (2008)
Upheld part of a federal child pornography law known as the Prosecutorial Remedies and Other Tools to end the Exploitation of Children Today Act of 2003, better known as the PROTECT Act, finding it was not in violation of the First Amendment right to free speech or expression.
Davenport v. Washington Education Association (2007)
Upheld a 1992 Washington campaign finance law requiring public sector unions representing nonunion employees in collective bargaining to obtain nonmembers’ affirmative consent before spending their service fees, known as “agency-shop” funds, for political purposes.
Morse v. Frederick (2007) Ruled that it is not a denial of the First Amendment right to free speech for public school officials to censor student speech that they reasonably believe encourages illegal drug use.
Hein v. Freedom from Religion Foundation (2007)
Ruled that taxpayers do not have the right to challenge executive branch expenditures on conferences designed to further faith-based initiatives. It thus cut off a potential means of challenging the constitutionality of such expenditures, which some believe violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
Federal Election Commission v. Wisconsin Right to Life, Inc. (2007)
Ruled that section 203 of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (BCRA) was a violation of the First Amendment as applied to certain forms of political speech.
Carey, Warden v. Musladin (2006)
Rejected an appeal by Mathew Musladin, who argued that his Sixth Amendment right to a fair trial for the alleged murder of Tom Studer had been violated by a trial court’s decision to allow Studer’s family members to wear to court buttons bearing the victim’s picture.
Ruled that plaintiffs alleging federal civil claims—in this case, violation of First Amendment expressive rights— for retaliatory prosecution must prove the absence of probable cause for the retaliation as an essential element of their claims.
Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Beneficente Uniao Do Vegetal (2006)
upheld the sacramental use of a hallucinogenic substance under the First Amendment free exercise clause.
Upheld restrictions imposed by the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections on inmates’ reading materials.
Rumsfeld v. Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights (2006)
Ruled that the First Amendment rights of institutions of higher education are not violated by a federal law that conditions federal funding on granting military recruiters the same access to campus as other employers.
Overturned spending and contribution limits in Vermont’s campaign finance statute, stating that such limits violated the First Amendment.
Scheidler v. National Organization for Women (2006)
Ruled that RICO laws could not be invoked to challenge abortion clinic protests, which were otherwise protected by the First Amendment freedom of speech. The case had been in the courts for almost two decades.
Upheld an Oklahoma law requiring semi-closed primaries for political parties.
Ruled that the provisions of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 (RLUIPA) did not violate the establishment clause of the First Amendment in allowing members of minority religions to challenge unequal accommodation of their religious practices.
Ruled that a monument depicting the Ten Commandments in an Austin, Texas, public park did not violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
McCreary County v. American Civil Liberties Union (2005)
Ruled that public displays of the Ten Commandments in two Kentucky county courthouses violated the establishment clause of the First Amendment.
Upheld the part of the Patriot Act that barred librarians from disclosing that the FBI had requested patron information.
City of San Diego v. Roe (2005)
Using the “public concern” test for free expression jurisprudence involving public employees, the court determined that a police department had not violated a policeman’s First Amendment rights in firing him for selling videos of himself committing sexual acts while in police uniform.
Vacated and remanded a decision by California courts that had issued a permanent injunction against Ulysses Tory and others who were picketing against famous lawyer Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. Tory claimed that the injunction infringed on his free speech rights under the First Amendment
Johanns v. Livestock Marketing Association (2005)
Rejected a First Amendment challenge advertising program that imposed mandatory contributions from beef producers to fund generic advertisements for beef; the Court based its decision on the government speech doctrine.
City of Littleton v. Z.J. Gifts D-4, L.L.C. (2004)
Upheld a Littleton, Colorado, adult business licensing ordinance against an adult bookstore that claimed the ordinance was facially overbroad.
Ruled that a scholarship program in Washington state that did not allow a student to use his publicly funded scholarship to major in theology did not violate his First Amendment rights of free exercise of religion or free speech.
Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow (2004)
The court said a father in Elk Grove, California could not sue to ban the pledge from his daughter's school and others because he did not have legal authority to speak for her.
Ruled that the policy of the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority (RRHA) barring nonresidents from a public housing community unless they could “demonstrate a legitimate business or social purpose for being on the premises” was not facially invalid under the First Amendment’s overbreadth doctrine.
Upheld certain prison non-contact visitation bans, reaffirming the principle that prison officials have broad discretion in disciplinary policies that may affect inmates’ First Amendment rights.
United States v. American Library Association (2003)
Ruled that the federal Children’s Internet Protection Act’s requirement that libraries install filtering software on computers, at the finding that the act does not violate a library patron’s First Amendment rights.
Upheld a Virginia statute making it illegal to burn a cross in public with the intent to intimidate others and invalidated a provision of the same law that allowed a jury to infer intent to intimidate from the act of burning a cross in public.
The court had agreed to hear Nike’s appeal that an ad campaign it released after backlash for allegations it used unfair labor practices was noncommercial speech. However, the case was abruptly dismissed and later settled out of court.
Denied a First Amendment challenge to the Copyright Term Extension Act, ruling that Congress did not exceed its authority in passing the CTEA.
Illinois ex rel. Madigan v. Telemarketing Associates, Inc.
Ruled that state efforts to pursue fraud charges against fundraisers and telemarketers for misrepresenting monies collected in fundraising campaigns did not violate the free speech clause of the First Amendment.
McConnell v. Federal Election Commission (2003)
Upheld the major provisions of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) of 2002 and rejected claims that the act stifled First Amendment rights of free speech and association.
Federal Election Commission v. Beaumont (2003)
Ruled that the First Amendment free speech and associational rights of nonprofit advocacy corporations are not violated by federal laws that bar corporations from making direct contributions to candidates for federal office.
Ashcroft v. American Civil Liberties Union (2002, 2004)
The court declined to hear an ACLU challenge to the 1998 Child Online Protection Act which made it a crime for commercial websites to knowingly place material that is "harmful to minors" within their unrestricted reach.
The court granted an appeal of an Arizona of a man who provided operational advice to gang members, citing First Amendment protection of free speech.
Republican Party of Minnesota v. White (2002)
Held that rules of judicial conduct limiting what judicial candidates could say during electoral campaigns violated the First Amendment.
Zelman v. Simmons-Harris (2002)
Ruled that publicly funded vouchers could be used to send children to religious schools, provided certain constitutional prerequisites were met.
Thomas v. Chicago Park District (2002)
Upheld a Chicago ordinance requiring individuals holding events in a public park involving more than 50 persons to obtain a permit, finding that the ordinance contained sufficient procedural safeguards to satisfy First Amendment scrutiny.
Watchtower Bible and Tract Society v. Village of Stratton (2002)
Struck down a Stratton, Ohio, ordinance making it a misdemeanor to canvass or solicit door-to-door without a permit.
BE and K Construction Co. v. National Labor Relations Board
Held that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) could not impose liability on an employer for filing a losing retaliatory lawsuit that was not objectively baseless.
Thompson v. Western States Medical Center (2002)
Ruled that a federal statutory prohibition on the advertisement or promotion of compounded drugs was an unconstitutional restriction of commercial speech.
Borgner v. Florida Board of Dentistry (2002)
Declined to review a federal appeals court decision that upheld a Florida law requiring dentists to include disclaimers when advertising specialties that are not recognized by the American Dental Association (ADA) or the Florida Board of Dentistry.
Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition (2002)
Struck down portions of the federal Child Pornography Prevention Act of 1996 that banned “virtual child pornography,” which the justices said was neither obscene nor actual child pornography as defined by previous decisions.
City of Los Angeles v. Alameda Books (2002)
Ruled that Los Angeles could rely on a six-year-old study on the negative impact of adult businesses to justify an ordinance prohibiting more than one adult business from operating under the same roof.
Ruled that the First Amendment protects speech that discloses the contents of an illegally intercepted communication.
Good News Club v. Milford Central School (2001)
Ruled that a school district cannot prohibit the First Amendment free speech rights of groups seeking access to a school district’s limited public forum.
Ruled that a prison inmate did not have a First Amendment right to assist another prisoner in legal matters.
Legal Services Corp. v. Velazquez (2001)
Ruled that the Omnibus Consolidated Rescissions and Appropriations Act of 1996 violated the First Amendment’s free speech clause because it was a viewpoint-based regulation of private speech, it interfered with the traditional role of lawyers, and it restricted the access of indigent persons to the resources of the legal system.
United States v. United Foods, Inc. (2001)
Ruled that mushroom producers could not be forced to subsidize generic advertising for mushrooms.
Lorillard Tobacco Co. v. Reilly (2001)
Decided the degree to which state restrictions on tobacco advertising had been preempted by the Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act (FCLAA) and the degree to which those that had not been preempted survived First Amendment scrutiny.
Federal Election Commission v. Colorado Republican Federal Campaign Committee (2001)
Upheld provisions of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 limiting direct contributions to candidates by political parties.
California Democratic Party v. Jones (2000)
Struck down a state law that changed California political primaries into open primaries.
Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe (2000)
Ruled that a school policy of beginning football games with a prayer led by a nominated student body representative violated the establishment clause of the First Amendment.
Rejected a longstanding establishment clause challenge to public funding of instructional resources for religious schools.
Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System v. Southworth (2000)
Upheld that a public university can charge students an activity fee to fund extracurricular student speech, provided the program is administered in a viewpoint neutral manner.
Nixon v. Shrink Missouri Government PAC (2000)
Ruled that Missouri’s political contribution limits did not infringe on the First Amendment guarantees of free speech and association and the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause.
United States v. Playboy Entertainment Group (2000)
Ruled that section 505 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 violated the First Amendment because it restricted speech based on content and there was a less speech-restrictive alternative available to protect minors from harmful material on cable television.
Boy Scouts of America v. Dale (2000)
Ruled that the Boy Scouts of America had the expressive association right to revoke the membership of an assistant scoutmaster after he publicly announced his sexual orientation by leading a gay group at Rutgers University.
Avis Rent-a-Car System v. Aguilar (2000)
Declined to review a ruling by the California Supreme Court allowing an injunction prohibiting an employee of Avis Rent-a-Car from uttering derogatory remarks about Latino co-employees.
City of Erie v. Pap's A.M. (2000)
Ruled that Erie, Pennsylvania, did not violate the First Amendment free speech rights of nude dancers when the city council enacted an ordinance banning public nudity.
Upheld a 1993 state statute regulating protestors outside health facilities because it did not regulate speech, but rather only regulated where some speech may occur.
1990s
Buckley v. American Constitutional Law Foundation (1999)
Struck down Colorado’s requirements that people circulating petitions to place items on the general ballot must be registered voters, wear identification tags with their names and addresses, and file monthly disclosures.
City of Chicago v. Morales (1999)
Ruled that a Chicago “gang loitering” ordinance that prohibited individuals whom police reasonably believed to be members of a “criminal street gang” from loitering in public with one or more persons, was unconstitutionally vague.
Ruled that the Fourth Amendment protection against unlawful search and seizures prohibited the police from bringing members of the news media into private homes while executing search warrants, but also found that the police officers involved were entitled to qualified immunity.
Los Angeles Police Department v. United Reporting
Rejected a facial challenge to a California law that prohibited the release of arrestees’ addresses for commercial purposes.
Greater New Orleans Broadcasting Association v. United States (1999)
Struck down 18 U.S.C. 1304, a federal law prohibiting broadcasting advertisements for gambling casinos, as a violation of the First Amendment.
National Endowment for the Arts v. Finley (1998)
Ruled that an amendment that required standards of decency and respect to be taken into consideration in funding decisions by the National Endowment of the Arts did not interfere with artists’ First Amendment rights to free speech.
Arkansas Educational Television Commission v. Forbes (1998)
Upheld a decision by the Arkansas Educational Television Commission to exclude Ralph P. Forbes, an independent candidate for Congress, from a televised debate.
Timmons v. Twin Cities Area New Party (1997)
Upheld a Minnesota law barring a candidate from one political party from appearing on the ballot as an endorsed candidate for another party.
Schenck v. Pro-Choice Network of Western New York (1997)
held that fixed buffer zones around abortion clinics are constitutional, but floating buffer zones are not because they are overbroad in affecting political speech.
City of Boerne v. Flores (1997)
Ruled that Congress did not have unlimited power to enact legislation to expand First Amendment free exercise rights through its enforcement powers in Section 5 of the 14th Amendment, the amendment through which the First Amendment is applied to the states.
Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union (1997)
Upheld provisions of the 1996 Communications Decency Act were an unconstitutional, content-based restriction of First Amendment free speech rights.
Ruled that New York did not violate the First Amendment’s establishment clause by administering a federally funded program in which public school teachers provided remedial instruction in private religious schools.
Glickman v. Wileman Brothers and Elliott, Inc. (1997)
Ruled that payment required by the secretary of agriculture from California tree fruit producers and handlers for the cost of the generic advertising of nectarines, plums, and peaches did not abridge their First Amendment freedom of speech.
City of Edmond v. Robinson (1996)
Refused certiorari and upheld a lower court ruling that the city seal of Edmond, Oklahoma, violated the establishment clause of the First Amendment because one quadrant of it contained a Latin, or Christian, cross.
O'Hare Truck Service v. City of Northlake (1996)
Ruled that government officials violate the First Amendment rights of free association and expression when they retaliate against an independent contractor for their political association.
Board of County Commissioners v. Umbehr (1996)
Ruled that ending a trash hauler’s county contract because of his criticism of the board violated his First Amendment freedoms.
44 Liquormart, Inc. v. Rhode Island (1996)
Struck down a Rhode Island state law prohibiting the advertising of alcohol prices.
Colorado Republican Federal Campaign Committee v. Federal Election Commission (1996)
Declared that uncoordinated and independent campaign spending limits, enacted by the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, were unconstitutional
Denver Area Educational Telecommunications Consortium v. Federal Communications Commission (1996)
Ruled on key elements of the Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act of 1992, regulating indecency on “leased access” and “public access” cable television channels.
Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board v. Pinette (1995)
Ruled that the Ku Klux Klan had the right to erect a cross next to a Christmas tree and a menorah on public property.
Rubin v. Coors Brewing Co. (1995)
Held that a federal ban on stating the alcoholic content on beer labels violated Coors’ First Amendment commercial speech rights.
United States v. National Treasury Employees Union (1995)
Ruled in favor of a government employees union that contended that a government act imposing on all government employees a prohibition on honoraria was a violation of First Amendment rights.
Rosenberger v. Rectors and Visitors of the University of Virginia (1995)
Ruled that a public university that funds student-run publications cannot engage in viewpoint discrimination by denying funding to select publications based on the particular views expressed in those publications.
Florida Bar v. Went for It, Inc. (1995)
Established that states may impose time limit bans on direct mail attorney solicitation letters to protect the privacy rights of victims and the reputation of the bar.
Hurley v. Irish-American Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Group of Boston
Established that the First Amendment free speech rights of private groups to define the parameters of their expressive conduct during a parade trumped the provisions of a state anti-discrimination law.
(1995)McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission (1995)
Ruled that an Ohio statute requiring identification of authors on all election- and issue-related publications violated the First Amendment by unduly restricting the ability of individuals to disseminate their views anonymously.
Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. v. Federal Communications
Determined that Sections 4 and 5 of the Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act of 1992 did not regulate the content of speech
City of Ladue v. Gilleo (1994)
Ruled that city officials could not flatly prohibit homeowners from displaying political signs on their own property.
Board of Education of Kiryas Joel Village School District v.
Ruled that a public school district created to accommodate the disabled children of a particular religious sect violated the establishment clause because the government cannot favor one religion over another.
Ruled that a public employer may fire an employee for speech that the employer reasonably believed was unprotected.
Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc. (1994)
Ruled that the rap group 2 Live Crew did not violate copyright law with the song “Pretty Woman,” a parody of the previously released “Oh, Pretty Woman.”
Ibanez v. Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation Board (1994)
Held that in cases involving commercial speech by professionals, the First Amendment takes precedence over deference to state regulatory agencies.
Madsen v. Women's Health Center, Inc. (1994)
Reversed an injunction in part and affirmed it in part, finding that the buffer zone on a public street excluding abortion protestors was constitutional, but several other provisions were not.
Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah (1993)
Determined that the Hialeah city government unconstitutionally targeted the Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye because of its use of animal sacrifice in religious ceremonies.
City of Cincinnati v. Discovery Network (1993)
Held that Cincinnati’s restrictions on the distribution of commercial flyers in news racks violated the First Amendment.
Lamb's Chapel v. Center Moriches Union Free School District (1993)
Held that religious meetings where religious films are shown can take place on public school property during nonschool hours.
El Vocero de Puerto Rico v. Puerto Rico (1993)
Affirmed that the ruling in Press-Enterprise Co. v. Superior Court of California (1986) forbidding mandatory closings of preliminary criminal hearings also applied in Puerto Rico.
Zobrest v. Catalina Foothills School District (1993)
Ruled that the establishment clause of the First Amendment did not prohibit a school district from furnishing a sign-language interpreter to a deaf student enrolled in a Catholic high school under provisions of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and its Arizona counterpart.
Ruled that there is a meaningful distinction between punishing the content of speech and using speech as evidence of motive in a crime.
Alexander v. United States (1993)
Rejected the claims of a petitioner convicted under obscenity and racketeering laws that his First Amendment free expression rights had been violated.
Held that direct, personal, uninvited solicitation to obtain clients was within the First Amendment rights of certified public accountants (CPAs).
United States v. Edge Broadcasting Co. (1993)
Upheld a federal law prohibiting the broadcasting of advertisements for state-run lotteries by broadcasters in nonlottery states.
Bray v. Alexandria Women's Health Clinic (1993)
Ruled that abortion protesters’ actions did not constitute a conspiracy against a protected class and therefore did not violate the Civil Rights Act of 1871.
Struck down an Illinois law that required a minor political party to obtain 25,000 signatures to appear on the ballot for the first time, finding it in violation of the First Amendment right of association.
Upheld a Tennessee law that provided for a 100-foot “campaign free zone” around the entrance to polling places. It is one of the few cases in which a law limiting speech successfully survived strict scrutiny.
Upheld Hawaii’s ban on write-in voting, deciding that the state possessed important regulatory interests for the ban; the court also ruled that such bans do not violate voters’ First Amendment rights of free expression and political association.
Prohibited prayer at public school-sponsored events.
Lee v. International Society for Krishna Consciousness (1992)
Ruled that banning the distribution of literature in airport terminals violates the First Amendment.
Forsyth County, Georgia v. Nationalist Movement (1992)
Established limits for city permitting schemes by ruling that a county’s ordinance violated the First Amendment.
Struck down a city ordinance that made it a crime to place a burning cross or swastika anywhere “in an attempt to arouse anger or alarm on the basis of race, color, creed, or religion.” The Court’s decision, citing violation of the First Amendment, overturned a cross-burning conviction.
International Society for Krishna Consciousness v. Lee (1992)
Held that a regulation prohibiting solicitation of funds in an airport was constitutional.
Ruled that the First Amendment limits the introduction of evidence of a criminal defendant’s beliefs during sentencing when those beliefs have no bearing on the issue being tried.
Ruled that the Secret Service officers were entitled to qualified immunity in their actions because they had acted on sufficient probable cause when they arrested a man they believed was a threat to President Ronald Reagan.
Ruled that exempting newspaper and magazine sales from an Arkansas tax on sales of services did not violate the First Amendment.
Cohen v. Cowles Media Co. (1991)
Ruled that the media could be sued for breach of contract for divulging the identity of a confidential source.
Lehnert v. Ferris Faculty Association (1991)
Created and developed a three-part test to determine which activities a union could charge to nonunion members.
Masson v. New Yorker Magazine (1991)
Ruled that deliberately altering an interviewee’s words yet placing them in quotation marks did not constitute libel under the standards articulated in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964) and Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc. (1974), unless the alterations resulted in a material change in the meaning conveyed by the statement.
Simon and Schuster v. Members of the New York State Crime Victims Board (1991)Rust v. Sullivan (1991)
Determined that the state of New York’s “Son of Sam” laws, which prohibit criminals from profiting from writings or shows about their crimes, were a violation of free speech under the First Amendment.
Gentile v. State Bar of Nevada (1991)
Struck down Nevada’s judicially imposed limits on attorney speech as too vague while also upholding the constitutionality of some restrictions on attorney speech.
Barnes v. Glen Theatre, Inc. (1991)
Ruled that the state of Indiana could regulate totally nude dancing without violating the First Amendment, even though such performance dancing constituted expressive conduct.
University of Pennsylvania v. EEOC (1990)
Held that the First Amendment does not allow the right of colleges and universities to keep tenure review documents confidential.
Jimmy Swaggart Ministries v. Board of Equalization of California (1990)
Ruled that California could impose the same taxes on the sales of a minister as it could for other retailers without violating the free exercise or establishment clauses of the First Amendment.
FW/PBS, Inc. v. City of Dallas (1990)
Ruled that a Dallas licensing scheme regulating sexually-oriented businesses imposed a prior restraint that lacked adequate procedural safeguards as required by the decision in Freedman v. Maryland (1965).
Board of Education of the Westside Community Schools v. Mergens (1990)
Upheld the constitutionality of the Equal Access Act of 1984, a federal law prohibiting school officials from discriminating against student clubs because of their religious or philosophical views.
Rutan v. Republican Party of Illinois (1990)United States v. Kokinda (1990)
Extended the First Amendment rights of public employees to protect them from patronage practices that adversely impacted their employment.
Milkovich v. Lorain Journal Co. (1990)
Ruled that opinions can be defamatory and that no broad constitutional shield for the expression of defamatory opinions is appropriate.
Employment Division, Department of Human Resources of Oregon v. Smith (1990)
Changed religious free exercise law dramatically by ruling that generally applicable laws not targeting specific religious practices do not violate the free exercise clause of the First Amendment.
Ruled that states may not prohibit grand jury witnesses from disclosing their testimony after the grand jury term has expired.
United States v. Eichman (1990)
Struck down the Flag Protection Act of 1989 on First Amendment grounds, reaffirming its holding in Texas v. Johnson (1989), which invalidated a Texas flag desecration statute.
Reversed and remanded the conviction of Clarence Osborne for the private possession of “child pornography,” but established that the First Amendment right to free speech did not forbid states from enforcing laws against private possession of such material.
Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce (1990)
Upheld a Michigan law prohibiting nonprofit corporations from using general treasury fund revenues for independent candidate expenditures in state elections.
Metro Broadcasting, Inc. v. Federal Communications Commission (1990)
Upheld the power of Congress to pass affirmative action policies favoring African Americans and other minorities in broadcast licensing in order to promote programming diversity.
Keller v. State Bar of California (1990)
Ruled that California’s state bar program could use members’ compulsory fees to support political causes with which members disagreed.
Peel v. Attorney Disciplinary Commission of Illinois (1990)
Determined that Illinois could not censure an attorney for truthfully stating that he was certified as a trial specialist by the National Board of Trial Advocacy.
Federal Trade Commission v. Superior Court Trial Lawyers Association (1990)
Ruled that the First Amendment freedom of speech clause does not extend to private lawyers boycotting an established practice of supplying the government with reduced-price legal services in order to increase their profits.
Hirsh v. City of Atlanta (1990)
Denied an application by the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue to stay an injunction issued by a Georgia court prohibiting its members from demonstrating within 50 feet of an abortion clinic and imposing further restrictions upon them.
1980s
Webster v. Reproductive Health Services (1989)
Upheld several provisions of a Missouri law that regulated the performance of abortion but refused to invalidate the law’s preamble stating that life begins at conception.
Department of Justice v. Reporters Committee For Freedom of the Press (1989)
Ruled that the press does not have special access to crime records that are not available to the general public.
Eu v. San Francisco County Democratic Central Committee (1989)
Held that California’s extensive regulation of the internal operations of political parties violated their members’ First Amendment rights of free speech and association.
Texas Monthly, Inc. v. Bullock (1989)
Found that a Texas state law constituted a state endorsement of religion in violation of the establishment clause of the First Amendment.
Hernandez v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue (1989)
Prevented individuals from deducting monies used for religious “auditing” and “training” sessions from taxable income.
Frazee v. Illinois Department of Employment Security (1989)
Established that a worker could not be denied unemployment for refusing to work on Sunday for religious reasons.
County of Allegheny v. American Civil Liberties Union (1989)
Ruled that a creche display inside a county courthouse in Pittsburgh violated the establishment clause, but another display containing a menorah, a Christmas tree, and other decorations outside the City-County Building a block from the courthouse did not.
Sable Communications of California v. Federal Communications Commission (1989)
Established the principle that indecent speech for adults is entitled to First Amendment protection.
Ruled that the First Amendment precluded a newspaper from being held civilly liable under state tort law for publishing the name of a rape victim.
Harte-Hanks Communications v. Connaughton (1989)
Ruled that public figures can establish a claim for libel by showing that a publisher acted with “reckless disregard” as to the truth or falsity of a statement.
Ruled that federal prison restrictions relative to incoming publications or letters did not violate the First Amendment right to free speech.
Vacated and remanded a decision by the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts overturning a conviction under a state law that criminalized photographing a child younger than age 18 years in a state of nudity.
Ward v. Rock against Racism (1989)
Ruled that New York City officials could control the volume of amplified music at rock concerts in Central Park without violating the First Amendment.
Struck down a Texas flag desecration law that criminalized flag burning.
Board of Trustees of State University of New York v. Fox (1989)
Determined that a state regulation prohibiting private commercial activity in the state university’s facilities was “‘narrowly tailored’ to serve a significant governmental interest” and thus valid under the First Amendment.
City of Dallas v. Stanglin (1989)
Determined that social dancing is not a form of association or expression protected by the First Amendment.
City of Lakewood v. Plain Dealer Publishing Co. (1988)
Ruled that a Ohio city licensing ordinance violated the First Amendment in giving city officials total discretion over the placement of news racks on public property.
Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier (1988)
Held that schools may restrict what is published in student newspapers if the papers have not been established as public forums as well as deciding that schools could limit students’ first amendment rights.
Hustler Magazine v. Falwell (1988)
Reversed a lower court’s judgment for intentional infliction of emotional distress against a publisher, noting that the First Amendment protects publishers’ free speech and press rights from such claims made by public figures regarding materials that are clearly labeled as parodies.
Upheld a Wisconsin city ordinance that banned picketing in residential neighborhoods.
Ruled that a District of Columbia law violated the First Amendment by banning the display of signs criticizing a foreign government outside that government’s embassy.
Invalidated a provision of a Colorado statute that made it a felony to pay persons to circulate petitions calling for the inclusion of initiatives on state ballots.
Virginia v. American Booksellers Association (1988)
Lyng v. Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective Association (1988)
Ruled that the free exercise clause of the First Amendment does not prohibit the federal government from timber harvesting or constructing a road through a portion of a national forest that is considered a sacred religious site by three Native American tribes.
Riley v. National Federation of the Blind (1988)
Held that the government must meet a high standard before enacting regulations that affect the speech of professional fund-raisers and charities.
Shapero v. Kentucky Bar Association (1988)
Struck down a rule prohibiting lawyers from sending truthful, nondeceptive solicitation letters to potential clients, as a violation of the First Amendment.
Lyng v. International Union, UAW (1988)
Ruled that a provision of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981 limiting food stamps for individuals with family members who were on strike did not violate either the First Amendment rights of association or expression or the equal protection component of the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment.
New York State Club Association, Inc. v. City of New York (1988)
Upheld a New York City ordinance prohibiting discrimination against persons on the basis of race, color, national origin, or sex in places of public accommodation was constitutional.
Arkansas Writers' Project, Inc. v. Ragland (1987)
Declared an Arkansas law exempting newspapers as well as religious, professional, trade and sports journals and/or publications printed and published within the state, but not general interest magazines, from the state’s 4 percent sales tax as unconstitutional.
Hobbie v. Unemployment Appeals Commission of Florida (1987)
Invalidated a lower court ruling which denied unemployment benefits to an individual on the grounds that it violated the First Amendment’s free exercise clause.
Ruled that a Texas constable violated the First Amendment rights of a clerical employee when he dismissed her for an intemperate remark she made about President Ronald Reagan during a personal conversation in the workplace.
Determined that restrictions on inmates’ constitutional rights, including those of the First Amendment, were subject to a rational basis standard of review, stressing that courts should show deference to prison officials in the management of their facilities.
O'Lone v. Estate of Shabazz (1987)
Ruled that inmate religious rights may be restricted for security concerns; the policies were not in violation of the free exercise clause of the First Amendment.
Board of Airport Commissioners of the City of Los Angeles v. Jews for Jesus, Inc. (1987)
Struck down a resolution adopted by the Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners that proclaimed that “the Central Terminal Area at Los Angeles International Airport is not open for First Amendment activities by any individual and/or entity.”
Ruled that in applying the third, or value question, prong of the three-part obscenity test articulated in Miller v. California (1973) to a prosecution for the sale of allegedly obscene materials, the proper standard of review is whether a reasonable person would consider that the work “taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.”
Affirmed the federal government’s authority to classify, and to regulate the dissemination of, foreign political films.
City of Houston v. Hill (1987)
Found a Houston city ordinance prohibiting verbal abuse of police officers to be unconstitutionally overbroad and a criminalization of protected speech.
Ruled that a Louisiana law mandating instruction in “creation science” whenever evolution was taught in public schools violated the establishment clause of the First Amendment.
San Francisco Arts and Athletics v. U.S. Olympic Committee (1987)
Ruled that San Francisco Arts and Athletics (SFAA) did not have a First Amendment right to use the word Olympics to promote the Gay Olympics Games.
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. v. Public Utilities Commission (1987)
Established the right of a corporation as a publisher to refuse to print messages with which it does not agree.
Board of Directors of Rotary International v. Rotary Club of Duarte (1987)
Upheld a lower court judgment that Rotary International did not have the First Amendment right to exclude women from joining its ranks.
Upheld an exemption from anti-discrimination provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 for the nonprofit activities of religious organizations, not just their religious ones.
City of Los Angeles v. Preferred Communications (1986)
Dismissed Los Angeles’s refusal to consider a First Amendment claim that the city was obligated to grant Preferred Communications a cable franchise and access to poles and lines used by the Department of Water and Power.
City of Newport v. Iacobucci (1986)
Affirmed the power of local government to ban nudity in establishments serving alcohol.
Tashjian v. Republican Party of Connecticut (1986)
Addressed the freedom of political parties to associate with independent voters by deciding that states cannot impose a closed primary system because it denies the political party its right under the First and 14th Amendments to enter into political association with individuals of its own choosing.
Munro v. Socialist Workers Party (1986)
Reversed a lower court ruling that overturned a statute which required a minor party candidate receive at least 1 percent of votes cast in the state primary, holding that the statute did not violate First Amendment freedoms.
Ruled that the federal government did not violate the free exercise clause of the First Amendment by assigning a Social Security number for welfare benefits.
Ansonia Board of Education v. Philbrook (1986)
Ruled that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 did not require an employer to accept an employee’s proposal concerning religious observance when the employer and the employee both proposed reasonable accommodation of the employee’s religious needs.
Chicago Teachers Union v. Hudson (1986)
Ruled that a set of union procedures created for nonmembers to object to due collection were insufficient in protecting the freedom of association clause
Bethel School District No. 403 v. Fraser (1986)
Put forth the principle that public school officials can prohibit student speech that is vulgar, lewd, or plainly offensive.
Bender v. Williamsport Area School District (1986)
Highlighted the importance of the doctrine of standing for anyone wishing to challenge perceived violations of the First Amendment. The Court ruled that the respondent in the appeal, a member of the local school board, had “no standing to appeal in his individual capacity.”
Philadelphia Newspapers, Inc. v. Hepps (1986)
Expanded the constitutional protections enunciated in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964) to require even private-figure defamation plaintiffs to bear the burden of proving falsity in cases involving speech on matters of public concern and media defendants.
Anderson v. Liberty Lobby (1986)
Decided if courts could proceed with actual malice libel cases.
Witters v. Washington Department of Services for the Blind (1986 )
Upheld the constitutionality of a state vocational rehabilitation program in which the money provided was used to finance education at a sectarian school.
Arcara v. Cloud Books, Inc. (1986)Goldman v. Weinberger
Upheld the application of a New York public health law to close an adult bookstore on the premises of which illegal sexual activity was taking place.
Posadas de Puerto Rico Associates v. Tourism Company of Puerto Rico (1986)
Upheld a Puerto Rican law which prohibited advertisements for newly legalized casinos, but has been repudiated in decisions since.
Federal Election Commission v. Massachusetts Citizens for Life (1986)
Found that while a publication by an anti-abortion rights group encouraging people to vote ”pro-life” violated the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA), application of that federal statute to the MCFL violated the First Amendment.
City of Renton v. Playtime Theatres, Inc. (1986)
Ruled that a zoning ordinance aimed at controlling the undesirable “secondary effects” of adult or sexually oriented establishments could be considered a content-neutral, reasonable time, place, and manner restriction of expression.
Board of Education of Oklahoma City v. National Gay Task Force (1985)
Upheld a tenth circuit court’s decision to strike down an Oklahoma law designed to punish state teachers who participated in “public homosexual conduct,” defined to include advocacy of homosexual activity.
Tony and Susan Alamo Foundation v. Secretary of Labor (1985)
Ruled that “minimum wage, overtime, and recordkeeping requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act” (FLSA) applied to workers “engaged in the commercial activities of a religious foundation” even if they did not consider themselves to be employees.
Affirmed a decision by the ninth circuit upholding the government’s passive enforcement policy, whereby it initially only prosecuted individuals who either reported themselves or were reported by others for not registering for selective service.
Ruled that the government could not single out religious observers for special treatment when it found a Connecticut law that gave employees an absolute right not to work on their chosen Sabbath in violation of the establishment clause of the First Amendment.
Board of Trustees of Scarsdale v. McCreary (1985)
Affirmed a decision by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals holding that a Christmas display on public property did not violate the establishment clause.
Struck down a “one minute period of silence” that the Alabama legislature prescribed for its public schools at the start of each day.
Cornelius v. NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (1985)
Ruled that a policy excluding advocacy organizations from participating in a program that solicited contributions from federal employees did not violate the First Amendment.
Dun and Bradstreet, Inc. v. Greenmoss Builders, Inc. (1985)
Ruled that nonmedia distributors of information, such as credit agencies, do not enjoy First Amendment protections as defendants in libel lawsuits.
Lowe v. Securities and Exchange Commission (1985)
Reversed a decision by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals and holding that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) could not, under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, restrain the publication of a periodical containing investment advice simply because its authors were not registered as investment advisors under the 1940 law.
Ruled that the petition clause of the First Amendment, which guarantees Americans the right to petition the government for redress of grievances, does not endow individuals with absolute immunity from charges of slander and libel.
Grand Rapids School District v. Ball (1985)
Struck down two government education programs that employed parochial school teachers and facilities.
Ruled that the City of New York had violated the establishment clause of the First Amendment by paying public school teachers to teach reading, reading skills, and remedial mathematics to educationally disadvantaged, low-income students in the city’s parochial schools with funds allotted under Title I of the Elementary and Secondary School Act of 1965.
Brockett v. Spokane Arcades, Inc. (1985)
Gave communities broad authority to use zoning to limit adult movie theaters to isolated areas or scatter them around the city.
United States v. Albertini (1985)
Ruled that a man could be convicted under federal law for entering a military base during an open house event because he had been barred from reentering the base years earlier.
Harper and Row v. Nation Enterprises (1985)
Ruled that a prepublication of approximately 300 words of an excerpt from President Gerald Ford’s memoir, A Time to Heal, was not an example of “fair use” but a copyright infringement.
Federal Election Commission v. National Conservative PAC (1985)
Ruled that a part of the Presidential Election Campaign Fund Act was unconstitutional for prohibiting independent political action committee expenditures over $1,000 on behalf of candidates who had accepted public financing for their campaign.
Zauderer v. Office of Disciplinary Counsel of the Supreme Court of Ohio (1985)
Struck down most, but not all, of Ohio’s restrictions on advertising by attorneys.
Press-Enterprise Co. v. Superior Court of California (1984, 1986)
Further established a presumptive public right under the First Amendment to attend criminal trial and pretrial proceedings.
Seattle Times Co. v. Rhinehart (1984)
Ruled that a protective order prohibiting the publication of information gained by a newspaper through discovery in a civil lawsuit did not violate the First Amendment.
Hishon v. King & Spalding (1984)
Upheld a decision by the Eleventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and held that a law firm was subject to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in deciding whether to promote an associate to partner.
City Council of Los Angeles v. Taxpayers for Vincent (1984)
Upheld a city ordinance prohibiting the posting of signs, including for political candidates, on utility poles, cross wires, and other structures on public property.
Upheld the constitutionality of a seasonal holiday display that included a manger scene, or creche, on government property, finding that it was not in violation of the establishment clause of the First Amendment.
Clark v. Community for Creative Non-Violence (1984)
Ruled that a National Park Service regulation prohibiting camping in national parks in places other than designated campgrounds did not violate the First Amendment even when camping was a form of symbolic speech.
Minnesota Board for Community Colleges v. Knight (1984)
Upheld a provision of the Minnesota Public Employment Labor Relations Act that restricted colleges from listening to any but designated faculty representatives at its bargaining sessions.
Ellis v. Brotherhood of Railway, Airline and Steamship Clerks (1984)
Held that a rebate scheme for nonunion members who objected to a union’s collection of dues was constitutionally inadequate in protecting the First Amendment rights of those nonunion members to refrain from supporting views and activities with which they disagreed.
Bose Corp. v. Consumers Union of United States, Inc. (1984)
Ruled that federal appeals courts hearing defamation or libel cases must conduct “independent appellate review” to determine whether the evidence proves actual malice under New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964), regardless of the deference appellate judges usually accord trial courts in evaluating testimony and witness credibility.
Struck down a provision of a federal counterfeiting law limiting illustrations to certain specified purposes on the ground that it failed part of the reasonable time, place, and manner restriction requirements for regulating speech.
Secretary of State of Maryland v. Joseph H. Munson Co., Inc.
Ruled that a Maryland statute regulating charitable fundraising violated solicitation activity protected by the First Amendment’s right to free speech
Federal Communications Commission v. League of Women Voters of California (1984)
Ruled that a section of the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 which barred noncommercial educational broadcasting stations receiving grants from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (a private, nonprofit created by Congress in 1967) from editorializing, was unconstitutional
Roberts v. United States Jaycees (1984)
Held that Jaycees chapters, an organization for young business leaders, lacked “distinctive characteristics that might afford constitutional protection to the decision of its members to exclude women.”
Struck down state laws that imposed early filing requirements for independent presidential candidates who wished to appear on the general election ballot.
Bolger v. Youngs Drug Products Corp. (1983)
Declared a federal regulation prohibiting the mailing of unsolicited advertisements for contraceptives as unconstitutional.
Regan v. Taxation With Representation of Washington (1983)
Rejected a First Amendment challenge to the provision in the federal tax code that denied tax-exempt status for substantial lobbying activities.
Upheld the validity of a law allowing tax deductions for tuition and other school expenses disproportionately benefiting parents whose children attend parochial schools.
Minneapolis Star and Tribune Co. v. Minnesota Commissioner of Revenue (1983)
Ruled that a “use tax” on the cost of paper and ink products used by periodic publications in excess of $100,000 a year violated the freedom of the press as protected by the First and 14th Amendments by singling out the press and targeting a small group of newspapers.
Bill Johnson's Restaurants, Inc. v. National Labor Relations Board (1983)
Vacated and remanded a decision by the National Labor Relation Board that had halted the prosecution of a state court libel suit.
Ruled that the First Amendment protects protests on sidewalks outside the Supreme Court building.
Perry Education Association v. Perry Local Educators' Association (1983)
Ruled that a teacher’s union could negotiate an agreement for exclusive rights to the interschool’s mail system.
Ruled that an assistant district attorney’s dismissal from a law firm for comments regarding how the office was run did not violate her First Amendment rights.
Ruled that the longstanding practice by which Nebraska hired a chaplain to open each legislative day with prayer did not violate the establishment clause of the First Amendment.
Bob Jones University v. United States (1983)
Ruled that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) may deny tax-exempt status to institutions whose policies are “contrary to established public policy,” even if those policies are based on religious beliefs.
NAACP v. Claiborne Hardware Co. (1982)
Ruled that an economic boycott constitutes a form of constitutionally protected expression akin to traditional means of communication, such as speaking and writing, even if violence is threatened as a means of achieving group goals.
Struck down a Kentucky court’s decision invalidating the election of a county commissioner under a provision of Kentucky’s Corrupt Practices Act, which prohibited candidates from offering benefits in exchange for votes.
Ruled that religious beliefs do not preclude employers from the duty of contributing Social Security benefits on behalf of their employees.
United Steelworkers of America v. Sadlowski (1982)
Found that a rule which precluded candidates for a union office from accepting outside contributions imposed “reasonable” restrictions, although acknowledging that it interfered with some First Amendment rights.
Larkin v. Grendel's Den, Inc. (1982)
Struck down a Massachusetts law permitting churches to veto applications for liquor licenses, finding that the establishment clause of the First Amendment forbids a state from delegating its power to a religious organization.
Valley Forge Christian College v. Americans United for Separation of Church and State (1982)
Ruled that Americans United did not have standing to challenge the government’s transfer of property to a religious educational institution.
Globe Newspaper Co. v. Superior Court (1982)
Established that the First Amendment guarantees the “presumptive” right of the public and press to attend criminal trial proceedings.
Ruled that religious beliefs do not preclude employers from the duty of contributing Social Security benefits on behalf of their employees.
Ruled that the First Amendment does not protect child pornography.
Village of Hoffman Estates v. Flipside (1982)
Upheld a village ordinance regulating the sale of drug paraphernalia against charges by a business (Flipside) that it was unconstitutionally vague and overbroad.
Ruled that a Minnesota statute treating religious organizations differently based upon the percentage of contributions the organizations received from their members violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
Federal Election Commission v. National Right to Work
Approved limits on the ability of corporations or labor organizations to solicit political action committee (PAC) contributions.
Brown v. Socialist Workers Campaign Committee (1982)
Ruled that the First Amendment right of association prohibits states from compelling minor political parties to disclose the names of contributors and recipients of disbursements when there is a reasonable probability that those persons will be subject to threats, harassment, or reprisals.
Board of Education, Island Trees Union Free School District v. Pico (1982)
Ruled that public school officials could not use their discretion to remove books from a school library.
Ruled that a Missouri ethics rule restricting advertising by lawyers was unconstitutional under the First Amendment.
Democratic Party of United States v. Wisconsin ex rel. LaFollette (1981)
Ruled that state laws attempting to dictate how delegates vote at national party conventions violate the associational rights of political parties.
United States Postal Service v. Greenburgh Civic Associations (1981)
Upheld the constitutionality of a statute that prohibited the deposit of unstamped “mailable matter” in a mailbox approved by the United States Postal Service.
Metromedia, Inc. v. City of San Diego (1981)
Invalidated a San Diego ordinance that generally prohibited “outdoor advertising display signs.” The Court’s reasoning was that the city law regulating billboards reached “too far into the realm of protected speech.”
Thomas v. Review Board of Indiana Employment Security Division (1981)
Ruled that Indiana could not deny unemployment benefits to an individual who quit his job due to a religious objection.
Ruled that the executive branch’s power to revoke passports in matters of national security is a matter of discretionary authority to which the courts should defer, even in cases where individuals might be claiming that their right to travel was tied to their exercise of First Amendment freedoms.
New York State Liquor Authority v. Bellanca (1981)
Upheld the power of states to ban nude dancing in businesses where alcohol is sold, finding that it was not a violation of the First Amendment’s right to free speech.
Struck down a regulation that the University of Missouri at Kansas City adopted in 1977 prohibiting the use of its buildings and grounds for religious purposes.
Heffron v. International Society for Krishna Consciousness
Upheld a content neutral time, place, and manner regulation that placed restrictions on the religious practices of the Krishna sect against allegations that it restricted the First Amendment exercise of religion.
Ruled that the Constitution does not prevent states from allowing broadcast coverage of criminal trials.
Citizens Against Rent Control v. Berkeley (1981)
Rejected a Berkeley, California, statute limiting individuals’ contributions to groups opposing or supporting ballot initiatives to no more than $250 on the grounds that it violated the right of expression and association.
CBS, Inc. v. Federal Communications Commission (1981)
Ruled that the First Amendment rights of political candidates and the public outweigh the First Amendment rights of broadcasters in their obligation to provide federal candidates “reasonable access” for political advertising.
Ruled that a municipality cannot impose a complete ban on live entertainment, including non-obscene nude dancing.
Ruled that a Kentucky law that required the posting of the Ten Commandments on the wall of every public school classroom in the state violated the establishment clause of the First Amendment because the purpose of the display was essentially religious.
Established that government employment agreements requiring employees to submit their publications for prior review do not violate public employees’ free expression rights.
Ruled that the First and 14th Amendments protect government workers from dismissal based solely on their political beliefs.
PruneYard Shopping Center v. Robins (1980)
Ruled that California could interpret its state constitution to protect political protesters from being evicted from private property, held open to the public, without running afoul of the Fifth Amendment.
Richmond Newspapers, Inc. v. Virginia (1980)
Ruled that the First Amendment generally prohibits closing criminal trial proceedings to the public.
Struck down an Illinois statute barring picketing of residences, except in cases of peaceful picketing of homes doubling as places of employment.
Committee for Public Education and Religious Liberty v. Regan (1980)
Ruled that a New York statute allocating funds to reimburse religious as well as secular private schools for testing and other services mandated by state law did not violate the establishment clause of the First Amendment.
Vance v. Universal Amusement Co., Inc. (1980)
Found that an injunction issued by Texas under its public nuisance statute against the King Arts Theatre, Inc., an adult entertainment establishment, was unconstitutional prior restraint in violation of the First Amendment.
Secretary of the Navy v. Huff (1980)
Upheld a regulation requiring members of the armed services to obtain a commander’s approval before circulating petitions or leaflets.
Ruled that persons serving in the military have the right to petition Congress via single-signature letters but may not circulate petitions to Congress without prior approval from a base commander.
Consolidated Edison Co. v. Public Service Commission (1980)
Ruled that the First Amendment protects a government-regulated utility’s expression of opinion on issues of public policy through inserts in customer billing statements.
Central Hudson Gas and Electric Corp. v. Public Service Commission (1980)
Established a four-part test for determining when commercial speech can be regulated without violating the Constitution.
Schaumburg v. Citizens for a Better Environment (1980)
Held that an ordinance barring organizations from soliciting within city limits unless they used 75 percent of their receipts for charitable purposes violated the First Amendment.
1970s
Illinois State Board of Elections v. Socialist Workers Party (1979)
Struck down an Illinois law requiring independent candidates and new political parties to obtain more petition signatures to qualify for the Chicago ballot than for a statewide office.
Smith v. Arkansas State Highway Employees (1979)
Reversed two lower courts in declaring that the Arkansas State Highway Commission had the right to require employees to submit grievances directly to it rather than through a union representative.
Wolston v. Reader's Digest Association (1979)
Ruled that Ilya Wolston, who was accused of being a Soviet agent in the book The Secret Work of Soviet Secret Agents, did not have to prove ‘actual malice’ to win a libel claim.
Givhan v. Western Line Consolidated School District (1979)
Established the principle that public employees do not forfeit First Amendment protection simply because they communicate on matters of public concern privately to a superior.
Ruled that neither the speech or debate clause nor the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech protects members of Congress against libel for statements that they make outside Congress.
Held that there is no protection under the free speech and press provisions of the First Amendment shielding the editorial process used for new stories when the stories provoke libel charges.
Ruled that a New York prison's restriction against pretrial detainees’' receiving hardcover books did not violate the First Amendment as it was neutrally applied.
Gannett Co. v. DePasquale (1979)
Ruled that the Sixth Amendment right to a “public trial” belongs to the defendant in a criminal case and does not guarantee the public or the press access to pretrial hearings or even to trials.
United States v. Progressive Inc. (W.D. Wis.) (1979)
Invoked the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 to prevent the publication in The Progressive magazine of an article by freelance writer Howard Morland titled “The H-Bomb Secret: To Know How Is to Ask Why.”
Smith v. Daily Mail Publishing Co. (1979)
Struck down a West Virginia statute making it a crime for a newspaper to publish the name of a juvenile offender without a written order from the court.
Lo-Ji Sales, Inc. v. New York (1979)
Reversed the obscenity convictions of a New York business, finding that the search and seizure of the adult business violated the First Amendment freedoms of speech and press and the Fourth Amendment protections for search warrants and resembled the infamous general warrant/writs of assistance of the eighteenth century.
Upheld a Texas law that prohibited optometrists from advertising under a trade name.
Decided that, under the religion clauses of the First Amendment, a state could resolve disputes over church property between two groups by applying neutral principles of law rather than relying on compulsory deference to religious authority but remanded it to the lower courts.
Federal Communications Commission v. Midwest Video Corp. (1979)
Ruled that prohibiting cable television operators from being required to act as “common carriers” was itself designed to promote the journalistic freedom of cable station owners.
Ruled that the First Amendment limits the ability of state authorities to sanction attorneys for political activities associated with garnering potential clients if these attorneys are with nonprofit groups.
Ruled that a Tennessee law prohibiting clergy members from serving as political delegates violated the free exercise clause of the First Amendment.
Village of Skokie v. National Socialist Party of America (Ill) (1978)
Remanded a case involving a Nazi hate group’s right to demonstrate in a Jewish neighborhood. The Illinois Supreme Court eventually ruled that the National Socialist Party of America’s demonstration was protected under the First Amendment.
Ruled that the First Amendment guarantee of a free press does not include an unlimited right to government information or sources of that information under the government’s control and that the media does not have an unlimited constitutional right to access jails or similar facilities.
Zurcher v. Stanford Daily (1978)
Held that it is reasonable under the Fourth Amendment for a court to issue a search warrant for the premises of an innocent third party when the police have probable cause to believe there is evidence of criminal activity on the premises and that the First Amendment’s freedom of the press does not bar the execution of such a search warrant if the innocent third party is the press.
Landmark Communications, Inc. v. Virginia (1978)
Found that the conviction of a newspaper owner for publishing information regarding the Virginia Judicial Inquiry and Review Commission violated the First Amendment’s freedom of the press clause.
Pinkus v. United States (1978)
Reversed a lower court’s decision on rules for jury selection regarding children in an obscenity case.
First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti (1978)
Ruled that a Massachusetts restriction on political contributions by corporations violated the First Amendment and was thus unconstitutional.
Federal Communications Commission v. Pacifica Foundation (1978)
Allowed the government to regulate indecent speech on broadcast media.
Federal Communications Commission v. National Citizens Committee for Broadcasting (1978)
Ruled that a Massachusetts restriction on political contributions by corporations violated the First Amendment and was thus unconstitutional.
Ohralik v. Ohio State Bar Association (1978)
Ruled that states can prohibit direct, face-to-face solicitation by attorneys.
National Society of Professional Engineers v. United States (1978)
Upheld a lower court decision that nullified a provision in the canons of ethics adopted by the National Society of Professional Engineers as a violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act.
Trans World Airlines v. Hardison (1977)
Ruled that an airline did not undermine an employee’s First Amendment rights by firing them for not working on their Sabbath, because a reasonable effort was made to accommodate the employee.
Zacchini v. Scripps-Howard Broadcasting Co. (1977)
Ruled that the First Amendment did not immunize the news media from liability for violating Ohio’s right of publicity.
Mount Healthy City School District Board of Education v. Doyle (1977)
Ruled that the lower courts erred in applying the wrong legal standard in a First Amendment lawsuit filed by a public school teacher who alleged he was fired for protesting a teacher dress code in a radio interview.
Jones v. North Carolina Prisoners' Union (1977)
Upheld state prison restrictions on union activities., such as soliciting new members, stopping meetings, or bulk mailing.
Held that the state of Ohio could provide nonpublic schools with secular textbooks, standardized testing and scoring, diagnostic services, and therapeutic and remedial services, while rejecting aid in the form of instructional materials and equipment and field trip services as violations of the First Amendment’s establishment clause.
New York v. Cathedral Academy (1977)
Invalidated a New York law adopted to reimburse parochial schools for state-mandated recordkeeping and testing services, finding it in violation of the First and 14th Amendments because it required excessive state involvement in religious affairs.
Ruled that a legislature’s definition of community standards in regard to obscenity does not govern a juror’s interpretation of such community standards.
The court found that it violated due process to apply the stricter standards for obscenity articulated in Miller v. California (1973) rather than the looser standards of Memoirs v. Massachusetts (1966), which were the only ones in force at the time of the alleged offense.
Oklahoma Publishing Co. v. Oklahoma County District Court (1977)
Struck down an order prohibiting the press from publishing information obtained in a preliminary hearing open to the public and press.
Reaffirmed the principle that the government cannot compel individuals to subscribe to certain beliefs.
Abood v. Detroit Board of Education (1977)
Ruled that no violation of the First and 14th Amendments existed in an arrangement under which nonunion government employees represented by a union had to pay a service fee equal in amount to union fees as a condition of their employment.
Linmark Associates, Inc. v. Township of Willingboro (1977)
Ruled that a law limiting certain signage violated the fundamental First Amendment principle that people have a right to receive information and ideas and to decide for themselves the best course of action.
Carey v. Population Services International (1977)
Invalidated a New York law prohibiting the advertisement and display of contraceptives to consumers.
Bates v. State Bar of Arizona (1977)
Ruled that attorney advertising was a form of commercial speech protected by the First Amendment.
Department of the Air Force v. Rose (1976)
Interpreted the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to require the disclosure of summaries of honor and ethics hearings at the U.S. Air Force Academy to Michael Rose, an academy graduate who was an editor of the New York University Law Review.
Roemer v. Board of Public Works of Maryland (1976)
Upheld a University’s right to give public aid to sectarian institutions of higher education.
City of Madison v. Wisconsin Employment Relations
Invalidated an order forbidding nonunion teachers from speaking at a school board meeting.
Denied a petition for writ of certiorari to hear an obscenity case that raised First Amendment issues already addressed in 1973.
Time, Inc. v. Firestone (1976)
Clarified the public figure test for libel suits developed in Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc. (1974).
Ruled that a sheriff violated the First Amendment when he conditioned the retention of a government job upon membership in a specific political party.
Hudgens v. National Labor Relations Board (1976)
Ruled that there was no right to exercise free speech in privately owned malls under the First Amendment.
Ruled that a bookstall operator’s First Amendment right to freedom of expression had been violated because he was not allowed to contest the obscenity of certain materials he was charged with distributing.
Ruled that, despite First Amendment protections, areas on military bases generally open to the public were not necessarily open to civilians seeking to distribute political literature or engage in political forums.
Nebraska Press Association v. Stuart (1976)
Ruled that a trial court judge did not have the authority to place gag orders on reporting about a specific crime prior to jury empanelment, finding it a form of prior restraint and in violation of the First Amendment right of freedom of the press.
Ruled that a county regulation limiting the length of county policemen’s hair did not violate the First or 14th Amendment.
Hynes v. Mayor of Oradell (1976)
Struck down ordinances requiring advanced notices to police departments of door-to-door canvassing and solicitations because of vagueness, ruling that they violated First Amendment rights of speech and assembly.
Serbian Eastern Orthodox Diocese v. Milivojevich (1976)
Ruled that the First Amendment prevents civil courts from interfering with decisions reached by the highest authorities of hierarchical churches.
Ruled that statutory limits on campaign contributions were not violations of the First Amendment freedom of expression but that statutory limits on campaign spending were unconstitutional.
Young v. American Mini Theatres (1976)
Upheld the zoning of adult businesses in Detroit and marked the first judicial recognition of zoning laws, which can be used to zone adult businesses based on their harmful secondary effects (secondary effects doctrine).
Southeastern Promotions, Ltd. v. Conrad (1975)
Ruled that Chattanooga, Tennessee, officials violated the First Amendment when they denied use of their facilities to a group seeking to perform the rock musical Hair.
Cox Broadcasting Corp. v. Cohn (1975)
Absolved a reporter from criminal and civil charges for revealing the identity of a rape victim found in a search of public documents.
Upheld part of a Pennsylvania textbook loan provision which allowed nonpublic school students to borrow public school textbooks on secular subjects.
Erznoznik v. City of Jacksonville (1975)
Held that the government may not censor expression simply because it offends some people.
Established that at least some commercial advertising should receive First Amendment protection, thereby laying the groundwork for its ruling the next year in Virginia State Board of Pharmacy v. Virginia Citizens Consumer Council, Inc. (1976), which established the modern commercial speech doctrine.
Ruled that barroom dancing “might be entitled to First and 14th Amendment protection under some circumstances.” after a local ordinance banned topless dancing in nightclubs.
Letter Carriers v. Austin (1974)
Reversed three state-court libel judgments arising out of statements in a monthly newsletter referring to non-union workers as “scabs.”
Lewis v. City of New Orleans (1974)
Overturned a woman's conviction for cursing at police during a traffic stop, saying the Louisiana law used to convict her was too overly broad and associated all obscene or opprobrious language directed at police officers as "fighting words."
Upheld California’s “sore loser” statute, which banned ballot access in the general election for independent candidates who either voted in the preceding primary election or were registered with a political party within the year preceding the primary election.
Miami Herald Publishing Co. v. Tornillo (1974)
Struck down a Florida law granting the right to reply to political candidates whose personal character or official record had been attacked by newspapers.
Lehman v. City of Shaker Heights (1974)
Affirmed that city-owned public transportation is not a public forum and that a rule prohibiting political advertisements in these spaces does not violate a candidate’s free speech or equal protection rights.
Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc. (1974)
Ruled that the First Amendment does not require a private individual who is publicly libeled to meet the burden of proof articulated in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964) to prevail in a defamation suit.
Cantrell v. Forest City Publishing Co. (1974)
Upheld a verdict against a Forest City Publishing owned newspaper, for an article casting the plaintiff, a recent widow, in false light by implying she was neglecting her children.
Ruled that prisoners have a right to receive confidential correspondence from their attorneys, but prison authorities still have the right to open such mail to ensure that such letters contained no contraband.
Formulated a standard for reviewing the constitutionality of inmate mail censorship procedures.
Saxbe v. Washington Post Co. (1974)
Established that the press has no general First Amendment right to interview specific prison inmates.
Upheld California prison restrictions on face-to-face interviews with inmates.
American Radio Association, AFL-CIO v. Mobile Steamship Association (1974)
Held that an Alabama court’s injunction against picketing of foreign ships for alleged substandard treatment of their crew members did not violate the free expression rights guaranteed by the First and 14th Amendments.
Overturned the conviction of a movie theater manager who had been prosecuted for showing a film deemed obscene by local and state authorities.
Hamling v. United States (1974)
Upheld the conviction of several individuals for their role in distributing advertisements of the book “The Illustrated Presidential Report of the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography.”
Secretary of the Navy v. Avrech (1974)
Reinstated the conviction of a former serviceman for distribution of statements designed to promote disloyalty among fellow soldiers.
Established for the first time the limits of free political expression for those serving in the armed forces of the United States.
Established for the first time the limits of free political expression for those serving in the armed forces of the United States.
Ruled that a Massachusetts law criminalizing contemptuous treatment of the U.S. flag was unconstitutionally vague because it failed to provide sufficient standards to guide law enforcement.
Vacated the conviction of individuals who were arrested for making derogatory comments to an on duty police officer.
Karlan v. City of Cincinnati (1974)
Remanded the decision of the constitutionality of a city ordinance that prohibited words uttered in an abusive, vulgar, insulting, profane, indecent or boisterous manner to the Ohio Supreme Court.
Remanded a federal law making veterans’ education benefits available for individuals who had served in the military, but not for conscientious objectors who had performed alternate service, did not violate either the equal protection or free exercise clauses.
Communist Party of Indiana v. Whitcomb (1974)
Invalidated a state loyalty oath requirement on First Amendment grounds because it prohibited protected political advocacy.
New Rider v. Board of Education, Pawnee County, Oklahoma (1973)
Denied writ of certiorari to two Pawnee Indian students who claimed their freedom of expression was violated when they were suspended from school for long hair.
Committee for Public Education and Religious Liberty v. Nyquist (1973)
Invalidated an attempt by New York state to provide money grants to parochial schools for maintenance and repair of school facilities.
Overturned the conviction of a demonstrator in affirming that advocacy of illegal activity in the indefinite future is protected by the First Amendment.
United States Civil Service Commission v. National Association of Letter Carriers (1973 )
Upheld the constitutionality of the Hatch Act of 1939 and its amendments, ruling that the act did not violate the First Amendment rights of federal workers.
Ruled that states can limit their employees’ partisan political activities without violating employees’ First Amendment rights.
Papish v. Board of Curators of the University of Missouri (1973)
Reaffirmed that public universities cannot punish students for indecent or offensive speech that does not disrupt campus order or interfere with the rights of others.
Struck down a state law that reimbursed parents for tuition to parochial schools.
Ruled that a Mississippi program that provided textbooks to private schools, even if the school engaged in discriminatory practices, was unconstitutional.
Levitt v. Committee for Public Education and Religious Liberty (1973)
Held that lump-sum payments by a state government to religious schools for administrative costs violate the establishment clause of the First Amendment.
Upheld a 1971 ruling that government payments to parochial schools were unconstitutional.
United States v. Twelve 200-Ft. Reels of Film (1973)
Upheld a federal statute banning the importation of obscene materials, even for personal use, finding such action was not protected by the First Amendment.
Upheld a statute banning the transportation of obscene material by common carrier in interstate commerce.
Invalidated the constitutionality of police seizure of obscene materials from the manager of a drive-in movie theater and use of the evidence to prosecute the manager on state obscenity charges.
Paris Adult Theatre I v. Slaton (1973)
Ruled that there is no First Amendment right to show obscene films.
Upheld the prosecution of a California publisher for the distribution of obscene materials and established the test used to determine whether expressive materials cross the line into unprotected obscenity.
Affirmed that a book, even without illustrations, can be obscene and thus unprotected by the First Amendment.
Vacated and remanded the conviction of a man who was charged for possessing a copy of a sexually-oriented film.
Pittsburgh Press Co. v. Pittsburgh Commission on Human
Ruled that sex-segregated advertisements, ads which asks for only male or female applicants, were commercial speech and gave leeway to the states on this matter.
Columbia Broadcasting System v. Democratic National Committee (1973)
Held that a radio station did not violate the fairness doctrine or the First Amendment’s guarantee of a free press by selectively refusing to accept paid advertising on public policy issues.
California Motor Transport Co. v. Trucking Unlimited (1972)
Ruled that the First Amendment right of petition did not necessarily shield companies from antitrust laws when they engaged in concert to deter others from “free and unlimited access” to courts and agencies.
Olff v. East Side Union High School District (1972)
Refused to hear a case about grooming codes, particularly hair length, for public school students.
Upheld a Massachusetts loyalty oath for public employees against a First Amendment free speech challenge.
Ruled that public university officials violated the First Amendment when they terminated a junior college professor for publicly criticizing the Board of Regents.
Ruled that freedom of press did not create a constitutional privilege protecting reporters from having to testify in grand jury proceedings about the identity of news sources or information received in confidence.
Affirmed public college students’ First Amendment rights of free speech and association, determining that those constitutional protections apply with the same force on a state university campus as in the larger community.
Ruled that Old Order Amish families who wished to pull their children out of school before a state compulsory education statute allowed, could do so because of the establishment clause.
Rosenfeld v. New Jersey (1972)
Vacated the conviction of a man for his profane language at a New Jersey school board meeting and remanded the case for reconsideration.
Lloyd Corporation, Ltd. v. Tanner (1972)
Ruled that a private shopping mall did not have to provide a forum for Vietnam War protestors who were there handing out leaflets.
Established that claims of religious freedom by prison inmates should not be dismissed outright without, at the least, factual findings by trial courts.
Police Department of Chicago v. Mosley (1972)
Held that the government could not selectively exclude speakers from the public sphere based on the content of their message.
Held that the attorney general of the United States did not violate a foreign journalist’s freedom of speech by denying him entry into the country to attend academic meetings.
Grayned v. City of Rockford (1972)
Ruled that a city’s anti-picketing ordinance was overbroad and violated the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause.
Reversed the obscenity conviction of the manager of a drive-in movie theater in Richland, Washington, who was arrested after an officer viewed a film with “sexually frank” scenes.
Dismissed a challenge to an army surveillance program directed at civilians on the basis that the “chilling effect” on First Amendment rights the civilians were alleging was too speculative to establish legal standing.
Flower v. United States (1972)
Overturned the conviction of John Thomas Flower of the American Friends Service Committee on First Amendment grounds for distributing leaflets at Fort Sam Houston after officials had barred him from the base.
Limited the scope of the “fighting words” exception to the First Amendment and enhanced the long-term development of the over breadth doctrine ,which is the notion that statutes and regulations must be sufficiently precise in order to avoid regulating protected speech.
Ruled that given the states’ broad authority to regulate alcoholic beverages under the 21st Amendment, California provisions regulating explicitly sexual live entertainment and films presented in establishments licensed to sell liquor did not, on their face, violate the First Amendment.
United Transportation Union v. State Bar of Michigan (1971)
Reversed an injunction prohibiting a union from engaging in group legal activity, finding that the injunction denied the union workers and members their freedom of association and speech rights guaranteed in the First Amendment.
Upheld a Georgia law requiring minor-party candidates to obtain the signatures of five percent of eligible voters on their nominating petitions.
Connell v. Higginbotham (1971)
Struck down one of two loyalty oaths that Florida’ government employees were required to affirm.
Upheld provisions of the Higher Education Facilities Act of 1963, permitting federal aid for construction of secular buildings at church-sponsored colleges and universities.
Reversed injunctions against enforcement of Illinois statutes and Chicago ordinances prohibiting “mob action, resisting arrest, aggravated assault, aggravated battery, and intimidation.”
Limited the occasions in which the Court would intervene to enjoin state prosecutions in First Amendment cases.
Upheld district court decision denying injunctive relief and a declaratory judgment to individuals who had been indicted under New York’s criminal anarchy law.
Upheld a Louisiana statute and parish ordinance which was used to charge August Ledesma and others for displaying allegedly obscene material for sale.
Dismissed a conviction against Time magazine, finding that the magazine did not engage in “falsification” sufficient to find “actual malice.”
Rosenbloom v. Metromedia, Inc. (1971)
Held that actual malice standard of New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964) applies in libel cases involving reports about public issues even when the plaintiff is not a public official or public figure.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the First Amendment freedom of the press does not give reporters special license to violate individuals’ privacy.
Ocala Star-Banner Co. v. Damron (1971)
Clarified the Court’s landmark libel decision in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964) by showing how the “actual malice” test of that case extended to individuals running for public office.
Monitor Patriot Co. v. Roy (1971)
Affirmed that the standard for judging whether a newspaper article constitutes defamation is the actual malice standard set forth by the Court in its landmark decision in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964).
Organization for a Better Austin v. Keefe (1971)
Held that those seeking a prior restraint on expression carry “a heavy burden of showing justification for the imposition of such a restraint.”
New York Times Co. v. United States (1971)
Held that those seeking a prior restraint on expression carry “a heavy burden of showing justification for the imposition of such a restraint.”
Established a tripartite test to determine violations of the First Amendment and found that two states violated the establishment clause of the First Amendment by making state financial aid available to “church-related educational institutions.”
United States v. Thirty-seven Photographs (1971)
Ruled that a federal law, which allowed customs officials to seize obscene materials, failed to provide adequate procedural safeguards.
United States v. Reidel (1971)
Affirmed that laws forbidding the distribution of obscene materials were constitutional despite the Court’s ruling in Stanley v. Georgia (1969), which held that persons had a right to possess obscene materials in the privacy of their own homes.
Grove Press v. Maryland State Board of Censors (1971)
Upheld an appeals court decision banning the film I Am Curious (Yellow) on the grounds of obscenity.
Invalidated two statutory provisions that authorized the postmaster general to deny postal services to purveyors of allegedly obscene materials.
Ruled that the government generally cannot criminalize the display of profane words in public places.
Gillette v. United States (1971)
Upheld a lower court ruling denying a draft exemption to a man who on the basis of humanist principles had refused to participate in the Vietnam War but who would have fought in a war of self defense.
Issued a per curiam rejection of a Kentucky appeals board’s denial of conscientious objector status to Cassius Clay, the world champion boxer who changed his name to Muhammad Ali.
Law Students Civil Rights Research Council v. Wadmond
Upheld New York Bar rule requiring an applicant to provide proof that he or she “believes in the form of the government of the United States and is loyal to such a government.”
Ruled that the First Amendment prohibits a state from penalizing an attorney solely on the basis of membership in a particular organization.
Baird v. State Bar of Arizona (1971)
Extended greater First Amendment protection to admission to the bar than the Court had demonstrated in its earlier decisions in In re Anastaplo (1961) and Konigsberg v. State Bar (1961).
Coates v. City of Cincinnati (1971)
Invalidated a city law against loitering that negatively affected freedom of assembly.
Rowan v. U.S. Post Office Department (1970)
Sustained a federal law permitting addressees to prohibit all future mailings from a specified sender.
Walz v. Tax Commission of the City of New York (1970)
Held that there was “no genuine nexus between tax exemption and establishment of religion.”
Norton v. Discipline Committee of East Tennessee State
Declined to review a federal appeals court ruling that college students’ First Amendment rights were not violated when they were suspended from the university for distributing two “inflammatory” pamphlets.
Found that a jury may have convicted several anti-war protesters simply because it disagreed with the their viewpoint.
Greenbelt Cooperative Publishing Association v. Bresler (1970)
Held that rhetorical hyperbole is not actionable as defamation where a reasonable reader, in light of a statement’s full context, would not understand the intended meaning of a phrase to be a literal accusation.
Reversed the Kentucky appeals court decision in Cain v. Kentucky (S.W. 1969), which had found the movie I, A Woman obscene.
Schacht v. United States (1970)
Struck down a conviction for the unauthorized wearing of a military uniform at an outdoor performance, stating that the performance was within the definition of “theatrical production.”
Determined that traditional religious beliefs were not necessary to claim conscientious objector status.
Maryland and Virginia Eldership of the Churches of God v. Church of God at Sharpsburg (1970)
Affirmed that in settling church disputes, courts do not raise First Amendment concerns as long as they do not inquire about church doctrine.
Byrne v. Karalexis (1969, 1971)
Stayed a temporary injunction that a federal district court had issued against further prosecutions of theater owners.
1960s
Held that the First Amendment does not protect true threats.
Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (1969)
Ruled that public school officials cannot censor student expression unless they can reasonably forecast that the speech will substantially disrupt school activities or invade the rights of others.
Gregory v. City of Chicago (1969)
Upheld the First Amendment rights of peaceful civil rights protestors over the overzealous actions of police attempting to quell anticipated civil disorder.
Invalidated a Tennessee prison rule that prohibited inmates from assisting others with legal matters, including preparing writs of habeas corpus, finding it denied many inmates access to the courts to file claims.
Held that the mere private possession of obscene materials could not be criminalized, consistent with the First Amendment, although it acknowledged that ownership of such materials is not protected speech.
Overturned the appellant’s conviction under a New York statute that made it illegal to desecrate the American flag.
Established that speech advocating illegal conduct is protected under the First Amendment unless the speech is likely to incite “imminent lawless action.”
Shuttlesworth v. Birmingham (1969)
Ruled that the conviction of the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, for leading a protest march without a permit, was improper because the ordinance under which he was convicted was an unconstitutional prior restraint on speech.
Denied a civil court’s civil court to interpret church doctrine when deciding whether local churches or the general church hierarchy owned church property.
Red Lion Broadcasting Co. v. Federal Communications Commission (1969)
Upheld a Federal Communications Commission decision to adopt the “fairness doctrine,” which required broadcast licensees devote some time to discussing public issues and give each side of these issues fair coverage.
Citizen Publishing Co. v. United States (1969)
Upheld a lower court ruling affirming that an agreement between two Tucson newspapers violated federal antitrust laws and that the Justice Department was correct in requiring that the two papers act independently of each other.
Lee Art Theatre v. Virginia (1968)
Ruled that a warrant to seize obscene material based on a police officer’s personal observations is not constitutional, lacking judicial inquiry into the factual basis of the officer’s assertions.
Held that the “heavy burden” placed on third parties by the law was discriminatory and violated the First Amendment’s right to free association.
United States v. O'Brien (1968)
Upheld a federal law prohibiting the knowing mutilation of draft cards, rejecting the First Amendment arguments of an anti-war protester.
Pickering v. Board of Education (1968)
Established the principle that public employees do not relinquish their right to speak out on matters of public importance, or public concern, simply because they have accepted government employment.
Allowed taxpayers standing to sue within limited parameters: if a logical link exists between the taxpayers’ status and the type of enactment being attacked, and if the taxpayers can show a link between the expenditure of funds and the specific violation of a constitutional limitation on the power of Congress.
Ruled that a plaintiff must demonstrate that the defendant actually doubted the truth of a statement in order to prove “reckless disregard.”
Amalgamated Food Employees Union Local 590 v. Logan Valley Plaza (1968)
Held that the state courts of Pennsylvania could not enjoin peaceful union picketing by nonemployees directly in front of a nonunion grocery store in a private shopping mall.
Declined to review the conspiracy and anarchy convictions of the African-American Marxist leader William Epton, who contended that his convictions violated his First Amendment free speech rights.
Board of Education v. Allen (1968)
Upheld a New York law allowing the loan of secular textbooks to all schoolchildren, including those in parochial schools.
Reversed the obscenity conviction of a man charged with selling “girlie” magazines to minors because the court found part of the law unconstitutionally vague.
Upheld a harmful to minors, or “obscene as to minors,” law, affirming the illegality of giving persons under 17 years of age access to expressions or depictions of nudity and sexual content for “monetary consideration.”
Teitel Film Corp. v. Cusack (1968)
Upheld the constitutionality of requiring the submission of films to censors prior to exhibition, but the majority only addressed the narrow question of “whether prior restraint was necessarily unconstitutional under all circumstances.”
Interstate Circuit, Inc. v. Dallas (1968)
Rejected a city’s film censorship ordinance that failed to provide sufficient guidance to those in the motion picture industry and to members of the city board who had to decide whether the films were suitable for minors.
Struck down an Arkansas law that criminalized the teaching of evolution in public schools.
Carroll v. President and Commissioners of Princess Anne (1968)
Struck down a 10-day injunction that a Maryland court had issued against rallies by the National States Rights Party, a white supremacist group.
Struck down a Maryland loyalty oath that had been challenged by an employee of the University of Maryland.
United Mine Workers of America, District 12 v. Illinois State Bar Association (1967)
Found that the trial court’s decree preventing the United Mine Workers of America from hiring attorneys on a salaried basis to represent consenting union members in prosecuting workmen’s compensation claims before the Illinois Industrial Commission violated the freedom of speech, assembly, and petition provisions of the First Amendment.
Provided guidance on how courts should handle the species of invasion of privacy claims — called false light — most similar to defamation claims.
Curtis Publishing Co. v. Butts (1967)
Upheld a libel judgment on behalf of the athletic director at the University of Georgia and gave the Court the opportunity to clarify the First Amendment standard of libel for public figures.
Associated Press v. Walker (1967)
Ruled that public figures should be treated differently from public officials when they sue for libel.
Outlined three guideposts against which constitutionality of the laws could be measured, including a specific concern for protection of juveniles.
W.E.B. DuBois Clubs of America v. Clark (1967)
Rejected a youth organization's challenge to a law which would require them to register as a "communist-front organization."
Affirmed a federal district court decision which dismissed an indictment against a machinist and member of the Communist Party who had been charged under the Subversive Activities Control Act(1950).
Walker v. City of Birmingham (1967)
Held that protesters who deliberately violate an injunction without first seeking to have it modified cannot attack its constitutionality during a trial for violating the order.
Overturned a federal district court ruling that had turned down an appeal under the Declaratory Judgment Act(1934) that sought injunctive relief against a New York law criminalizing distribution of anonymous handbills related to an ongoing political campaign.
Keyishian v. Board of Regents (1967)
Declared a New York State law intended to prevent the employment of “subversives” in teaching and other public employee jobs was unconstitutional.
Held that a 1961 Arizona statute requiring that present and potential state employees sign a loyalty oath was an infringement of the freedom of political association guaranteed by the First Amendment.
Ruled that a silent sit-in demonstration protesting segregation in a public library was protected symbolic speech under the First Amendment.
Reversed and remanded a libel case for further proceedings in light of New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964).
Linn v. United Plant Guard Workers of America (1966)
Overturned lower federal court rulings to decide that the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) does not bar civil libel actions in cases where plaintiffs can show that statements were made with malice and resulted in injury.
Held that most criminal libel laws violated the First Amendment.
Overturned a ruling that said a man had been denied a fair trial because of the overwhelming media presence in the courtroom during their murder trial.
Rebuffed the Alabama Supreme Court to conclude that a state law placing criminal liability on an election day newspaper editorial violated the First Amendment.
Ruled that adult materials pandering to a deviant sexual group rather than the community at large are not protected by the First Amendment.
Memoirs v. Massachusetts (1966)
Held that the book "John Cleland’s Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure" was not obscene.
Ginzburg v. United States (1966)
Upheld the conviction of a publisher who had violated a federal obscenity statute.
DeGregory v. Attorney General of New Hampshire (1966)
Overturned a one-year prison term for contempt that New Hampshire had imposed on a witness who refused to testify to the state attorney general regarding his Communist Party activities prior to 1957.
Ruled that legislators do not forfeit their constitutional rights to speak out on public issues once elected.
Cameron v. Johnson (1965, 1968)
Upheld Mississippi's anti-picketing law as long as it was understood to apply only to picketers blocking the entrances of public buildings.
Refused to interpret the First Amendment so as to grant a citizen an absolute right of travel to other countries to assess the effects of U.S. policies abroad.
Griswold v. Connecticut (1965)
Invalidated a Connecticut law that made it a crime to use birth control devices or to advise anyone about their use.
Reversed a libel conviction of an individual who had criticized two public officials.
Overturned a conviction based on the presence of cameras in the courtroom and explored the relation between First Amendment press freedoms and the Sixth Amendment right to a fair trial.
Ruled that a court may enjoin enforcement of a statute that is so overbroad in its prohibition of unprotected speech that it substantially prohibits protected speech — especially if the statute is being enforced in bad faith.
Ruled that the prior restraint carried out under Maryland’s motion picture censorship statute since 1916 unduly restricted the First Amendment rights of film distributors and exhibitors.
United States v. Seeger (1965)
Overturned the conviction of a man who claimed conscientious objector status by virtue of his religious belief, but was convicted because he would not confirm that he believed in a "Supreme Being."
Ruled that the Fourth Amendment regulations regarding using “general warrants” for search and seizure also applied to state governments, especially when items of expression, which are protected by the First Amendment, are among items to be searched or seized.
American Committee for Protection of Foreign Born v. Subversive Activities Control Board (1965)
Responded to a challenge by the American Committee for Protection of Foreign Born of its classification as a communist-front organization.
Affirmed that an otherwise constitutionally valid law regulating public demonstrations can be unconstitutional if the statute grants undue discretion to public officials charged with administering and enforcing the statute.
Struck down the 1931 and 1955 provisions of a Washington state law that mandated loyalty oaths for state employees, thereby interfering with their First Amendment rights of association.
Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen v. Virginia ex rel. Virginia State Bar (1964)
Lifted an injunction against a railroad union on the basis that preventing union members from recommending legal counsel to one another violated their First and 14th Amendment freedoms of speech, petition, and assembly.
Refused to decide whether the Maryland’s trespassing laws could be used to exclude black people from public accommodations.
Aptheker v. Secretary of State (1964)
Invalidated the denial of passports to American Communists under a section of the Subversive Activities Control Act of 1950.
Chamberlin v. Dade County Board of Public Instruction (1964)
Reversed a Florida Supreme Court decision that had upheld devotional Bible readings and prayers in public schools.
New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964)
Reversed a libel damages judgement against the New York Times and established the principle that the First Amendment's guarantees of freedom of speech and press may protect libelous words about a public official in order to foster vigorous debate about government and public affairs.
Overturned the criminal defamation conviction of a Louisiana district attorney and continued the refinement of libel laws begun in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964).
Ruled that the Bill of Rights applied inside prisons, and that, in this particular case, authorities had erred in denying religious publications and texts to an inmate.
National Labor Relations Board v. Fruit and Vegetable Packers (1964)
Upheld the rights of picketers to protest buying apples at a grocery store.
Overturned the conviction of a movie theater manager who had been prosecuted for showing a film deemed by Ohio authorities to be obscene.
Grove Press v. Gerstein (1964)
Rejected a Dade County, Florida, ban of Henry Miller’s "Tropic of Cancer," one of the most censored books in history.
A Quantity of Books v. Kansas (1964)
Ruled that a procedure used to seize and impound 1,715 books prior to an obscenity hearing was constitutionally insufficient because it did not safeguard against the suppression of nonobscene books.
Ruled that government can restrict the free exercise rights of individuals only if the regulations survive strict scrutiny.
Abington School District v. Schempp (1963)
Invalidated the reading of verses, without comment, from the Bible and the Lord’s Prayer in public school settings.
Bantam Books, Inc. v. Sullivan (1963)
Ruled that states must provide adequate procedural safeguards when establishing a mechanism to declare books obscene.
Gibson v. Florida Legislative Investigation Committee (1963)
Held that the First Amendment rights of free speech and association protected organizations from having to divulge their membership to a legislative investigative committee when there was an insufficient record to demonstrate an association with communist activity.
Protected the First Amendment rights of a civil rights group to engage in public interest litigation.
Edwards v. South Carolina (1963)
Ruled that South Carolina had violated students’ First Amendment rights of peaceable assembly, speech, and petition when the police dispersed a peaceful protest against segregation.
Ruled that school-sponsored prayer in public schools violated the establishment clause of the First Amendment.
Manual Enterprises v. Day (1962)
Held that three homoerotic physique magazines — MANual, Trim, and Grecian Guild Pictorial — were not obscene and could not be barred from the mails.
Ruled, under the clear and present danger test, that individuals and public officials concerned with ongoing grand jury proceedings may speak freely about the proceedings and can only be charged with contempt of court when their speech immediately creates a serious threat to the administration of justice.
Cramp v. Board of Public Instruction of Orange County (1961)
Struck down as unconstitutionally vague a 1949 Florida statute requiring all state employees to swear in writing that they had not lent their “aid, support, advice, counsel or influence to the Communist Party.”
International Association of Machinists v. Street (1961)
Overturned a Georgia court decision that had declared the union-shop provisions of the Railway Labor Act of 1926 unconstitutional.
Ruled that requiring an oath to affirm belief in “the existence of God” to hold public office violated the First and 14th Amendments.
Marcus v. Search Warrant (1961)
Reversed lower court decisions, finding that the seizure of material considered obscene violated the First Amendment and the Fourteenth Amendment’s due process clause.
Times Film Corp. v. City of Chicago (1961)
Ruled that Chicago's ordinance which required film exhibitors to apply for a license before showing a motion picture did not violate the First Amendment's freedom of expression clause.
Wilkinson v. United States (1961)
Found that the House Un-American Activities Committee's (HUAC) questioning was not in violation of the plaintiff's First Amendment rights of free speech and association.
Braden v. United States (1961)
Upheld the conviction of a person who refused to answer questions before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC).
Scales v. United States (1961)
Upheld the conviction of Junius Scales, a Communist Party member, under the membership clause of the Smith Act of 1940, which made it a crime to be a member of the Communist Party.
Ruled that the First Amendment’s right to free speech prohibits convicting individuals for the mere abstract teaching of the moral propriety of violence.
Communist Party of the United States v. Subversive Activities Control Board (1961)
Upheld the legality of a law forcing the Communist Party to register with the federal government.
Voided the application of a Louisiana breach of the peace statute that was used to stop peaceful sit-in demonstrations, such as those at department store lunch counters.
Two Guys from Harrison- Allentown, Inc. v. McGinley (1961)
Ruled that Sunday blue laws did not violate the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment or the establishment clause of the First Amendment.
Found that Sunday blue laws did not violate the establishment clause, setting the precedent that laws with religious origins are constitutional if they have a secular purpose.
Gallagher v. Crown Kosher Super Market of Massachusetts (1961)
Ruled that a Sunday blue law, which regulated the sale of alcohol on Sundays, did not violate the First Amendment free exercise clause.
Ruled that a Pennsylvania state law that required certain types of retail businesses to close on Sunday did not violate the First Amendment’s free exercise clause.
Konigsberg v. State Bar (1961)
Ruled that it was constitutionally arbitrary for California to deny an applicant admission to the state bar because the applicant refused to answer questions about his Communist Party affiliation.
Held that a plaintiff’s exclusion from the bar of the state of Illinois based on his refusal to respond to questions about his membership in the Communist Party did not violate his First Amendment protections of freedom of speech and association.
Louisiana ex rel. Gremillion v. NAACP (1961)
Ruled that requiring an organization to submit its membership lists to the state violates First Amendment free association rights if this disclosure can reasonably be expected to result in discrimination against the members.
Eastern Railroad Presidents Conference v. Noerr Motor Freight, Inc. (1961)
Held that use of the Sherman Antitrust Act to penalize railroad operators for restraint of trade for a publicity campaign against truckers violated the First Amendment right to petition.
Dismissed a First Amendment challenge to a Washington state statute requiring government employees to swear an oath to the government.
Upheld a section of the Internal Security Act of 1950, which made Communists ineligible for suspension of deportation and that the burden was on the petitioner to show he was eligible for such suspension.
Overturned an Arkansas law requiring as a condition of employment that schoolteachers submit an annual accounting of any organizations that they had belonged to or contributed to in the preceding five years.
Reinforced the principle that freedom of association for the purpose of advocating ideas and airing grievances finds protection within the First Amendment’s free speech clause.
Ruled that a Los Angeles ordinance requiring that all handbills identify the person who published or distributed them was unconstitutionally overbroad and in violation of the First Amendment freedoms of speech and press.
Upheld the New Hampshire state court’s decision to hold a minister in contempt for refusing to provide information regarding subversive activities at a summer camp that might threaten the security of the state.
1950s
Farmers Educational and Cooperative Union of America, North Dakota Division v. WDAY, Inc. (1959)
Held that broadcast stations could not censor political speech nor could the station be held responsible for libel.
Affirmed immunity from prosecution for statements made by officers of the executive branch.
Held that the First Amendment rights of a Los Angeles bookstore owner had been violated when he was held criminally liable and sentenced to 30 days in jail in 1956 for selling the pulp novel Sweeter Than Life, by Mark Tryon.
Kingsley International Pictures v. Board of Regents (1959)
Held that New York’s statute controlling film licensing regulated ideas no matter how they were expressed or their consequent effects, thereby contravening the guarantees of the First Amendment.
Barenblatt v. United States (1959)
Sustained Lloyd Barenblatt’s conviction for refusing to answer questions posed to him by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC).
Cammarano v. United States (1959)
Affirmed federal appeals court decisions arising in the states of Washington and Arkansas that had disallowed tax deductions for expenditures that businesses made to defeat legislation.
Reversed a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal’s suspension of an attorney who had criticized the court handling her case as well as the court proceedings.
Ruled that a state cannot condition the receipt of a government benefit — in this case, a tax exemption for veterans — on the requirement that an individual demonstrate eligibility by swearing an oath not to advocate the overthrow of the government by unlawful means.
Staub v. City of Baxley (1958)
Voided an ordinance in Baxley, Georgia, that required individuals soliciting members for any dues-collecting organization to obtain a permit from the mayor and city council.
Ruled that the First Amendment protected the free association rights of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and its rank-and-file members.
Beilan v. Board of Education (1958)
Ruled that Harold Beilan, a teacher, did not have his due process rights violated when he was fired for refusing to answer questions about his possible membership in the Communist Political Association.
International Brotherhood of Teamsters Union v. Vogt (1957)
Reaffirmed that First Amendment protections for freedom of expression did not prevent states from limiting peaceful picketing directed to coerce employers to interfere with employees’ rights to choose whether or not to join a union.
Provided the basis for an important test that the Supreme Court used to determine whether material was obscene or constitutionally protected.
Held that a Michigan law ,which outlawed selling printed material thought to be obscene, violated the due process clause of the 14th Amendment.
Ruled, for the first time, that the Constitution does not protect obscene materials.
Watkins v. United States (1957)
Ruled that the conviction of John Watkins for contempt of Congress was invalid under the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment.
Upheld the convictions of leading American communists under the Smith Act of 1940 for organizing a party to overthrow the government,
United States v. Auto Workers (1957)
Held that the use of general union treasury funds to sponsor commercial television broadcasts touting 1954 congressional candidates was an indictable offense under 18 U.S.C. 610, which banned corporate or labor contributions or expenditures in federal campaigns.
Kingsley Books, Inc. v. Brown (1957)
Upheld a New York statute that permitted a legal officer to bring a case to enjoin the distribution of obscene materials, which the state could destroy after an expedited hearing.
Sweezy v. New Hampshire (1957)
Ruled that the New Hampshire attorney general had gone too far in conducting an investigation on behalf of the state legislature into the beliefs and associations of University of New Hampshire professor Paul M. Sweezy, who was suspected of being engaged in subversive behavior.
Railway Employees' Department v. Hanson (1956)
Overturned a decision by lower Nebraska courts enjoining the application and enforcement of a union shop arrangement for railroad employees.
Upheld the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s reversal of the conviction a Communist Party leader under Pennsylvania's Sedition Act.
Sicurella v. United States (1955)
Overturned the conviction of a Jehovah’s Witness who had refused to enlist in the armed forces because of his religious beliefs.
United States v. Harriss (1954)
Found constitutional the Federal Lobbying Act of 1946, the purpose of the which was to enable Congress to know “who is being hired, who is putting up the money, and how much.”
Superior Films v. Department of Education (1954)
Struck down an Ohio law that restricted "blasphemous" films.
Poulos v. New Hampshire (1953)
Upheld the conviction of Jehovah’s Witnesses who had been prosecuted under an ordinance of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, for holding a religious service in a public park without a license, finding it was not in violation of the Witnesses’ First Amendment right to free exercise of religion.
Found that a municipal ordinance that prevented a minister affiliated with Jehovah’s Witnesses from conducting a religious service in a public park, but allowed other religious services to be held, violated the First and 14th Amendments.
United Association of Journeymen Plumbers and Steamfitters v. Graham (1953)
Upheld a permanent injunction against picketers whose purposes conflicted with Virginia’s Right to Work Statute.
United States v. Rumely (1953)
Affirmed a federal appeals court decision invalidating a contempt conviction of a witness who had appeared before the House Select Committee on Lobbying Activities.
Found constitutional the Federal Lobbying Act of 1946, the purpose of which was to enable Congress to know “who is being hired, who is putting up the money, and how much.”
Superior Films v. Department of Education (1954)
Struck down an Ohio law that restricted "blasphemous" films.
Poulos v. New Hampshire (1953)
Upheld the conviction of Jehovah’s Witnesses who had been prosecuted under an ordinance of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, for holding a religious service in a public park without a license, finding it was not in violation of the Witnesses’ First Amendment right to free exercise of religion.
Found that a municipal ordinance that prevented a minister affiliated with Jehovah’s Witnesses from conducting a religious service in a public park, but allowed other religious services to be held, violated the First and 14th Amendments.
United Association of Journeymen Plumbers and Steamfitters v. Graham (1953)
Upheld a permanent injunction against picketers whose purposes conflicted with Virginia’s Right to Work Statute.
United States v. Rumely (1953)
Affirmed a federal appeals court decision invalidating a contempt conviction of a witness who had appeared before the House Select Committee on Lobbying Activities.
Upheld a decision by the attorney general, as executive head of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, to detain resident aliens without bail, pending a determination on deportability.
Struck down an Oklahoma loyalty oath, finding it was in violation of the First Amendment’s rights of free speech and free association and in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment’s right to due process.
Adler v. Board of Education (1952)
Upheld the so-called Feinberg Law, a New York statute designed to enforce existing civil service regulations to prevent members of "subversive groups," particularly of the Communist Party, from teaching in public schools.
Upheld New York City’s “released time” policy that permitted public school children to leave campus during school hours to attend religious instruction and services.
Doremus v. Board of Education (1952)
Denied a declaratory judgment sought by residents of New Jersey who were challenging the daily reading, without comment, of five Bible verses from the Old Testament at the beginning of each public school day.
Beauharnais v. Illinois (1952)
Upheld a group libel conviction of a man for circulating pamphlets alleging that African-Americans were associated with “aggressions … rapes, robberies, knives, guns and marijuana” [ellipses in the original].
Harisiades v. Shaughnessy (1952)
Upheld a provision of the Alien Registration Act of 1940 requiring deportation of resident aliens who at the time of their entry or thereafter belonged to organizations that advocate the unlawful overthrow of the government, in this case the Communist Party.
Public Utilities Commission v. Pollak (1952)
Ruled that the individual liberty interests of passengers who used public transportation, including freedoms of speech and privacy guaranteed by the First and Fifth Amendments, were not unreasonably inhibited by the broadcast of radio programs and commercials on government-regulated vehicles used for mass transit in the District of Columbia.
Reversed a Texas court decision upholding the conviction of W. L. Gelling, who showed an unnamed motion picture after the Board of Censors of Marshall, Texas, prohibited it.
Kedroff v. Saint Nicholas Cathedral (1952)
Ruled that Article 5-C of the Religious Corporations Law of New York exercised unconstitutional legislative interference in the freedom of religion.
Ruled that a New York education law allowing a film to be banned on the basis of its being sacrilegious violated the First Amendment.
Upheld the conviction of Irving Feiner, a college student who was arrested while giving a speech encouraging black people to "rise up in arms and fight for equal rights," which caused a large crowd to gather in opposition of Feiner.
Gerende v. Board of Supervisors of Elections of Baltimore (1951)
Upheld a Maryland requirement that all candidates seeking access to the ballot must file affidavits attesting that they were neither engaged in overthrowing the state or national government nor were knowing members of any organization committed to such efforts.
Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee v. McGrath (1951)
Ruled that lower courts had improperly dismissed a suit against the U.S. attorney general by three organizations — all of which claimed to be charitable — that he had included on a list of designated Communist organizations.
Garner v. Board of Public Works of Los Angeles (1951)
Upheld the constitutionality of a loyalty oath and an accompanying affidavit required of City of Los Angeles employees.
Overturned a New York City ordinance under which officials had refused to renew a permit for street preaching to Carl Jacob Kunz, a Baptist minister whose earlier sermons had ridiculed and denounced other religious beliefs.
Struck down the disorderly conduct conviction of members of a religious group who had held a Bible study in a public park without a permit.
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers v. National Labor Relations Board (1951)
Affirmed the Second Circuit Court of Appeal’s decision that a union’s peaceful picketing had illegally induced a strike designed to force a general contractor’s termination of its contract with a subcontractor in violation of the National Labor Relations Act of 1947.
Upheld a local ordinance prohibiting unsolicited door-to-door sales, ruling that it did not violate the First Amendment, the 14th Amendment, or the commerce clause.
Dennis v. United States (1951)
Applied the clear and present danger test to uphold the convictions of 11 U.S.-based communists for their political teachings.
Lorain Journal Co. v. United States (1951)
Upheld an injunction against a newspaper publisher, finding that its conduct was an attempt to monopolize interstate commerce in violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.
American Communications Association v. Douds (1950)
Upheld the constitutionality of section 9(h) of the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947, which required labor officers to swear they were not Communists.
International Brotherhood of Teamsters Union v. Hanke (1950)
Sustained an injunction against picketing of a self-employer’s place of business that was directed toward forcing the owner to adopt a union shop.
Building Service Employees International Union v. Gazzam (1950)
Upheld an injunction issued by the Supreme Court of Washington against picketers who had sought to force the owner of a small inn into compelling his employees to join a union.
Hughes v. Superior Court of California (1950)
Ruled that a California court injunction against employees picketing to pressure stores to hire on a racial basis did not violate the freedom of speech protected by the First and Fourteenth Amendments.
1940s
Lincoln Federal Labor Union v. Northwestern Iron and Metal Co. (1949)
Rejected labor union challenges and affirmed that anti-closed shop laws were not in violation of First Amendment rights of speech, assembly, or petition.
American Federation of Labor v. American Sash and Door Co. (1949)
Upheld a right-to-work amendment to the Arizona constitution, which had prohibited discrimination against nonunion members (including their exclusion from employment), against constitutional challenges, including First Amendment claims.
Giboney v. Empire Storage and Ice Co. (1949)
Upheld an injunction against peaceful picketing that a lower court had issued to members of a union in Kansas City, Missouri.
Overturned a disorderly conduct conviction against a suspended Catholic priest for making inflammatory public comments.
Upheld the conviction of a man under a Trenton, New Jersey, ordinance that prohibited the use of sound trucks that emitted “loud and raucous” noises on city streets.
Donaldson v. Read Magazine (1948)
Ruled that the First Amendment does not protect ordinary crime and that the postmaster general may deny the use of the mails to persons in order to prevent fraud.
Illinois ex rel. McCollum v. Board of Education (1948 )
Overturned a “released time” arrangement whereby public schools in Illinois provide religious training during regular school hours, holding that the practice violated the establishment clause of the First Amendment.
Overruled a New York obscenity law under which Murray Winters had been convicted for possessing magazines that he intended to sell.
Limited the discretion that a public official could exercise in regulating sound trucks on public property.
United States v. Congress of Industrial Organizations (1948)
Limited the discretion that a public official could exercise in regulating sound trucks (trucks with loudspeakers that were often used for political campaigning) on public property.
Vacated the conviction of several men for advocating polygamy, sending the case back to Utah courts to determine whether the law was too vague and therefore unconstitutional.
United Public Workers of America v. Mitchell (1947)
Upheld provisions of the Hatch Act of 1939, which prevented federal employees from taking “any active part in political management or in political campaigns.”
Everson v. Board of Education (1947)
Upheld a New Jersey statute allocating taxpayer funds to bus children to religious schools because it did not breach the “wall of separation” between church and state.
Overturned a criminal contempt of court conviction against a publisher, editorial writer and newspaper reporter in Texas for stories they ran which were critical of a judge, citing freedom of speech and of the press.
Overturned a decision by the postmaster general revoking the second-class-mail permit that his department had issued to Esquire magazine.
Ruled that a town manager could not prohibit door-to-door canvassing in a town owned by the federal government.
Ruled that a person distributing religious literature on the sidewalk of a “company town” was protected by the First Amendment rights of freedom of the press and religion and could not be arrested for trespass.
Oklahoma Press Publishing Co. v. Walling (1946)
Upheld the right of a wage-hour administrator enforcing the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) to issue a subpoena duces tecum (an order to compel the production of documents) to a newspaper publishing company for its records relative to its compliance with the FLSA.
Mabee v. White Plains Publishing Co. (1946)
Emphasized that First Amendment protections for freedom of the press, although they shield newspapers against special taxes or regulations designed to impede their mission, do not exempt them from general governmental regulations that apply to them as businesses.
Cleveland v. United States (1946)
Upheld the conviction of a fundamentalist group of polygamous Mormons, responding to the argument that the Mormons had been "motivated by religious belief" to practice polygamy.
Overturned a contempt citation that a Florida court had issued to an editor of the Miami Herald, which had published two editorials and a cartoon criticizing the court’s handling of criminal cases.
Girouard v. United States (1946)
Held that applicants for citizenship may not be required to swear under oath that they will bear arms in defense of the United States if they have religious objections to bearing arms in the military.
Reversed a decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denying a writ of habeas corpus to Harry Bridges, an immigrant from Australia and a member of the Communist Party.
Upheld the decision by the state of Illinois to deny admission of an attorney to the bar because he was a conscientious objector to war.
Enunciated the preferred position doctrine, which expresses a judicial standard based on a hierarchy of constitutional rights so that some constitutional freedoms are entitled to greater protection than others.
Associated Press v. United States (1945)
Upheld an injunction filed against the Associated Press for alleged violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890.
Feldman v. United States (1944)
Ruled that the federal government could use self-incriminating evidence to convict a man of a federal offense even when the evidence had been gathered by a state who had granted the man immunity against state criminal prosecution.
United States v. Ballard (1944)
Ruled that courts cannot examine the truth or falsity of religious beliefs.
Hartzel v. United States (1944)
Overturned the conviction of an individual for violating the Espionage Act of 1917 by selling literature which attacked America's allies.
Prince v. Massachusetts (1944)
Upheld a Massachusetts regulation that prohibited boys younger than age 12 and girls younger than age 18 from selling newspapers in streets and public places.
Follett v. Town of McCormick (1944)
Invalidated a tax of $1 a day or $15 a year imposed by the town of McCormick, S.C., on a resident Jehovah’s Witness selling religious publications door-to-door.
Schneiderman v. United States (1943)
Overturned a decision to strip an immigrant of naturalized citizenship because of his membership in the Communist Party.
Douglas v. City of Jeannette (1943)
Declined to intervene on a case where Jehovah's Witnesses refused to obtain permits to conduct door-to-door solicitation and faced criminal prosecution.
Overturned the conviction of a Jehovah’s Witness who had violated a Dallas, Texas, ordinance prohibiting the distribution of handbills on the streets.
Cafeteria Employees Union v. Angelos (1943)
Ruled that a New York state court had violated the free speech rights of peaceful picketers protesting a cafeteria's unfair labor practices in issuing two broad injunctions against them.
West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (1943)
Invalidated a compulsory flag salute law in public schools and established that students possess some level of First Amendment rights.
Struck down a 1942 Mississippi statute that provided for the imprisonment of individuals who helped “create an attitude of stubborn refusal to salute, honor or respect the flag or government of the United States, or of the state of Mississippi,” finding it in violation of the rights of free speech and press guaranteed by the First Amendment.
Murdock v. Pennsylvania (1943)
Invalidated a city ordinance that required solicitors to obtain a license, finding that it infringed on the First Amendment rights of free press, free speech, and free exercise of religion.
Martin v. City of Struthers (1943)
Overturned an Ohio Supreme Court ruling that upheld the conviction of a door-to-door religious solicitor in a case focusing on freedom of speech and the press.
Held that a Texas ordinance requiring a permit to solicit orders for religious books was unconstitutional.
National Broadcasting Co. v. United States (1943)
Upheld Federal Communications Commission content-based regulations on broadcast media, finding they did not violate First Amendment free speech rights.
Jones v. City of Opelika (1942, 1943)
Upheld a nondiscriminatory licensing fee to sellers of religious books and pamphlets but, one year later in the second case (Jones II), the Court reversed itself and struck down such fees.I
Established that the balance between an individual’s right to privacy and freedom of the press does not depend solely on the truth of or the absence of malice in what is published, but on the judicial determination of “proper public interest.”
Hotel and Restaurant Employees International Alliance v. Wisconsin Employment Relations Board (1942)
Upheld an injunction under Wisconsin’s Employment Peace Act of 1939 against picketing that had been issued and upheld by state courts.
Carpenters and Joiners Union of America, Local No. 213 v. Ritter's Cafe (1942)
Upheld Texas' state-imposed limitations on picketing.
Bakery and Pastry Drivers and Helpers Local v. Wohl (1942)
Struck down an injunction against picketers who were protesting peddlers buying from bakeries and selling to small retailers seven days a week, in conflict with union policies.
Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire (1942)
Established the doctrine of fighting words, a type of speech or communication not protected by the First Amendment.
Valentine v. Chrestensen (1942)
Ruled that commercial speech is not protected by the First Amendment.
Upheld the conviction of a number of Jehovah’s Witnesses for parading without a permit, ruling that their First Amendments rights to freedom of religion, speech, and assembly had not been violated.
Milk Wagon Drivers Union v. Meadowmoor (1941)
Upheld an injunction by an Illinois court against peaceful picketing, which the state court believed was enmeshed in “contemporaneously violent conduct.”
American Federation of Labor v. Swing (1941)
Held that an Illinois common law policy forbidding peaceful persuasion through picketing when there was “no immediate employer-employee dispute” violated freedom of discussion.
National Labor Relations Board v. Virginia Electric and Power (1941)
Examined the degree to which the government can ascertain illegal activity on the basis of words, issued in a company bulletin and in speeches, which would otherwise be protected by the First Amendment.
Overturned contempt convictions against a newspaper and an individual who had criticized judicial proceedings in pending cases.
Ruled that an Alabama law which made it illegal for a person to “loiter” or “picket” around a business with the intention of interfering with it was facially invalid and unconstitutionally denied the First Amendment right of freedom of expression.
Struck down a Shasta County, California, ordinance that prohibited loitering or picketing “for the purpose of inducing, influencing or attempting to induce or influence” … “any person to refrain from doing or performing any service or labor in any works, factory, place of business or employment.”
Minersville School District v. Gobitis (1940)
Ruled that state legislatures could require public school students to salute the U.S. flag and recite the Pledge of Allegiance without violating students’ speech and religious rights under the First Amendment.
Cantwell v. Connecticut (1940)
Affirmed the religious freedom rights of a Jehovah's Witness man to go door-to-door and ruled that the state's breach of peace law was too broad.
1930s
Hague v. Committee for Industrial Organization (1939)
Ruled that banning a group of citizens from holding political meetings in a public place violated the group’s freedom to assemble under the First Amendment.
Struck down on First Amendment grounds city ordinances limiting the distribution of handbills, which were widely used to distribute ideas about issues and garner support.
New Negro Alliance v. Sanitary Grocery Co., Inc. (1938)
Created a precedent that proved to be helpful in later boycotts like the Montgomery Bus boycott of 1955 and 1956, the Birmingham Campaign of 1963, and similar actions. The case primarily centered on an interpretation of the Norris-La Guardia Act, which governed labor disputes.
Lovell v. City of Griffin (1938)
Overturned the conviction of a Jehovah’s Witness who had gone door to door selling pamphlets and magazines.
Ruled against applying federal double jeopardy provisions of the Fifth Amendment to the states, but in the process laid the basis for the idea that some freedoms in the Bill of Rights are more important than others.
Associated Press v. National Labor Relations Board (1937)
Upheld the application of the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 to the Associated Press.
Senn v. Tile Layers Protective Union (1937)
Upheld a Wisconsin law that permitted peaceful picketing against claims that it violated the due process and equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment, which applies First Amendment protections to the states.
Struck down a Georgia Supreme Court decision that had upheld a conviction under a state criminal syndicalism statute penalizing attempts to incite insurrection or inducing others to do so.
Ruled that state governments may not violate the constitutional right of peaceable assembly.
Grosjean v. American Press Co. (1936)
Invalidated a Louisiana law that imposed a 2 percent tax on the gross receipts of newspapers with circulations of more than 20,000 copies per week, citing the First Amendment's free press clause.
Hamilton v. Regents of the University of California (1934)
Upheld the right of states to require university students to receive military training.
Fashioned the First Amendment doctrine opposing prior restraint and reaffirmed the emerging view that the Fourteenth Amendment incorporated the First Amendment to the states.
Stromberg v. California (1931)
Ruled that Yetta Stromberg’s conviction for flying a reproduction of the red flag of the Soviet Union and the Communist Party of the United States violated the free speech protection of the First Amendment.
United States v. Macintosh (1931)
Upheld a federal district court’s denial of U.S. citizenship to Canadian-born Douglas Clyde Macintosh because he expressed reservations about the possibility of being mandated to take up arms for the United States military.
Cochran v. Board of Education (1930)
Adopted child benefit theory to unanimously uphold a Louisiana law allowing the state to purchase and lend secular textbooks to students in public as well as parochial schools.
1920s
United States v. Schwimmer (1929)
Ruled that Rosika Schwimmer, a pacifist who said she would not bear arms to defend the United States, could be denied naturalization as a citizen.
New York ex rel. Bryant v. Zimmerman (1928)
Upheld a misdemeanor conviction of an individual who belonged to the Ku Klux Klan knowing that the organization had more than 20 members, required a secret oath, and had not registered with state authorities as required by state law.
Overturned a conviction obtained under the Kansas Criminal Syndicalism Act on the ground that application of the law violated the due process clause of the 14th Amendment, which applied First Amendment freedom of speech to the states.
Upheld the California Syndicalism Act and upheld the conviction of a member of the Industrial Workers of the World.
Upheld the conviction of Charlotte Anita Whitney for her work with the Communist Labor Party of America, citing the group's tendency to incite crime.
Charles Ruthenberg was convicted for attending a Communist meeting in Michigan; however, he died before the Supreme Court could uphold his conviction.
Pierce v. Society of Sisters (1925)
Established an important precedent for the rights of parents to educate their children and for the rights of parochial schools to operate alongside public schools.
Upheld the constitutionality of New York’s Criminal Anarchy Statute of 1902, which prohibited advocating for the violent overthrow of the government.
Evans v. Selma Union High School District of Fresno County (California Supreme Court) (1924)
Permitted a high school to purchase 12 copies of the King James Bible for its library.
Invalidated a Nebraska law banning the teaching of foreign languages to schoolchildren.
Ruled that a circuit court judge had improperly issued a writ of habeas corpus to Charles Craig, the comptroller of New York City, for a contempt ruling that a U.S. district judge had issued against Craig.
Upheld a fraud order issued by the postmaster general directed to a business advertising through the mails.
Balzac v. People of Porto Rico (1922)
Affirmed a libel decision against Jesus M. Balzac, who edited the Puerto Rican news daily El Baluarte.
Prudential Insurance Co. of America v. Cheek (1922)
Ruled the First Amendment’s free speech clause applied to the states via the Fourteenth Amendment.
United States ex rel. Milwaukee Social Democratic Publishing Co. v. Burleson (1921)
Upheld the third assistant postmaster general’s decision to revoke the second-class mailing privilege that the post office had granted to the publisher of the Milwaukee Leader, a socialist newspaper.
Pierce v. United States (1920)
Upheld the convictions of four socialists under the Espionage Act of 1917.
Upheld the conviction of Joseph Gilbert for criticizing U.S. participation in World War I.
Schaefer v. United States (1920)
Upheld the convictions of three German-American newspaper publishers under the Espionage Act of 1917,
based on the character of editorial changes they made to writings that they re-published.
1910s
Sugarman v. United States (1919)
Ruled that an error had not been made in the proceedings leading to the conviction of Abraham L. Sugarman for violating the Espionage Act of 1917.
Frohwerk v. United States (1919)
Affirmed the conviction of a political dissident for articles he had published criticizing American participation in World War I.
Abrams v. United States (1919)
Upheld the conviction of several individuals for the distribution of leaflets condemning U.S. intervention in Russia.
Upheld the conviction of Eugene V. Debs under the Espionage Act of 1917, who was arrested for a speech condemning World War I.
Schenck v. United States (1919)
Affirmed the conviction of Charles Schenck and Elizabeth Baer for violating the Espionage Act of 1917 through actions that obstructed the “recruiting or enlistment service” during World War I.
Toledo Newspaper Co. v. United States (1918)
Upheld a contempt citation that a judge had issued to a newspaper for publishing material about his court.
Mutual Film Corp. v. Industrial Commission of Ohio (1915)
Restricted the application of First Amendment freedoms to the medium of movies.
Upheld a Washington state statute that made it a crime to publish materials “advocating, encouraging or inciting, or having a tendency to encourage or incite the commission of any crime, [or] breach of the peace.” The Court reached its decision by applying the bad tendency test.
Order of St. Benedict v. Steinhauser (1914)
Ruled that the religious order was entitled to the estate of one of its deceased members, the author Augustine Wirth.
Lewis Publishing Company v. Morgan (1913)
Found that a provision of the U.S. Post Office Act, which required editors of newspapers and similar periodicals to furnish the Post Office with the names and addresses of the editors and major shareholders, did not violate the First Amendment rights of freedom of the press and due process.
Overturned the conviction of an individual convicted of libel in a case and set a precedent for modern doctrines seeking to protect First Amendment expressive rights by making libel judgments difficult to win.
United States v. Press Publishing Co. (1911)
Overturned the indictment of several individuals charged with the federal crime of libel.
Gompers v. Buck's Stove and Range Co. (1911)
Rejected the claim that the First Amendment rights to speech and the press protect individuals who violate injunctions against labor activities, whether spoken or written.
1900s
United States v. Smith (Ind.) (1909)
Established a precedent later used to overturn certain libel convictions.
Rejected the pleas of Sioux Native Americans of South Dakota who were attempting to stop payments from treaty trust funds for a religious school on the Rosebud Reservation.
Bobbs-Merrill Co. v. Straus (1908)
Distinguished patents from copyrights and indicated that the only law governing copyrights was statutory and could not be derived from common-law precedents.
Municipality of Ponce v. Roman Catholic Apostolic Church in Porto Rico (1908)
Ruled that a property where a church was located was owned by the church, not the municipality.
Upheld a Nebraska state law that punished an individual for printing the American flag on a bottle of beer for advertising purposes.
Upheld a contempt citation against a newspaper publisher who had printed articles and a cartoon criticizing a decision by the Colorado Supreme Court in a pending case.
Jacobson v. Massachusetts (1905)
Upheld a state’s mandatory compulsory smallpox vaccination law over the challenge of a pastor who alleged that it violated his religious liberty rights.
United States ex rel. Turner v. Williams (1904)
Upheld immigration authorities’ planned deportation of John Turner, an anarchist and an alien, under Sections 2 and 38 of the Immigration Act of 1903.
American School of Magnetic Healing v. McAnnulty (1902)
Limited the discretion of the postmaster general concerning mail delivery he believed to be false.
Ruled that Connecticut could limit publications to protect ‘public health, safety and morals’.
1890s
Ruled that the federal government’s agreement to provide funding to a Catholic hospital in exchange for care for indigents did not violate the First Amendment.
Pfeiffer v. Board of Education(Mich.) (1898)
Upheld the constitutionality of daily Bible readings in Detroit public schools.
Ruled that, in its first decision regarding the right to speak in city streets and parks, municipalities have near limitless authority over open-air speech.
Swearingen v. United States (1896)
Reversed the conviction of a Kansas newspaper publisher for mailing a newspaper with an allegedly obscene article.
Upheld the indictment and conviction of a man who circulated an obscene newspaper called "Tenderloin, Number, Broadway."
Upheld a Georgia law forbidding trains from running on Sundays against challenges that it unduly interfered with interstate commerce.
Upheld a conviction for using the mail to convey information about where to purchase pornographic pictures.
Affirmed the legality of revised federal statutes prohibiting the use of the U.S. mails to send lottery cards or any publications advertising lotteries, holding that the prohibitions do not violate the First Amendment freedom of the press.
Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States (1892)
Overturned a lower court ruling against a church for illegally hiring a clergyman.
McAuliffe v. Mayor of New Bedford (Mass.) (1892)
Limited Massachusetts' public employees' First Amendment free expression rights, articulating a limited view of employee rights that stood until the U.S. Supreme Court granted more protection to public employees in the 1960s.
State ex rel. Weiss v. City of Edgerton (Wisc.) (1890)
Held that reading the King James Bible in public schools violated Wisconsin's state constitutional protection of religious liberty.
Upheld an Idaho law directed at Mormons which withdrew the right to vote from individuals who refused to take an oath swearing that they did not participate in or advocate polygamy.
Late Corporation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints v. United States (1890)
Ruled that Congress had the right to dissolve the Mormon church and seize its property because of its practice of polygamy under the Edmund-Tucker Act of 1887.
1880s
Charles B. Reynolds Blasphemy Trial (New Jersey) (1887)
Ruled that blasphemy is not a recognized exception to First and Fourteenth Amendment protections for freedom of speech.
Spies v. Illinois (Ill.) (1887)
Affirmed the convictions of individuals involved in the notorious Haymarket Riot of May 1886, where workmen had gathered at Haymarket Square in Chicago to agitate for an eight-hour workday.
Gibbons v. District of Columbia (1886)
Affirmed that Congress could tax church property that had been “used to secure a rent or income, or for any business purpose.”
Upheld a federal law that denied polygamists the right to vote.
Upheld the constitutionality of an 1876 act prohibiting U.S. government officials from requesting or receiving money from other government employees for political purposes.
1870s
Reynolds v. United States (1879)
Ruled that a federal law prohibiting polygamy did not violate the free exercise clause of the First Amendment.
Ruled that Congress did not violate the free speech clause of the First Amendment by closing the postal system to literature concerning lotteries.
United States v. Cruikshank (1876)
Threw out the convictions of Cruikshank and other whites who, during a dispute about a gubernatorial election in Louisiana, killed about 100 black people in the Colfax Massacre and were subsequently charged with conspiring to deprive those black people of their constitutional rights.
Rejected a claim that butchers in New Orleans filed against a set of state regulations directing that all butchering take place in selected abattoirs.
Board of Education of the City of Cincinnati v. Minor (1872)
Upheld a school-board decision prohibiting religious instruction from the Bible in public schools, thus serving as a precursor to the debate the Supreme Court would take up in the 20th century.
Ruled that it would resolve disputes relative to church property on a basis other than an examination of church doctrine, thus making the conflict between church and state less likely.
1860s
Ruled that the U.S. Supreme Court had no jurisdiction to hear appeals from a military commission that had sentenced a gubernatorial candidate to life in prison for an inflammatory speech.
1850s
Lander v. Seaver (Vermont Supreme Court) (1859)
Commonwealth v. Cooke (Mass.) (1859)
Overturned the state’s prosecution of a teacher for using corporal punishment on a student who had refused to read from the Bible at his public school.
Held that proclamations of fasting and thanksgiving do not exempt business owners from fulfilling contractual obligations.
Ex Parte Newman (Calif. Supreme Court) (1858)
Overturned a law designed to protect the observance of Sunday, regarded as the Christian Sabbath.
Ruled that a man had no standing in a lawsuit against a religious organization over the amount of money given to him when he left the church because the acceptance of the money precluded his claim that the amount was too little.
Donahoe v. Richards (Maine Supreme Court) (1854)
Rejected a suit filed by a father whose 15-year-old was expelled from public school for refusing to read the King James version of the Bible.
Allowed the German Lutheran church to retain the property after Charles Beatty's death based on Maryland state law.
Allowed the southern Methodist church to take its share of funds generated by book sales after a split over the issue of slavery.
1840s
Held that petitions to the government were not exempt from prosecutions for libel when they involved malice.
Dismissed a challenge to a New Orleans ordinance limiting Catholic funerals to a single chapel in the city.
Vidal v. Girard's Executors (1844)
Ruled that funds for a school for orphans could be used despite the caveat that none of the teachers could be clergymen, at the instruction of the benefactor.
Folsom v. Marsh (C.C.D. Mass.) (1841)
Upheld an injunction against the publication of a book on the life of George Washington, citing the book’s publication of letters from previous volumes did not constitute “fair use” and thus violated copyright.
1830s
Commonwealth v. Kneeland (Mass.) (1838)
Upheld blasphemy convictions against Abner Kneeland for the publication of several articles about prayer and immaculate conception.
State v. Chandler (Del.) (1837)
Upheld the blasphemy conviction of a man who was charged for saying "the virgin Mary was a whore and Jesus Christ was a bastard", but ruled that blasphemy laws were meant to preserve civil peace, not punish beliefs.
Rejected the idea that there was a federal common law on copyright or that cases could themselves be copyrighted.
Ruled that the framers of the Constitution did not intend the Bill of Rights to extend to state actions.
Phillips et al. (Simon's Executors) v. Gratz (1831)
Ruled that a Jewish man's observation of the Sabbath did not provide a proper reason to postpone his case.
1820s
Atwood v. Welton (Conn. Supreme Court) (1828)
Rejected the testimony of a man because of his religious beliefs.
Commonwealth v. Lesher (Penn. S.C.) (1828)
Upheld a conviction despite being challenged due to the dismissal of a juror who said he could not vote for the death penalty because of his religion.
Commonwealth v. Blanding (Mass.) (1825)
Upheld a libel conviction against an individual who had published a newspaper article alleging that an innkeeper had provided alcohol that resulted in a patron’s death.
Updegraph v. Commonwealth (Pa.) (1824)
Upheld the blasphemy conviction of a man for the "malicious" behavior that could lead to a breach of peace.
State v. Willson (S.C. App.) (1823)
Ruled that South Carolina did not have to exempt the members of a religious group known as the Covenanters from grand jury service.
Upheld the right of the House of Representatives to cite individuals for contempt, but limited its power to imprison them beyond the session and ruled out corporal or capital punishments.
Ruled that the original congregation owned a church in Dedham, Mass., following a dispute that caused nearly half of the congregants to form their own parish.
1810s
State v. Gruber (Md., Cty. Ct.) (1819)
Acquitted Frederick County who was arrested for giving an anti-slavery speech in Maryland, where slavery was still legal.
Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819)
Ruled that the state of New Hampshire had violated the contract clause in its attempt to install a new board of trustees for Dartmouth College.
Trustees of Philadelphia Baptist Association v. Hart's Executors (1819)
Established that the court will stay out of the business of deciding matters of internal church governance and policy.
Commonwealth v. Wolf (Penn. Supreme Court) (1817)
Upheld a fine against a Jewish man who violated a state law against working on a Sunday, rejecting his arguments that his religion dictated the Sabbath to be on Saturday.
Commonwealth v. Sharpless (Pa) (1815)
Indicted Jesse Sharpless and others for corrupting youth by showing them a picture of a man and a woman in what was described as “an obscene, imprudent, and indecent posture.”
Found that laws divesting religious corporations of their property were improper yet unenforceable because the First Amendment's protection of religious liberty did not apply to the states at the time.
Ruled in favor of the First Amendment's free exercise of religion clause by establishing the priest-penitent privilege.
United States v. Hudson and Goodwin (1812)
Overturned the seditious libel conviction of Barzillai Hudson and George Goodwin, who published an article charging Thomas Jefferson's administration with secretly voting to give Napoleon Bonaparte $2 million.
People v. Ruggles (N.Y.) (1811)
Upheld a blasphemy conviction against a man who publicly stated that "Jesus Christ was a bastard and his mother must be a whore."
Barnes v. First Parish in Falmouth (1810)
Upheld that Massachusetts had a right to use tax money to support religious societies within the commonwealth.
1800s and prior
Curtiss v. Strong (Conn. Supreme Court of Errors) (1809)
Affirmed the right of individuals of various religious persuasions to testify in court, but denied that right to individuals who did not believe in a future state of rewards or punishments.
Commonwealth v. Clapp (Mass.) (1808)
Upheld a lower court’s denial of an accused’s request to show the truth of an alleged libel.
New York Supreme Court upheld the libel conviction of Harry Croswell for publishing an article alleging that President Thomas Jefferson had paid James Callender to make derogatory statements about George Washington and John Adams.
Gives insight into how early America viewed the First Amendment. The case involved the Maryland Court of Appeal's intervention in a church dispute.