Blaine amendments—19th century amendments to state constitutions—aimed to
deny public funds for parochial schools and amplified the First Amendment’s
establishment clause.

35,000 signatures were presented to Congress in 1876 to add a Christian
Amendment to the Constitution to acknowledge the rulership of Jesus Christ.
The effort failed.

The Comstock Act of 1873 made it illegal to send “obscene, lewd or
lascivious” publications through the mail or sell or possess an obscene
book, pamphlet or drawing.

The Hatch Act of 1939, which limited the political participation and speech
of federal employees, has survived First Amendment free expression
challenges.

Congress passed the Indian Appropriations Act to pay American Indian
education using religious schools to diffuse First Amendment controversy
over church-state conflict.

Congress adopted the Morrill Act for the Suppression of Polygamy in
response to a perceived threat posed by polygamy, practiced by the Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

A major concern of the Postal Service Act of 1792 was the delivery of newspapers. Early leaders believed newspapers would keep the public better informed and thus set low mailing rates for them. This differed from the British colonial system in which postmasters would give themselves a competitive advantage by printing and distributing newspapers through the mail and denying the same privilege to their competitors.

The clash over the Sedition Act of 1798, designed to deal with threats in
the “quasi-war” with France, yielded the first sustained debate over the
meaning of the First Amendment.

The Smith Act of 1940 has been upheld against First Amendment challenges.
The Act forbade any attempts to advocate for the violent destruction of the
U.S. government.