Documents

The 1797 Treaty of Tripoli has been used by some to counter arguments that
the United States is a “Christian nation.” The treaty, aimed to protect
American ships from the Muslim Barbary pirates, assures that the United
States was not founded upon Christianity.

David Horowitz’s Academic Bill of Rights attempts to establish principles
of the First Amendment on college campuses that Horowitz says have been
violated by liberals on campus.

The Attorney General’s List of Subversive Organizations cataloged
organizations engaged in supposed subversive activity. The list chilled
First Amendment freedoms.

The Bill of Rights, the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, was
established in 1791 to guard against an oppressive national government by
establishing certain rights.

Justice Harlan Fiske Stone inserted a footnote that marked a Court shift in
giving more constitutional protection to individual rights, especially
those of the First Amendment.

The First Amendment drew language from Cato’s Letters, which endorsed free
speech and said that people must be able to “petition for redress” their
government.

The constitution of the Confederate States of America included the rights
of the First Amendment. It protected those rights from any laws passed by
the Confederacy but not states.

The Declaration and Resolves of the First Continental Congress in 1774
foreshadowed rights that would be included in the First Amendment,
including the right of petition.

The letter to Quebec was meant to urge Canadians to join the colonists’
cause against Great Britain. The letter foreshadows the First Amendment
freedom of the press.

The Declaration of Independence shows a vigorous exercise of future First
Amendment freedoms of speech and press, and paved the way for recognition
of the right of petition.

The English Bill of Rights of 1689 contains many rights that were later
included in the First Amendment, such as the right to petition and freedom
of speech and debate.

The Magna Carta is a series of concessions that English noblemen extracted
from King John I in 1215. The document remains an important foundation for
many American founding documents.

One of America’s most important contributions to government is the written
constitution. The Mayflower Compact is the first constitution written in
the New World.

James Madison’s “Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments”
argued for complete religious liberty and against government support of
religion in any form.

On Liberty by British philosopher John Stuart Mill presents an influential
argument in favor of free speech, making it an inspiration for future First
Amendment theory.

The Pentagon Papers, classified documents that were leaked to the press,
became the subject of a major Supreme Court case regarding censorship and
First Amendment press freedom.

In 2020, the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia commissioned three groups of scholars to draft new versions of the U.S. Constitution, all of whom chose to reform rather than abolish the current document.   Professors Robert George of Princeton University, Michael McConnell of Stanford University (a former federal circuit judge and frequent writer on the

The Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of 1798 were Democratic-Republican
responses to the Alien and Sedition Acts passed earlier that same year by a
Federalist-dominated Congress.

The Virginia Declaration of Rights outlined rights similar to those later
incorporated into the U.S. Bill of Rights, including some similar to the
First Amendment.

James Madison’s Report of 1800 argued for full freedom of speech and press
as indispensable checks on officeholders under a republican form of
government.

The 1786 Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom was the driving force
behind the religious clauses of the First Amendment of the U.S.
Constitution, ratified in 1791.