A Florida court said 2 Live Crew’s rap lyrics were obscene, but a circuit
court reversed the decision, saying the music was protected by the First
Amendment.

A. Mitchell Palmer directed the “Palmer raids,” a series of roundups of
thousands of radicals suspected of communist subversion. The raids violated
First Amendment liberties.

Aaron Caplan is a First Amendment scholar who has focused on Internet free
speech cases and has litigated for the ACLU. He teaches at Loyola Law
School.

Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas wrote several influential First Amendment
opinions, including Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School
District (1969).

Though revered by history, Abraham Lincoln has been criticized for his
restrictions on civil liberties during the Civil War, including First
Amendment freedoms. People expressing pro-Confederate sentiments were
arrested, and the Chicago Times newspaper was shuttered for criticizing
Lincoln’s administration.

Adam Smith (1723-1790) was a Scottish philosopher who published “The Theory of Moral Sentiments” (1759) and “The Wealth of Nations” (1776) and is often considered to be the father of capitalism.  Smith identified with Scottish common sense philosophers including Francis Hutcheson, David Hume, Thomas Reid and others. Smith’s works explained how market forces of supply and

Few if any scientific figures are better known, or have had a greater impact on modern science, than Albert Einstein, a theoretical physicist who was born in Germany in 1879 and died in the United States in 1955. Einstein was best known for his theory of relativity and for the idea, for which he received a

Albert Gallatin, best known as President Thomas Jefferson’s secretary of
the Treasury, promoted civil liberties, including those found in the First
Amendment.

Alex Kozinski, a former judge on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, is
well-known for his First Amendment writings in the areas of commercial
speech and publicity.

Alexander Bickel, a well-known legal scholar, was the attorney for the New
York Times in the Pentagon Papers case that advanced First Amendment press
freedom.

In 1812, a violent mob broke into a Baltimore newspaper office and attacked its owner Alexander Contee Hanson, whose articles opposing the War of 1812 angered them. In an example of lack of protection of press freedom, government officials refused to defend the newspaper owner and his defenders, even in jail, where another attack occurred, killing one and disfiguring another.

Though initially opposed to the Bill of Rights, Alexander Hamilton had a
lifelong concern with the individual liberties guaranteed by the First
Amendment.

Alexander Meiklejohn argued that the First Amendment’s primary purpose is
to ensure that voters are free to debate in order to make informed choices
about their self-government.

Alexis de Tocqueville wrote one of the most profound discussions of
American democracy in the 19th century. He was particularly impressed by
the role of First Amendment freedoms.

Alfred M. Knight III was a Nashville-based attorney who specialized in
First Amendment and open government litigation. For much of his career, he
represented The Tennessean.

Algernon Sidney was the world’s most celebrated martyr for free speech.
Sidney became a hero to American Founding Fathers who used the First
Amendment to protect free speech.

Alvin Goldstein was an outspoken publisher of pornography and advocate of
free speech who was engaged in several First Amendment battles in the
courts.

Amy Coney Barrett was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court in October 2020
to fill a vacancy after Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg died. Still new to the
court, it will take more cases to fully examine her record on First
Amendment law.

Andrea Dworkin, a radical feminist writer and theorist, rejected First
Amendment protections for pornography, arguing that pornography encourages
violence against women.

Andrew Jackson (1767-1845), who served as president from 1829 to 1837, was one of the most consequential presidents in U.S. history. Born in North Carolina, Jackson spent most of his life in Tennessee where he served as a justice on the state supreme court from 1798 to 1804 and as a U.S. senator from 1823

Andrew Johnson (1808-1875) was born in North Carolina but spent most of his life in Tennessee. Lacking formal education, he began his working life as a tailor and was taught by his wife to read and write. A Jacksonian Democrat, he served as a town alderman, as mayor of Greeneville, Tennessee, in the U.S. House of

Anne Hutchinson was a religious leader in the Massachusetts Bay Colony and the mother of 15 children. She held Bible studies in her home, which were attended by both men and women, and she challenged the authority of the Puritan clergy. Hutchinson was eventually banished from the colony and moved to Rhode Island.

Anthony Comstock imposed his Victorian values on a rapidly urbanizing
United States, sometimes in disregard for the protections afforded by the
First Amendment.

Anthony Kennedy has frequently been the swing vote in First Amendment
cases. He has tended to side with protections for free speech and
accommodation on religious matters.

Anthony Lewis was a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who covered the
Supreme Court for the New York Times and authored several First Amendment
books.

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia viewed First Amendment protections in
a narrow fashion. He was a staunch conservative and viewed the Constitution
as an originalist.

Archibald Cox is best known for his role as special prosecutor in the
Watergate investigation, but his career also involved a number of First
Amendment issues.

Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg was a consistent vote for the
protection of First Amendment freedoms, including in the landmark case New
York Times Co. v. Sullivan.

Arthur Hays was founding member of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Although he had many corporate clients, he is best known for defending
First Amendment freedoms.

Arthur Kinoy was a well-known civil liberties attorney, who tirelessly
advocated for liberal causes. He argued a few First Amendment cases before
the Supreme Court.

Arthur Miller’s criticisms of McCarthyism in one of his plays led to a
congressional investigation, where he stood by his First Amendment rights
of association.

Barack Hussein Obama was born in Hawaii in 1961 to an American mother and a Kenyan father.  He earned a bachelor’s degree from Columbia and a law degree from Harvard University, where he served as president of the law review. After working as a civil rights attorney and teaching at the University of Chicago Law School,

The philosophy of John Locke and other Englishmen is most associated with the American Founding and its emphasis on rights that are embodied in the Declaration of Independence, the First Amendment, and other provisions of the Bill of Rights. But one of the framers’ most quoted philosophers was Charles Louis de Secondat De Montesquieu of

Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Cardozo authored many opinions that
supported freedom of the press and free speech, which he viewed as the
foundation of liberty.

Benjamin Franklin, a man of many talents, helped shape the U.S.
Constitution and was a lifetime champion of First Amendment freedoms,
particularly freedom of the press.

Benjamin Franklin Bache, grandson of Benjamin Franklin, was arrested under
the Sedition Act of 1798. In his partisan journalism he was accused of
libeling President John Adams.

Benjamin Harrison (1833-1901), the grandson of former president William Henry Harrison and the great-grandson of Benjamin Harrison V, who had signed the Declaration of Independence. He served as the 23rd president from 1889 to 1893. Harrison defeated Grover Cleveland in the electoral college (albeit not in the popular vote) in 1888, but lost both the popular and

William Franklin “Billy” Graham (1918-2018) was the best-known Baptist evangelist of the 20th century. After earning an undergraduate degree at Wheaton University, Graham became a pastor, hosted a radio program, became involved with Youth for Christ, and briefly headed Northwestern Bible College in Minneapolis, Minnesota, before beginning a series of evangelistic crusades throughout the United

Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, confirmed in 2018, authored many
First Amendment decisions while on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C.
Circuit. Among the issues in his opinions are protest rights, defamation,
campaign finance and freedom of speech and press.

Bruce Sanford is a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of BakerHostetler, where he practices media law and litigation.

Byron Raymond White was a Supreme Court justice whose First Amendment
opinions tended to give less importance to press freedom and student speech
concerns.

C. Edwin Baker was a leading First Amendment scholar who wrote Human
Liberty and Freedom of Speech. He described the liberty model justification
for freedom of expression.

Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933) was born on July 4, 1872, in Plymouth Notch, Vermont, where he would receive the news in 1923 that President Warren G. Harding, under whom he served as vice president, had died and that he was now president. His father, a justice of the peace, had administered the oath to him by

Feminist legal scholar Catharine MacKinnon argues that pornography should
be illegal as it perpetuates sexual inequality. She has faced pushback from
First Amendment proponents.

Charles Hughes was a Supreme Court justice twice. He supported relatively
broad First Amendment protections while and helped preserve judicial
independence.

Chester A. Arthur (1829-1886) was born in Vermont (his father was a Baptist minister) but was raised in New York where he spent most of his life. He graduated from Union College, served for a time as a teacher, read law, and was admitted to the New York bar. During the Civil War, he served as

Clarence Darrow is one of America’s most famous defense attorneys who
sought to protect First Amendment rights. He is best known for his role in
the Scopes monkey trial.

Justice Clarence Thomas has surprised observers with his independent vision
on First Amendment issues, including questioning interpretations of the
establishment clause.

Clay Calvert is a First Amendment scholar who has authored First Amendment
law articles on topics including broadcast indecency and recording of
police activities.

Damon Keith was a long-serving judge on the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals and an important figure in protecting civil rights. He authored
many First Amendment decisions, including involving symbolic speech and the
rights of a religious speaker.

Dan Paul was an attorney best known in First Amendment circles for winning
an important press freedom in Miami Herald Publishing Co. v. Tornillo
(1974).

Daniel Ellsberg released the Pentagon Papers, leading to a ruling that said
restricting publication of the papers represented prior restraint in
violation of the First Amendment.

Daniel Fowle highlighted freedom of the press in the Colonial period before
adoption of the First Amendment. He was arrested for publishing a pamphlet
satirizing the legislature.

David A. Cortman is an appellate advocate who has argued several First
Amendment cases before the Supreme Court. He serves as senior counsel with
the Alliance Defending Freedom.

David Hume (1711-1776) was a prominent Scottish historian and philosopher who was well known to the American Founders. Part of the Scottish common sense school of philosophy, Hume put great emphasis on experience and scientific methods and was skeptical of speculative philosophy and the fanaticism that he associated with political and religious ideologies. Hume praised

David Rabban is known for his First Amendment work, especially a book that
examined the legal interpretations of free speech during the “forgotten
years” between 1870 to 1920.

David Rein, a civil liberties lawyer, argued a number of cases before the
Supreme Court, several of them dealing with First Amendment issues and
McCarthyism.

Supreme Court Justice David Souter often showed sensitivity to First
Amendment values. He was a consistent voice for the protection of
free-expression principles.

Through controversial political comments, the Dixie Chicks — a bluegrass
trio — became a symbol of U.S. political polarization and the First
Amendment’s protection of free speech.

President Donald Trump attacked the news media, promised to “open up” libel
law and increase religious freedom for evangelicals.

Douglas Laycock, a law professor, is one of the nation’s foremost religious
liberty experts. He has argued First Amendment-related cases before the
Supreme Court.

Dwight David Eisenhower (1890-1969) was born in Texas, raised in Kansas, and educated at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He served most of his life in the military and, as Supreme Allied Commander, supervised the invasion of France at D-Day during World War II. After a stint as chief of staff of the U.S.

E. Barrett Prettyman Jr. a Washington, D.C., attorney, argued 19 cases
before the Supreme Court. Some involved First Amendment issues, including
freedom of the press.

Chief Justice Earl Warren’s Court was known for rulings backing civil
rights and a number of First Amendment milestones, including New York Times
Co. v. Sullivan.

Edward Douglass White (1845-1921), the ninth chief justice for the Supreme Court, was born in Louisiana where his father had served as a state governor. His father died when White was only three years old.  White became a lawyer, fought during the Civil War for the Confederacy, and was captured by Union forces. He subsequently served

Edward R. Murrow was one of the creators of American broadcast journalism.
Murrow inspired other journalists to defend and perpetuate the First
Amendment rights.

Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, known for her deep knowledge of First
Amendment issues, has written opinions in many Supreme Court First
Amendment cases.

Newspaper editor Elijah Lovejoy, killed in 1837 by a mob incensed by his
anti-slavery views, is a martyr in the causes of abolitionism and First
Amendment free speech.

Elisha Williams, known for writing a pamphlet that argued for religious
liberty before the First Amendment, denied that religious uniformity was
necessary for a peaceful society.

Emma Goldman demonstrated for First Amendment rights through speeches,
lectures, picketing and marching. She faced arrests and official harassment
for her unpopular views.

Ephraim London was an attorney who successfully argued First Amendment
cases before the Supreme Court, including a case that established film as
protected expression.

Erwin Chemerinsky, one of the foremost constitutional law scholars and
Supreme Court lawyers, writes on First Amendment issues and argues First
Amendment cases before the Court.

As solicitor general, Erwin Griswold unsuccessfully argued that the
security concerns of the Pentagon Papers outweighed the First Amendment
rights of a free press.

Labor leader and socialist Eugene V. Debs fought for associational and
organized labor rights under First Amendment. He was imprisoned under the
Espionage Act.

Evan T. Lawson was a Boston-based attorney who successfully argued two
First Amendment cases before the Supreme Court involving flag misuse and
commercial speech.

While Justice Felix Frankfurter championed civil rights, he frequently
voted to limit civil liberties and was not one of the great defenders of
the First Amendment.

Floyd Abrams, a well-known First Amendment lawyer, has argued many famous
cases before the Supreme Court, including the landmark Pentagon Papers case.

Francis Biddle won praise for balancing freedom and security in World War
II. As attorney general, he fought for civil liberties like those in the
First Amendment.

Supreme Court Justice Francis W. Murphy wrote eloquently about First
Amendment freedoms, repeatedly voicing his belief that religious freedom
deserved great protection.

Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945) was not only the longest serving but also one of the most consequential presidents in U.S. history. Born and raised in New York, Roosevelt earned an undergraduate degree from Harvard and a law degree from Columbia. Subsequently elected to the New York Senate, he also served as assistant secretary of the Navy

Franklin Pierce (1804-1869) was born in New Hampshire and educated at Bowdoin College in Maine and Northampton Law School in Massachusetts. He served as a member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives where he rose to the speakership, was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1833 to 1847, and was a

Fred W. Friendly, an early innovator of broadcast journalism, was also
known for his seminars on the media and public issues and for his writings
on the First Amendment.

Frederick Douglass, a former slave who became one of America’s greatest
orators, believed that the First Amendment rights to free speech and
assembly were essential in abolishing slavery in the United States.

Frederick Schauer’s First Amendment writings are notable for their
philosophical rigor, passionately favoring free speech but critiquing
arguments for it.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Frederick Vinson tended to favor national
security over First Amendment freedom of speech, and was a moderate on race
relations.

Geoffrey Stone is a First Amendment scholar and a law professor at the
University of Chicago who has written and edited numerous books on free
expression.

George Carlin was a controversial comedian whose “Filthy Words” monologue
sparked a Supreme Court case concerning government regulation of indecent
speech.

George Herbert Walker Bush (1924-2018), who was the son of a U.S. senator from Connecticut, served from 1989 to 1993 as president of the United States. He previously served for eight years as vice president under Ronald Reagan with whom he had unsuccessfully vied for the 1980 Republican nomination.  Bush was born in Massachusetts and raised

George Hay was a lawyer, writer and federal district judge who contributed
to First Amendment theory by writing pamphlets defending the freedom of the
press.

George Mason, a Virginia statesman and one of the founders of the United
States, is best known for his proposal of a bill of rights at the
Constitutional Convention.

George W. Bush, who was born in 1946, served as U.S. president from 2001 to 2009. The son of George H. W. Bush, he was born and raised in Texas, and earned his undergraduate degree from Yale University and his master’s of business administration from Harvard. He spent some time as a pilot in the Texas

George W. Truett was a Baptist pastor and leader. His best-known speech in 1920, “Baptists and Religious Liberty,” was given on the steps of the U.S. Capitol Building to a huge audience and touted the idea that religious liberty was the most important contribution made by American and Baptists to the science of government. He called the First Amendment a “pre-eminently” Baptist achievement, drawing on the founders and early Christians who desired for the church and state to be separate, neither trespassing “upon the distinctive functions of the other.”

George Washington, first President of the United States, favored the Bill
of Rights and advocated for religious freedom throughout his life.

Gerald R. Ford (1913-2006) is the only individual who has served as U.S. president without being elected to that office as either president or vice-president. Born in Omaha, Nebraska, and raised in Grand Rapids Michigan, Ford earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of Michigan, where he played on the school’s football team. He earned a

Greg Lukianoff is the president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in
Education (FIRE) and one of the country’s most passionate defenders of free
expression.

Grover Cleveland (1837-1908) has the distinction of being the only U.S. president to serve two non-successive terms. He became the 22nd president when he served from 1885 to 1889 and the 24th when he served from 1893 to 1897. Born in New Jersey (his father was a Presbyterian minister) and largely raised in New York, he

H. Louis Sirkin is a Cincinnati-based attorney nationally known for his
First Amendment work, defending of clients in obscenity and adult
entertainment cases.

Harlan Fiske Stone served as an associate justice and chief justice on the
Supreme Court, where he showed sensitivity to civil liberties and First
Amendment values.

Harry Andrew Blackmun was an associate justice on the U.S. Supreme Court,
best known for writing the majority opinion in Roe v. Wade that overturned
most state abortion laws.

Harry Kalven Jr. was University of Chicago law professor best known for
advocacy of and thoughtful writings about First Amendment freedom of speech
and expression.

Harry S. Truman (1884-1972) was born and raised in Missouri, spent about a year at Spalding’s Commercial College (a business college in Kansas City) without getting a degree, served in the U.S. Army during World War I, and returned to Missouri where he served as a haberdasher and farmer. He then became involved in politics

Harry Weinberger was a litigator for numerous civil liberties and First
Amendment causes in the early 1900s, including theater censorship and the
military draft.

Hayden C. Covington was one of the most important and least heralded
attorneys on First Amendment issues, especially those related to the free
exercise of religion.

Henry W. Sawyer III was a civil liberties attorney who successfully argued
two of the most important religious liberty First Amendment cases before
the Supreme Court.

Herbert Hoover (1874-1964) was born in Iowa — becoming the first president to be born west of the Mississippi River — and earned a bachelor’s degree in geology at Stanford University in California. A gifted engineer, Hoover earned a reputation and a formidable income in mining in Australia, Burma and elsewhere. He was tapped during the

Herbert Wechsler was a leading lawyer and legal scholar best known in First
Amendment circles for arguing the landmark libel case New York Times Co. v.
Sullivan.

Horace Mann’s vision of universal education and non-sectarian schools was a
precursor to the Supreme Court’s interpretation of First Amendment
principles in public schools.

Howard Stern, one of the most controversial radio personalities,
consistently pushing the boundaries of First Amendment free expression
rights on public airwaves.

Hugh Hefner, founder of the controversial Playboy magazine, was a prominent
advocate of First Amendment rights. His magazine was thought to be obscene
by some.

Supreme Court Justice Hugo Lafayette Black is considered to be one of the
most influential justices of his time. On First Amendment issues, Black was
considered an absolutist.

Ida B. Wells (1862-1931) was an African American woman who was born into
slavery in Mississippi and eventually became the co-owner and editor of the
Memphis Free Speech.

Isaac Backus, an influential Baptist, helped establish the notion of free
exercise of religion, which eventually was incorporated into the First
Amendment.

J. Edgar Hoover was director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation for 48
years. His critics accused him violating individuals’ First Amendment
rights.

James Skelly Wright was a highly respected federal judge who was perhaps
best known for his impact on civil rights and desegregation, specifically
in New Orleans.

James A. Garfield (1831-1881) was from Ohio and was the last president to have been born in a log cabin. After some time doing manual labor, he studied at what later became known as Hiram College, which was run by the Disciples of Christ, and became a preacher. He subsequently graduated with honors from Williams

James G. Birney (1792-1857) founded the abolitionist newspaper, the Philanthropist. In 1836, a mob destroyed his press and went on to riot several nights, attacking Black homes in the city. A group, calling themselves “the friends of Order, of Law, and the Constitution” that included future Supreme Court Justice Salmon Chase  criticized such actions. They observed

James Buchanan (1791-1868), who was born in Pennsylvania and earned his bachelor’s degree at Dickinson College, had a distinguished career as a lawyer, politician and diplomat before succeeding Franklin Pierce to become the 15th U.S. president, serving from 1857 to 1861.  Abraham Lincoln followed Buchanan as president. Prior to his presidency, Buchanan had served in the

James Burgh, an 18th century British political theorist, advocated for broader protections of speech than was recognized by British law at the time.

James Gibbons’ greatest contribution to thinking about the First Amendment was that of lauding the American doctrine of separation of church and state at a time when the Roman Catholic Church prided itself on being the established church in many European nations. Gibbons was a Catholic priest in the late 19th and early 20th centuries who became archbishop of Baltimore and later only the second American to be named a cardinal.

James C. Goodale, a prominent First Amendment attorney, is best known for
leading the New York Times in its successful litigation in the Pentagon
Papers case.

James K. Polk (1795-1849) was born in North Carolina but spent most of his political life in Tennessee. He earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and read law in Nashville under Felix Grundy. After serving as a clerk to the Tennessee State Senate, Polk was elected to the U.S.

James Madison, the chief author of the Bill of Rights and the First
Amendment, was the foremost champion of the freedoms of religion, speech,
and the press in the Founding Era.

James Monroe (1758-1731), who served as the fifth U.S. president from 1817 to 1825, is often identified as the last of the Founding Fathers. Born in Virginia, where he would serve as governor and which he would represent in the U.S. Senate, Monroe attended the College of William and Mary before serving as a soldier

James Wilson (1742-1798), who was born in Scotland and emigrated to the United States at the age of 23, studied law under John Dickinson, and went on to become one of the leading attorneys in Pennsylvania.  One of America’s founders, he was appointed as one of the early Supreme Court justices by George Washington. His writings

Jasper Adams (1793-1841), an American clergyman, is best known for his arguments that the Constitution and other documents recognized Christianity as the national religion. This argument appeared to contradict the provision in the First Amendment that prohibited the establishment of such a religion.  Adams delivered a key sermon on his argument in 1833 at St. Michael’s

Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, is
a leading Supreme Court litigator. He has argued numerous First Amendment
cases before the high court.

James (Jimmy) Earl Carter, Jr. defeated Gerald Ford in the presidential election of 1976 and served in that office from 1977 to 1981. Born in Plains, Georgia, in 1924, he earned his undergraduate degree at the U.S. Naval Academy. After serving in the Navy, he returned to Plains to manage a peanut farm. He served in

Joseph R. Biden Jr. was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, in 1942. He earned an undergraduate degree at the University of Delaware and a law degree from Syracuse University, and has spent most of his life as an elected official. He served as a U.S. senator from Delaware from 1973 to 2009 and as vice president in

John Adams, who served as the first vice president and second President of
the United States, also supported First Amendment principles through his
political writings and thought.

John C. Calhoun (1782-1850) was a prominent 19th century South Carolina politician who became a major figure in efforts to keep the Senate from considering petitions to eliminate slavery and to exclude abolitionist literature from the mails. Calhoun served as a U.S. senator from South Carolina from 1832-1843 and from 1845 to 1850. He also had been

John Clarke (1609-1676), sometimes also spelled Clark, is one of the pioneers of religious freedom in America. He was influential in securing religious liberty in Rhode Island where he held a number of public offices, including that of legal clerk and lieutenant governor. Clarke was born in Westhorpe, Suffock, England and received medical training in Holland.

John C. Connell is an attorney who specializes in First Amendment law. He
is best known for successfully representing musician Simon Tam pro bono in
Matal v. Tam (2017).

John Courtney Murray a Jesuit priest, theologian, and advocate of
interfaith cooperation, was a lifelong supporter of the principles of the
First Amendment.

A prominent legal scholar, John Hart Ely contributed to First Amendment
jurisprudence. He argues against strict absolutism in interpreting the
Constitution.

John F. Kennedy (1917-1962) was the youngest man ever elected to the U.S. presidency. Born in Massachusetts to a father who had served as an ambassador to Great Britain, Kennedy earned an undergraduate degree from Harvard University, served as a lieutenant in charge of a torpedo boat in World War II, and entered politics by being

Although he served as the first chief justice of the United States, John Jay (1745-1829) has been largely overshadowed by John Marshall, who served as the fourth chief. Although it does not appear that the Supreme Court voided any laws under the First Amendment while Jay was on the Supreme Court, he played a significant

Baptist preacher John Leland helped provide religious foundation for ideas
espoused by the Founders concerning the relationship between government and
religion.

The Englishman John Lilburne (1615–1657) was a prominent defender of
religious liberties and free speech and a celebrated political prisoner.

English philosopher John Locke’s ideas of natural law, religious
toleration, and the right to revolution proved essential to the American
Revolution and the U.S. Constitution.

Under John Marshall’s leadership, the Court expanded the role of the
national government and limited the reach of the First Amendment to actions
of the national government.

Supreme Court Justice John Marshall Harlan I transformed himself over time
from being an advocate of slavery to becoming a strong defender of First
Amendment rights.

Supreme Court Justice John Marshall Harlan II was an architect of First
Amendment jurisprudence in obscenity law, freedom of association,
expressive conduct, and offensive speech.

John Milton made an important contribution to the idea of free speech and
free press in a pamphlet, Areopagitica, published in response to a
restrictive printing ordinance.

Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens contributed mightily to First
Amendment jurisprudence and seemingly became more speech-protective in his
later years on the Court.

The trial of John Peter Zenger was one of the most important events in
shaping American thinking toward freedom of speech prior to and after the
adoption of the First Amendment.

John Quincy Adams was the sixth president of the United States, a
legislator, and an attorney. He argued against the “gag rule” in Congress
that tabled petitions about slavery.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. has had an indelible impact on the First
Amendment in his time on the Court. He has proven to be sensitive to First
Amendment concerns.

John Rutledge was appointed as an inaugural member of the Supreme Court by President George Washington. He was a strong defender of free speech.

John Seigenthaler was the longtime editor of The Tennessean in Nashville,
known for championing civil rights. He founded the First Amendment Center
at Vanderbilt University in 1991 and became a national leader in promoting
First Amendment values.

John Stuart Mill became a guiding light for individual liberty. Practical
applications of First Amendment principles often rest upon allusions to his
ideas.

John Tyler (1790-1862) was born and raised in Virginia, where he attended the College of William and Mary and read law. He was elected at an early age to the state’s House of Delegates. During the War of 1812, he organized a militia company to defend Richmond. He served successively as a member of the U.S.

John Wilkes was an Englishman who championed free expression and
individualism during the 18th century. He was prosecuted for seditious
libel and obscenity.

John Winthrop was an early Puritan leader who created the basis for
established religion that remained in place in Massachusetts until well
after adoption of the First Amendment.

John Witherspoon was the only clergyman to sign the Declaration of
Independence and Articles of Confederation as well as serve at the New
Jersey convention to ratify the Constitution.

Joseph Ignatius Breen, one of the most powerful people in Hollywood,
developed the moral guidelines that shaped the content of the films shown
in America for twenty years.

Joseph Forer, a civil liberties attorney, achieved prominence by
challenging the constitutionality of federal laws used to target suspected
members of the Communist Party.

Joseph Priestley was a notable figure of the 18th century Enlightenment. He
had a major influence on the First Amendment principles of religious
liberty in the U.S. Constitution.

Joseph Pulitzer came to the United States in 1864 as a restless Jewish immigrant from Hungary. He knew little English. Despite poor health and weak eyesight, he had contracted with a bounty hunter in Germany to be paid to fight for the North in the Civil War as a substitute for a draftee – something

Joseph L. Rauh Jr. was a renowned civil liberties lawyer who argued
numerous cases before the Supreme Court, including at least three that
dealt with First Amendment issues.

Joseph Smith founded the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also
called the Mormon Church. Smith and his church suffered and perpetrated
First Amendment violations.

Justice Joseph Story was arguably the greatest scholar ever to serve on the
Supreme Court. His Court opinions and his writings reveal his perspective
on First Amendment issues.

Judith P. Miller, a Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative journalist, went
to jail rather than testify before a federal grand jury about a
confidential source.

Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, pled guilty in June 2024 to violating the U.S. Espionage Act in a conspiracy to obtain and disclose classified national defense documents. News organizations worried that the prosecution of Assange, who began publishing information in 2010, will have a chilling effect on journalists who report on national security issues.

Kenneth A. Paulson has led several national programs to increase
understanding of the First Amendment and its role in society. He is former
editor in chief of USA Today.

Ketanji Brown Jackson was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Joe Biden on June 30, 2022. She replaced Justice Stephen Breyer who had retired. Biden would likely have appointed her earlier had not Republicans rushed through the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett in the waning days of the Trump Administration, even though they had

Kevin F. O’Neill is a law professor at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law
who writes frequently on First Amendment issues. He oversaw First Amendment
cases at the ACLU of Ohio.

Larry Flynt, controversial publisher of Hustler magazine, often claimed
First Amendment free speech protection when charged with obscenity and
pornography.

Laurence Tribe, a professor at Harvard Law School, is regarded as one of
the preeminent scholars in the field of constitutional law and First
Amendment scholarship.

Civil rights attorney Lawrence Speiser may be the only person who has
successfully represented himself before the Supreme Court in a First
Amendment case.

Billings Learned Hand served as a federal district and appellate judge and
had enormous influence on the law understanding in the United States,
specifically the First Amendment.

Lee C. Bollinger, a legal scholar of the First Amendment, is an advocate
for tolerance theory, which argues that broad acceptance for expression
will increase diversity of ideas.

Comedian Lenny Bruce was arrested numerous times due to alleged obscenity.
Through his legal struggles, Bruce brought his craft more First Amendment
protection.

Leo Pfeffer, one of the twentieth century’s most active litigators on
church-state issues, participated in several First Amendment cases before
the U.S. Supreme Court.

Leonard Boudin (1912–1989), a prominent civil liberties attorney, argued
many First Amendment cases before the Supreme Court including cases related
to free speech.

Leonard W. Levy was an influential scholar and historian whose works on the
Constitution and Bill of Rights have been cited in numerous First Amendment
cases.

Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. was conservative on matters of
crime and law enforcement but liberal on First Amendment matters concerning
separation of church and state.

Lloyd Cutler (1917–2005) successfully argued three First Amendment cases
before the Supreme Court including the landmark case Buckley v. Valeo about
campaign contribution limits.

Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis defended the First Amendment and
expressed that the best way to combat harmful speech is “more speech, not
forced silence.”

Louis Nizer (1902–1994) was a noted trial lawyer who successfully argued
two First Amendment cases involving film censorship before the Supreme
Court.

The sedition conviction of Luther Baldwin for drunken comments about
President John Adams stirred opposition to the Sedition Act of 1798’s
restrictions on First Amendment freedoms.

Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908-1973) was one of the most activist presidents of the 20th century. Born and raised in Texas, Johnson attended Southwest Texas State College and, after a brief time of teaching and military service, spent most of his life in elective office. He served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from

Madalyn Murray O’Hair, an atheist, filed several lawsuits that dealt with
First Amendment separation of church and state issues, including prayer in
public schools.

Martin Grabus is regarded as one of the top First Amendment
lawyer–litigators in the United States. He has participated in defamation
and intellectual property cases.

“Talk’s cheap.”  “You need to walk the walk, not just talk the talk.” “Actions speak louder than words.”  These are all expressions used to convey the idea that action, not just words, can lead to change. This was certainly embodied by Martin Luther King Jr.,  whose life was dedicated to social change. His approach of

Law professor Martin H. Redish is one of the nation’s foremost authorities
on the First Amendment. He argued that commercial speech should have First
Amendment protection.

Martin Van Buren (1782-1862) was born and raised in New York. Although he was the first president who was born as a U.S. citizen, he is the only president who grew up speaking a language (Dutch) other than English. He studied law, set up a practice with his half-brother and spent much of his life in

Matthew Lyon was the first person to be prosecuted under the Sedition Act
of 1798. He challenged the Act on the grounds that it violated the First
Amendment.

Melville Fuller served as the eighth chief justice of the Supreme Court. The Fuller Court is best known for upholding rights of big businesses, but it did consider cases that involved the First Amendment, including upholding a law restricting the U.S. mail from carrying certain advertisements and a citation against a Colorado newspaper publisher who had criticized a decision by the state’s Supreme Court. (Portrait of Fuller, public domain)

Melville Bernard Nimmer, an expert in copyright law and freedom of
expression, was a defender of the First Amendment in the Supreme Court case
Cohen v. California (1971).

Melvin L. Wulf is a constitutional lawyer whose special field of practice
is intellectual property. He also has extensive experience in other First
Amendment areas.

Michael W. McConnell is a scholar on issues relating to First Amendment
religion issues. He has argued against extreme views of separation of
church and state.

Millard Fillmore (1800-1874) was the last member of the Whig Party to serve as a U.S. president, which he did from 1850 to 1853. Born in New York, Fillmore, who had arisen from humble circumstances. He did not attend college, but had become a lawyer and became interested in politics. He served as a member of

Morrison Waite, the seventh chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, participated in several cases in the late 19th century interpreting the First Amendment, including a landmark case in which Waite authored the opinion upholding a law prohibiting polygamy against a free exercise of religion challenge.

Murray Gurfein was best known for his ruling as a district court judge in
the Pentagon Papers case, a clash between national security interests and
First Amendment rights.

Nat Hentoff, a civil libertarian, jazz critic, and self-described
troublemaker, spent much of his career defending the First Amendment
against a variety of perceived threats.

Nathaniel Ward wrote the first law code of the Massachusetts Bay Colony,
which is considered to be one of the most important works in American
constitutional history.

While his record on the Supreme Court has yet to be determined, Justice
Neil Gorsuch showed sensitivity toward First Amendment issues while on the
court of appeals.

Dictionary creator Noah Webster did not support the adoption of the First
Amendment because he thought the Bill of Rights would give citizens the
power to act lawlessly.

Norman Dorsen was a leading civil liberties lawyer. He made many of his
contributions to First Amendment jurisprudence during his career at the
American Civil Liberties Union.

Oliver Ellsworth (1745-1807) was the third chief justice of the United States. He was appointed by President George Washington and served from 1796 to 1800. Ellsworth, from Connecticut, attended Yale and the College of New Jersey (today’s Princeton) and read law before becoming an attorney. He served as a member of the Continental Congress, as a

Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes was a civil libertarian who protected the
First Amendment from encroachments, particularly during and after World War
I.

Osmond K. Fraenkel was one of the leading civil liberties attorneys of the
20th century. He argued many First Amendment cases before the Supreme Court.

Supreme Court Justice Owen J. Roberts was known for protecting First
Amendment freedoms and wrote several landmark decisions regarding protected
free expression.

Patrick Henry was an opponent of the U.S. Constitution. His opposition
helped convince Federalists to agree to a bill of rights on the document,
which included the First Amendment.

Paul Abraham Freund, a law professor at Harvard University, played a
critical part in the movement to better protect the individual liberties of
the First Amendment.

Paul Murphy was an advocate of First Amendment freedoms and a leader in the
fields of civil liberties. He was known for studying the First Amendment in
World War I.

Peter Banta was a New Jersey-based attorney active in First Amendment law.
He represented a litany of leading media entities in his career, including
The New York Times Company.

Philip Furneaux (1726-1783) was an English dissenting minister who influenced American views on freedom of conscience. He supported Protestant Christians who did not conform to the rules of the Church of England.

Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart had a mixed record in First Amendment
cases but was often supportive of individual liberty in cases involving
speech and religion.

Richard Nixon’s conduct during his presidency typified executive abuse of
power, even threatening the freedoms of speech, press, and political
association.

Richard Allen Posner, one of the most influential jurists and legal
theorists in the United States today, has written numerous First Amendment
opinions as an appellate judge.

Judge Robert Bork, who served as solicitor general for President Nixon,
believed the First Amendment free speech protection only applied to
political speech.

Robert Carter successfully presented several First Amendment cases to the
Supreme Court related to the Civil Rights movement and freedom of
association and speech.

Robert Corn-Revere is a leading First Amendment attorney who has
represented college students in free speech cases battling censorship on
college campuses.

Robert Ingersoll was a sought-after lecturer in the 1800s and a passionate
defender of First Amendment rights. He particularly championed separation
of church and state.

Robert Jackson, a Supreme Court justice from 1941 to 1954, believed
strongly in separation of church and state and free speech protections
First Amendment.

Photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, who gained notoriety for his explicit
images, was posthumously a central figure in a First Amendment clash over
art and obscenity.

Robert O’Neil (1934-2018) was an authority on First Amendment issues,
writing several books and amicus curiae briefs on First Amendment cases
that reached the Supreme Court. He also was the founding director of the
Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression.

As an attorney, Robert Sack, now a judge on the 2nd Circuit Court of
Appeals, defended the press in libel and other cases relating to First
Amendment freedoms.

Robert Shibley is a leading advocate for First Amendment rights on college
campuses and the executive director of Foundation for Individual Rights in
Education.

Rodney Smolla is an influential First Amendment attorney and scholar who
has argued cases before the Supreme Court, including the Virginia
cross-burning case.

Roger B. Taney, the fifth chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, is most known for the Dred Scott decision. In that ruling, Taney wrote that slaves were not citizens under the U.S. Constitution and the egalitarian language of the Declaration of Independence did not include Black people. Taney served 28 years on the court and died while the Civil War was ongoing.

Roger Baldwin formed the ACLU in 1920. During his 30-year tenure there, the
organization spurred many landmark cases upholding First Amendment freedoms.

Prior to the First Amendment, Roger Williams, founder of Rhode Island,
believed separation of church and state was necessary to maintain the
integrity of the church.

Ronald Collins is a First Amendment scholar, author and advocate who has
written widely on First Amendment issues. He is currently editor of First
Amendment News.

Ronald Reagan (1911-2004) served for two terms as U.S. president from 1981 to 1989. Born in Illinois, Reagan graduated from Eureka College. He spent his early working life as a radio announcer and film actor, serving from 1947 to 1952 as president of the Screen Actors Guild. He was governor of California from 1967 to 1975

Roslyn Litman successfully argued before the Supreme Court that religious
displays at a county courthouse violated the establishment clause of the
First Amendment.

Roy Cohn is best known for his work as the chief counsel to Sen. Joseph
McCarthy, whose interrogations of alleged communists had a chilling effect
on First Amendment freedoms.

Roy Moore was a controversial chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court
who gained notoriety for his conservative stances about the First Amendment
issue of religious liberty.

The second woman to serve on the Supreme Court, Ruth Bader Ginsburg has
interpreted the First Amendment to provide for a high degree of separation
of church and state.

Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio, a former Whig who became a Republican, served a single term in the presidential office from 1877 to 1881. He followed Ulysses S. Grant and was succeeded by James A. Garfield. A graduate of Harvard Law School, Hayes had risen to the rank of brigadier general in the Union army and

As the sixth chief justice of the United States, Salmon Chase sought for an interpretation to apply the Bill of Rights protections, including First Amendment protections, against actions by states.

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito has shown some sensitivity to religious
liberty in First Amendment cases but his record on free speech cases has
been troubling.

Samuel Chase (1741-1811) was an important American founder and U.S. Supreme Court justice from Maryland. He is the only Supreme Court justice to have been impeached, though not convicted. The House of Representatives had impeached him for his partisanship during sedition trials over which he presided. After reading law, Chase established a legal practice and earned

Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman to be appointed to the Supreme Court,
was often a key swing vote known for her opinions in the area of religious
liberty.

The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour led to discussions of First Amendment
free speech as it was regularly censored by CBS. The FCC refused to
intervene.

Since her appointment to the Supreme Court in 2009, Justice Sonia Sotomayor
generally has been a consistent defender of First Amendment values on the
bench.

Many vice presidents of the United States stay in the background and out of the limelight, but not unlike what he had done for President Dwight Eisenhower, President Richard M. Nixon’s vice president, Spiro T. Agnew, often played the role of an attack dog, mobilizing support for the president with his rhetoric.   Agnew, the son

Stanley Fleishman was a leading First Amendment attorney who appeared
before the Supreme Court to argue several obscenity cases despite the
crippling effects of polio.

Stanley F. Reed was a Supreme Court justice from 1938-1957. He wrote
several First Amendment opinions, in which he often sided with the
government in restricting speech.

Stephen Barnett was a law professor at the University of California,
Berkeley known for his passion for the First Amendment and his fearlessness
in combatting government secrecy.

Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer generally decides First Amendment
cases pragmatically rather than on the basis of rigid ideology, making his
votes more difficult to predict.

Steven H. Swander was a Texas-based First Amendment attorney known for his
passion for free speech. He was the president of the First Amendment
Lawyers Association.

In the 1847 Ritchie Affair, the U.S. Senate revoked floor privileges its official printer Thomas Ritchie who also was editor of a partisan newspaper after he published an article suggesting a senator was on the side of Mexico in the Mexican-American War. Although the Ritchie affair was short-lived, it raised significant issues about freedom of the press, including free speech during wartime and congressional pressure on political reporting.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) was born to a wealthy family in New York. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Harvard and studied law at Columbia, but he never embraced legal technicalities and spent most of his life in politics. He was elected to the New York Assembly, was appointed by President Benjamin Harrison as a commissioner of

Theodore Schroeder a lawyer and prolific writer on free expression rights
granted by the First Amendment, was one of the founders and long-time
secretary of the Free Speech League.

Thomas Bowdler edited Shakespeare’s plays to ensure that they were
family-friendly. Bowdler focused his efforts on revising sexual references
and blasphemy.

Thomas Cooley was a prominent jurist and legal writer during the second
half of the nineteenth century who strongly defended property rights and
First Amendment freedoms.

Thomas Emerson was arguably the foremost First Amendment scholar of his
generation. Emerson’s book on free speech remains one of the seminal works
in First Amendment history.

Thomas C. Goldstein has argued more than 15 cases before the high court,
including some First Amendment cases. He also started the Supreme Court of
the United States Blog.

In 1612, just a year after the publication of the King James Version of the Bible in English, Baptist minister Thomas Helwys published “A Short Declaration of the Mystery of Iniquity” which has come to be known as the first exposition in English of the notion of freedom of conscience or religious liberty.

Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence and third
President of the United States, perpetuated the American ideals of freedom
of speech, press, and conscience.

Thomas Paine is best remembered as the author of Common Sense a critique of
King George III that called for American independence. His writings were
misunderstood in his day.

Justice Thurgood Marshall was the first African-American to serve on the
Supreme Court. He consistently championed First Amendment and other
individual rights.

Tipper Gore led a successful fight to have parental warning labels affixed
to record albums that contained explicit lyrics. Critics said her efforts
violated the First Amendment.

Supreme Court Justice Tom C. Clark is probably best known in First
Amendment jurisprudence for his measured opinion in Abington School
District v. Schempp (1963).

Tunis Wortman authored A Treatise Concerning Political Enquiry, and the
Liberty of the Press in 1800. It attempted to portray freedom of the press
as an engine for human progress.

Ulysses (born Hiram) S. Grant (1822-1885) was born in Ohio to the family of a tanner. He attended the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where, because of a paperwork mistake, his name was changed from Hiram to Ulysses and he became known as U.S. Grant. After resigning from the Army in 1854 and returning home

Author and muckraker Upton Sinclair is better known for his novels. But he was once arrested and jailed in Los Angeles in 1923 after trying to read the First Amendment in a public place in protest of mass arrests of striking dockworkers.

Victor Rabinowitz, an attorney known for his passionate defense of
individual liberties, participated in numerous high-profile First Amendment
cases throughout his legal career.

First Amendment scholar and theorist Vincent Blasi is best known for his
“checking value” theory of the free speech and free press clauses of the
First Amendment.

Voltaire was a French author and philosopher of the Enlightenment period
who was an inspiration to those on both sides of the Atlantic interested in
free inquiry and secularism.

Walter Pollak was a leading civil rights attorney in the 1920s. He
represented American Communists Benjamin Gitlow and Charlotte Whitney in
First Amendment cases.

Many defended the First Amendment academic freedom of Professor Ward
Churchill after his essay asserting that U.S. foreign policies had incited
the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Chief Justice Warren Burger introduced the Lemon test for determining
whether government actions violated the establishment clause of the First
Amendment.

Warren G. Harding served as the nation’s 29th president from 1921 until his death in 1923. His presidency followed after Woodrow Wilson’s with a promise of restoring “normalcy” after World War I. He is usually regarded as one of the least effective individuals to hold the presidency. Born in 1865 and raised in Ohio, he earned

William Benbow (1784-1864) was a British champion of press freedoms found
in the First Amendment of the American Constitution. He was convicted of
seditious libel three times.

William Blackstone’s treatise on English law outlined principles of liberty that were later the foundations of the First Amendment. However, his views on press freedom were more limited than viewed in America.

William Bollan, a British-educated lawyer, spent much of his adult life serving as Massachusetts agent to London. He had arrived in Massachusetts in about 1740. He married the daughter of its governor and later became the colony’s advocate-general. Bollan was often caught up in controversy as the relationship between Massachusetts and Britain deteriorated as the

Supreme Court Justice William Brennan Jr. was an outspoken defender of the
First Amendment freedoms of speech and the press against threats of
government restriction.

Justice William O. Douglas was one of the Court’s most controversial
members as well as one of its most passionate defenders of individual
freedoms and First Amendment rights.

William Ellery Channing (1780-1842) was one of the leading figures in early 19th century liberal Christianity who celebrated the rights articulated in the First Amendment.  His defense of exercising such rights even during times of war and involving controversial subjects is especially noteworthy. One scholar has observed that Channing “was, above all, a civil libertarian, always

William Henry Harrison (1773-1841) was the first representative of the Whig Party to be elected as president and served the shortest time of any U.S. president after dying of natural causes 31 days after his inauguration. Born to an aristocratic family in Virginia (his father, Benjamin Harrison, had signed the Declaration of Independence), Harrison had attended

William Howard Taft is the only person to have served as both President and
then chief justice of the United States. His Court began to apply the First
Amendment to the states.

William Jefferson Clinton, who was born in 1946, served two terms as U.S. president from 1993 to 2001. Born in Hope, Arkansas, Clinton attended Georgetown University, was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, and earned his law degree at Yale, where he met and later married Hillary Rodham. After becoming a law professor at the University of

William Jennings Bryan’s defense of Christian fundamentalism in the Scopes
monkey trial clashed with the First Amendment’s prohibition of state
sponsorship of religion.

William Kunstler (1919-1995), who won two First Amendment disputes before
the Supreme Court, is perhaps best known for his defense in the Chicago
Seven case.

William McKinley (1943-1901) was born in Ohio and attended Allegheny College and Mount Union College before serving in the Union Army during the Civil War where he achieved the rank of brevet major.  After spending about a year at the Albany Law School and studying with an attorney, McKinley began practicing law in Ohio. In time

William Penn (1644-1718), founder of Pennsylvania, promoted principles of
freedom that helped lay the framework for First Amendment religious liberty.

Supreme Court Associate and Chief Justice William Rehnquist was not known
as a defender of First Amendment rights, but he protective of some aspects
of the amendment.

Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) was one of the more consequential presidents of the 20th century, serving as president from 1913 to 1921, a period that included World War I. Born in Virginia to the family of a Presbyterian minister and raised in the South, Wilson earned his bachelor’s degree from Princeton University, briefly practiced law in Georgia,

Zachary Taylor (1784-1850) was born in Virginia, largely raised in Kentucky, and claimed Louisiana as home. He spent most of his life in the U.S. Army where he became a major general and hero of the Mexican-American War.  He was elected president as a Whig in the election of 1848, with Millard Fillmore as his

Zechariah Chafee Jr. achieved prominence during World War I and its
aftermath, when he argued forcefully for broader protection of free speech
rights.