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FIRE appreciates Obama's remarks based on calls for censorship we see, which regularly result in the punishment of a student or professor for their views. Read more

In Masterpiece, after a religious baker refused to bake a cake for a wedding between two men, the couple filed a complaint with the Colorado Civil Rights Commission alleging discrimination. The commission found that the cake shop had violated the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act. The baker believed this violated his First Amendment rights of freedom of... Read more Read more

In Matal v. Tam, The Slants were denied a trademark for their band’s name by the Patent and Trademark Office, citing the Disparagement Clause of the Lanham Act of 1946 and the rationale that the name may be disparaging towards “persons of Asian descent.” Simon Tam appealed the decision. The Supreme Court ruled that the... Read more Read more

Federal contractor Reality Leigh Winner is arrested in Augusta, Georgia for allegedly leaking a classified National Security Agency memo detailing Russian cyberattacks on U.S. voting software to The Intercept. Read more

By David L. Hudson, Jr. The First Amendment protects much more than the spoken or printed word. It also protects various forms of symbolic speech and expressive conduct. The Supreme Court has ruled that the display of a red flag, the wearing of a black armband, the burning of the American flag and yes, even... Read more Read more

Public school students “do not shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.” Read more

By David L. Hudson, Jr. The First Amendment demands that government officials generally should not discriminate against speech based on content or viewpoint. Under free speech jurisprudence, content-based laws are viewed with greater suspicion than content-neutral laws. The fear is that government officials may censor speech because they dislike the message. The designation of a... Read more Read more

By Lee Levine In the United States, the government may not prevent the publication of an article (print or electronic) even when there is reason to believe that such a publication would reveal information that will endanger our national security. By the same token, the government cannot: Pass a law that requires the media to... Read more Read more

By David L. Hudson, Jr. Overbreadth is a supremely important concept in First Amendment law and a key tool for constitutional litigators. A law is too broad—or overbroad—when it not only covers speech that ought to be proscribed but also penalizes speech that should be safeguarded.    For example, let’s say that a public school... Read more Read more

By David L. Hudson, Jr. The First Amendment may protect profanity directed against another. Then again, such intemperate speech may fall into a narrow, traditionally unprotected category of expression known as “fighting words.” While many assume that cursing at a police officer would result in a disorderly conduct charge, that is not categorically so. Thus,... Read more Read more