Religion + Speech

Everson v. Board of Education (1947)

New Jersey paying for school transportation for both public and private schools does not violate the Establishment Clause because the same amount of money is given to all schools secular and religious. 

Engel v. Vitale (1962)

Reading a prayer at the state of class violates the Establishment Clause even if the prayer is not mandatory.

Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971)

Statutes providing state funding for non-public, non-secular schools violate the Establishment Clause.

Widmar V. Vincent(1981)

Collages are open forums.

Employment Division, Department of Human Resources of Oregon v. Smith (1990)

Stats can deny unemployment benefits to a worker fired for using illegal drugs for religious purposes.

Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah (1993)

Prohibiting the ritual of animal sacrifices violates the First Amendment's Free Exercise Clause.

Boerne v. Flores (1997)

RFRA conflicted with the First Amendment, led to states creating their own RFRA laws. 

Zelman v. Simmons-Harris (2002)

Providing tuition aid for both public and private schools, religious and secular, does not violate the Establishment Clause.

Locke v. Davey (2004)

If states provide college scholarships for secular majors, they are not required to give the same funding to those majoring in theology.

Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores (2014)

Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) allows employers to deny contraception to employees based on religion.

Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Inc. v. Comer (2017)

Not giving churches access to the DNR aid program violates the First Amendment because it is for a neutral and secular aid program. (Playground tires)

Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission (2018)

Refusing to serve a same-sex couple does not violate the Free Speech and Free Exercise Clause because creating cakes is an art form and a component of religious beliefs.

The American Legion v. American Humanist Association (2019)

Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue (2020)

State laws that allow for the funding of education while prohibiting funding for religious schools, violate the Free Exercise Clause.

Carson v. Makin (2022)

State laws that prohibit students from participating in aid programs because the school is religious violate the Free Exercise Clause.

Kennedy v. Bremerton School District (2022)

The district court used the lemon test to say that Kennedy could not pray on the field during a game, but SCOTUS ruled the test was abandoned and replaced by the consideration of historical practices and understandings. SCOTUS sided with Kennedy.

Schenck v. United States (1919)

Clear and present danger

Near v. Minnesota (1931)

Prior restraint on publication violates the First Amendment.

Cantwell v. Connecticut (1940)

Cantwell's actions of going door to door and approaching people on the street with anti-Catholic messages were protected by the First Amendment and the Fourteenth.

West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (1943)

Forcing children to salute the flag in a public school is unconstitutional and violates the First Amendment. This overruled the decision in Minersville School District v. Gobitis.

New York Times v. Sullivan (1964)

Alabama's libel law violates the First Amendment's freedom of speech and press protections.

Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969)

Ohios criminal syndicalism law which makes it illegal to advocate for crime, sabotage, violence, or unlawful methods of terrorism as a means of accomplishing industrial or political reform, violates the First Amendment.

Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (1969)

Prohibiting the wearing of armbands in a public school as a form of symbolic protest violates the First Amendment. 

Stanley v. Georgia (1969)

Georgia's statute of making obscene films illegal violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments.

New York Times Co. v. United States (1971)-Pentagon Papers 

The Nixon administration attempted to prevent the NYT and Washington Post from publishing materials belonging to a classified Defense Department study regarding the history of US activists in Vietnam. Preventing the publication of classified information violates the First Amendment.

Healy v. James (1972)

Students and public universities maintain First Amendment rights

Papish v. University of Missouri

Prior restraint on university campuses is not allowed, and the dissemination of ideas on a college campus cannot be shut down in the name of conventions of decency alone.

Miller v. California (1973)

The sale of obscene materials by mail is not protected under the First Amendment.

National Socialist Party of America v. Village of Skokie (1977)

Illinois denying the NSPA from peacefully marching/protesting goes against the First Amendment.

FCC v. Pacifica Foundation (1978)

The First Amendment does not deny the government from restricting public broadcasts of indecent language.

Board of Education v. Pico (1982)

Banning certain books from high school libraries because of their content violates the First Amendment.

Perry Education Association v. Perry Local Educators' Association (1983)

Local school boards do not violate the First Amendment by disallowing a nonofficial teachers union from using the school's internal school mail system.

Texas v. Johnson (1989)

Burning the American flag is a protected expression under the First Amendment.

R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul (1992)

A teenager was charged with a criminal ordinance for burning a cross his own lawn, and SCOTUS held the ordinance was invalid because it was based on the contents, not the action.

Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union (1997)

The 1996 Communications Decency Act violated the First and Fifth Amendments by being overly broad and vague in their definitions of internet communications which they criminalized.

Rumsfeld v. Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights (2006)

The Solomon Amendment which withholds certain federal funds from colleges and universities that restrict the access of military recruiters to students does not violate the First Amendment.

Morse v. Frederick (2007)

The First Amendment allows public schools to prohibit students from displaying messages promoting the use of illegal drugs at school-supervised events.

United States v. Stevens (2010)

18 U.S.C Section 48 is unconstitutional under the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment.

Snyder v. Phelps (2011)

The First Amendment protects protesters at a funeral from liability for intentionally inflicting emotional distress on the family of the deceased.

U.S. v. Alvarez (2012)

Xavier Alvarez claimed to be a decorated Marine. The Stolen Valor Act of 2005 makes it a crime to falsely claim receipt of military decorations or medals. He claimed this violated his free speech, and SCOTUS agreed.

Reed v. Town of Gilbert (2015)

Restricting the size, number, duration, and location of temporary directional signs violates the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment or the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Elonis v. United States (2015)

Conviction of threatening another person under 18 U.S.C 875 requires proof of the defendant's subjective intent to threaten. (Man threatened to kill his wife with a morter/cannon)

B.L. v. Mahoney (2021)

Snapchat

303 Creative  v. Elenis (2023)

The application of the Colorado AntiDiscrimination Act to compel an artist to speak or stay silent violates the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment.

Moody v. Netchoice (2024) 

Corporations maintain First Amendment rights.

Watz v us 

True threats

Chiplinsky v us 

Fighting words doctrine