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The Continental Congress adopts the final draft of the Declaration of Independence on July 4.
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The 14th Amendment to the Constitution is ratified. The amendment, in part, requires that no state shall “deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
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Congress passes the Sedition Act, which forbids spoken or printed criticism of the U.S. government, the Constitution or the flag.
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Roger Baldwin and others start up a new organization dedicated to preserving civil liberties called the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
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Congress repeals the Sedition Acts.
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Congress passes the Smith Act, Title I of the Alien Registration Act of 1940, which makes it a crime to advocate the violent overthrow of the government.
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In Cantwell v. Connecticut, the U.S. Supreme Court holds for the first time that the due-process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment makes the free-exercise clause of the First Amendment applicable to states.
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Congress authorizes President Franklin D. Roosevelt to create the Office of Censorship.
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The U.S. Supreme Court rules that a state-composed, non-denominational prayer violates the the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. In Engel v. Vitale, the Court states that such a prayer represents government sponsorship of religion.
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Congress passes the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). In 1995, President Clinton orders the Department of Education to send guidelines on religious expression to every public school district in the United States.
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The U.S. Supreme Court upholds the Children’s Internet Protection Act in United States v. American Library Association, Inc. The law requires public libraries and public schools to install filtering software on computers to receive federal funding.
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In Morse v. Frederick, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that principal Deborah Morse did not violate the First Amendment rights of high school student Joseph Frederick when she punished him for displaying a “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” banner on a public street directly across from his school while the Winter Olympic Torch Relay passed through Juneau, Alaska. The Court creates a “drug speech” exception to the Court’s landmark student-speech case, Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School Distric
