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On Dec. 15, Virginia becomes the 11th state to approve the first 10 amendments to the Constitution, thereby ratifying the Bill of Rights.
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Congress lets the Sedition Act of 1798 expire, and President Thomas Jefferson pardons all person convicted under the Act. The act had punished those who uttered or published “false, scandalous, and malicious” writings against the government.
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Congress passes the Espionage Act, making it a crime “to willfully cause or attempt to cause insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny, or refusal of duty, in the military or naval forces of the United States,” or to “willfully obstruct the recruiting or enlistment service of the United States.”
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In Boy Scouts of America v. Dale, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that application of a public-accommodation law to force the Boy Scouts to accept a gay scoutmaster is a violation of the private organization’s freedom of association guaranteed by the First Amendment.
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In Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a 7-2 opinion using the free-exercise clause of the First Amendment to uphold the right of Jack Phillips, the owner of the Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood, Colo., to refuse to custom design a cake for a same-sex wedding.