Bill of Rights

The First Amendment

In a 1960 Justice Hugo Black concluded a presentation on the Bill of Rights by observing that

The First Amendment guarantees five rights— freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition—the first four of which have had a major role on the campuses of American colleges and universities.

Course Content

Religious freedom was important to Americans, because many colonists had left Great Britain and other regions of Europe partly in order to be able to practice their own religions freely. The impact of this desire for religious freedom was enshrined in Article VI of the Constitution, which forbade any religious test of any officeholder. However, because many feared that Article VI was not strong enough, the First Amendment was ratified, beginning with the key words that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” In a matter of importance to colleges and universities, the U.S. Supreme Court later extended the reach of the First Amendment to the states in Cantwell v. Connecticut (1940), wherein it invalidated the convictions of Jehovah's Witnesses for violating a law against soliciting funds for religious, charitable, or philanthropic purposes without prior approval of public officials.

In Everson v. Board of Education (1947), a dispute from New Jersey, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of a law that allowed parents to be reimbursed for the cost of transporting their children to religiously affiliated nonpublic K-12 schools. Writing for the Court, Justice Hugo Black's opinion introduced a metaphor from Thomas Jefferson calling for a “wall of separation” between church and state. Although these words are not enshrined in the Constitution, they are frequently used to refer to the position most frequently associated with the contemporary Court on matters involving religion.

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