7 Things You Can’t Claim First Amendment Rights to Say

Originally posted on Marketing Where Technology Intersects Life:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”

These 45 words make up the complete First Amendment to the U.S.  Constitution.  For many of us, they are the most important words ever strung into a complex sentence, because they’re the foundation for the unique American way of life.

Originally, First Amendment protections applied only to laws passed by the U.S. Congress, but since 1925 (Gitlow v. New York, 268 U.S.652), they’ve applied to the rules set by government at any level — federal, state, and local.  The founders obviously intended that the First Amendment be a broad, sweeping statement of the rights they wanted to secure for themselves and their…

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