Synonyms

First Amendment

American

noun

an amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1791 as part of the Bill of Rights, prohibiting Congress from interfering with freedom of religion, speech, assembly, or petition.

First Amendment ¹ Cultural

The first article of the Bill of Rights. It forbids Congress from tampering with the freedoms of religion, speech, assembly, and the press.

First Amendment ² Cultural

An amendment to the United States Constitution guaranteeing the rights of free expression and action that are fundamental to democratic government. These rights include freedom of assembly, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, and freedom of speech. The government is empowered, however, to restrict these freedoms if expression threatens to be destructive. Argument over the extent of First Amendment freedoms has often reached the Supreme Court. (See clear and present danger, libel, and obscenity.)

Usage

What is the First Amendment? The First Amendment is an amendment to the US Constitution that forbids Congress from making any law that discriminates against any religion or that restricts freedom of speech, freedom of the press, the right to assemble, or the right to protest.The Constitution of the United States is the document that serves as the fundamental law of the country. An amendment is a change to something. An amendment to the Constitution is any text added to the original document since its ratification in 1788. The Constitution has been amended 27 times in American history.The entire text of the First Amendment reads:“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.”The First Amendment has one detail that many Americans get wrong or misunderstand. This amendment only protects your freedom of speech from being restricted by the government or an organization funded by the government. Private businesses, such as Twitter, Wal-Mart, and the Walt Disney Company, can and often do restrict your speech or expression if they believe it could harm their business.

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The First Amendment begins the Bill of Rights.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Even if the call had been intimidating, the judge wrote in his ruling, he was not convinced that such a call “would have chilled a person of ordinary firmness from exercising their First Amendment rights.”

From Los Angeles Times

Okay, I was also there to speak to the crowd about the First Amendment.

From Salon

The Post said it applauds “the court’s recognition of core First Amendment protections and its rejection of the government’s expansionist arguments for searching Hannah Natanson’s devices and work materials in their entirety.”

From The Wall Street Journal

No one seriously proposes curbing that influence in the name of democratic equality, nor could such an effort be squared with the First Amendment.

From MarketWatch

They are trained in the tenets of the First Amendment, the right to protest and civil disobedience.

From The Wall Street Journal

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023