The first challenge to the First Amendment came just seven years after it was ratified. The 1798 Sedition Act criminalized criticism of the Government. In 1836 the “Gag Act” automatically tabled antislavery petitions. During the Civil War, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant issued an order that expelled all Jews from parts of Tennessee, Kentucky, and Mississippi.

From 1870 to 1899, American society struggled to regain its footing amidst the upheaval of Reconstruction, industrialization, and unprecedented immigration. Crusaders pressured Congress to restore moral order. Congress responded with legislative acts restricting Americans’ First Amendment rights in the name of virtue—including the Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act and the Comstock anti-obscenity laws.

The fear that foreigners were working to destroy the Government gripped America during World War I. Foreign union members, considered a threat to corporate interests, were monitored and subject to arrest, violence, and deportation. African Americans who campaigned against lynching and discrimination were also under government surveillance during the First Red Scare.

During the period between the two world wars, a series of landmark Supreme Court decisions protected the right of individuals to express beliefs contrary to those of most Americans. In a 1929 opinion, Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote, “free thought—not free thought for those who agree with us but freedom for the thought that we hate” is a primary constitutional principle.

After World War II, the Soviet Union emerged as a powerful threat. Panic mounted when evidence surfaced that spies had infiltrated the U.S. Government. Terrified, few Americans dared to protest the drastic First Amendment violations of the Cold War years. Countless individuals were persecuted and blacklisted. The fear of speaking out would last for years.

During the modern civil rights era, Americans who stood up (and sat down) for rights made significant gains, including First Amendment rights protections. A series of Supreme Court rulings reinforced the application of the Bill of Rights to state laws, protected the right to criticize the Government, and banned prayer from schools. But some Americans viewed these developments as a loss of rights.