History

• The Constitution was promulgated to try to cure the ills of the weak central government running the newborn United States under the Articles of Confederation, which left most power to the states. Not surprisingly, some states, and even some constitutional convention delegates, felt that the new compact went too far the other way and made the national government too strong. To satisfy critics, the First Congress under the newly approved Constitution sent the states 12 proposed amendments. The amendments were written to safeguard individual and states' rights. The original first amendment was never ratified, and the second was not approved until 1992. By default, the third amendment took pride of first place.
  
  

Church and State

• Scholars still argue over the Founders' religious beliefs, but there was widespread agreement in Colonial America that there could be no official Almighty. Great Britain had an established (and taxpayer-supported) church; largely Protestant America wasn't happy about Europe's powerful Catholic empires, either. The First Amendment's solution: An "establishment clause" forbidding the government to set up an official church, and a ban on interfering with anyone's right to worship, or not; the First Amendment protects nonbelievers, too.
  
  

Speech and Press

• Thirteen quarreling colonies became one uneasy nation in large part because malcontents made speeches, wrote letters and, most importantly, circulated handbills and newspapers. Today, this is called freedom of expression, and the language is applied flexibly to "cover flag-burning, hard-core rap and heavy-metal lyrics, tobacco advertising, hate speech, pornography, nude dancing, solicitation and various forms of symbolic speech," says the First Amendment Center, part of Freedom Forum. You can now add the right for young people to buy violent video games to the list.
  
  

Assembly and Petition

• The key word here is "peaceably." The courts have read that to mean they're allowing widespread freedom of association, but you still can't riot, or attach your petitions to rocks thrown at public officials, or start up an organized-crime family. And yes, your town can require you to get a parade permit, so long as the town doesn't try to dictate what displays you put on the floats. Thanks to amendments that followed the Bill of Rights, such as the 14th, the First Amendment liberties also trump any contrary state laws.