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Rhode Island Charter
The Charter of Rhode Island grants religious freedom to all people within the state. -
Connecticut allows Full Libery of Worship
Connecticut passes the first dissenter statute and allows “full liberty of worship” to Anglicans and Baptists. -
Virginia Declaration of Rights
Virginia’s House of Burgesses passes the Virginia Declaration of Rights. The Virginia Declaration is the first bill of rights to be included in a state constitution in America. -
Virginia helps ratify the Bill of Rights
On Dec. 15, Virginia becomes the 11th state to approve the first 10 amendments to the Constitution, thereby ratifying the Bill of Rights. -
Gag Rules
The U.S. House of Representatives adopts gag rules preventing discussion of antislavery proposals. The House repeals the rules in 1844. -
14th Amendment
The 14th Amendment to the Constitution is ratified. The amendment, in part, requires that no state shall “deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” -
Sedition Act
Congress passes the Sedition Act, which forbids spoken or printed criticism of the U.S. government, the Constitution or the flag. -
Sedition Acts 2
President Franklin D. Roosevelt pardons those convicted under the Espionage and Sedition Acts. -
RFRA
Congress passes the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) a United States federal law aimed at preventing laws that substantially burden a person's free exercise of religion. -
Communications Decency Act
Congress passes the Communications Decency Act, which was an attempt to regulate material on the Internet. The act is immediately challenged on First Amendment grounds. -
COPA
The Child Online Protection Act (COPA), which attaches federal criminal liability to the online transmission for commercial purposes of material considered harmful to minors, is enacted by Congress. -
COPA 2
The U.S. Supreme Court upholds a lower court’s preliminary injunction preventing enforcement of the Child Online Protection Act. The Court reasons in Ashcroft v. ACLU II that “filtering software is an alternative that is less restrictive than COPA, and, in addition, likely more effective as a means of restricting children’s access to materials harmful to them.”
