This is an index page for rulings in First Amendment court cases by category.
By studying court cases by category, we hope you can better understand how real-life issues drove the development of the law around freedoms of speech, assembly, religion, petition and the press in the United States.
The categories include cases in which the Supreme Court made a ruling interpreting the First Amendment. But we also have included some state supreme court rulings, particularly from the early period of U.S. history before the Supreme Court applied the protections of the First Amendment to states. We also have some federal appellate court rulings, particularly on more current issues in which the appellate courts have split on a First Amendment question.
The categories are listed alphabetically from "Academic Freedom" to "Zoning." The number of court rulings in our database for each category appears in parenthesis. Click on a category to see the list of court cases. From there, you can follow links to each case for more comprehensive summaries.
Our encyclopedia has summaries and information on more than 870 court rulings from 1799 to present.
We've grouped these cases by category, but some court cases will appear under multiple categories. (If you are looking for a list of all the Supreme Court rulings in The First Amendment Encyclopedia, use this First Amendment Court Cases by Date.)
The United States Supreme Court building in Washington D.C.
