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Congress.gov
constitution.congress.gov › constitution › amendment-1
U.S. Constitution - First Amendment | Resources | Constitution Annotated | Congress.gov | Library of Congress
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 ...
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Vote.org
vote.org › newsletters › congress-shall-make-no-law
Congress Shall Make No Law - Vote.org
February 25, 2026 - “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 ...
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National Archives
archives.gov › founding-docs › bill-of-rights-transcript
The Bill of Rights: A Transcription | National Archives
August 7, 2025 - 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 ...
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Legal Information Institute
law.cornell.edu › lii › u.s. constitution › first amendment
First Amendment | U.S. Constitution | US Law | LII / Legal Information Institute
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 ...
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Archives
petitions.obamawhitehouse.archives.gov › petition › congress-shall-make-no-law-0 › index.html
Congress shall make no law ... | We the People: Your Voice in Our Government
Congress shall make no law that applies to the citizens of the United States that does not apply equally to the Senators and/or Representatives; and, Congress shall make no law that applies to the Senators and/or Representatives that does not ...
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Studocu
studocu.com › paint branch high school › u.s. government
[Solved] Bill of Rights 1791 Amendment I Congress shall make no law - U.S. Government - Studocu
December 3, 2024 - Bill of Rights (1791) Amendment I 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, ...
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Illinois General Assembly
ilga.gov › commission › lrb › amendments.htm
Amendments CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
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.
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Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Congress_Shall_Make_No_Law...
Congress Shall Make No Law... - Wikipedia
June 5, 2026 - "Congress Shall Make No Law..." is an album by Frank Zappa, released posthumously in 2010 by the Zappa Family Trust on Zappa Records. It contains a full recording of Zappa's September 19, 1985 testimony before the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, during ...
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Amazon
amazon.com › Congress-Shall-Make-Law-Unprotected › dp › 1442205105
Congress Shall Make No Law: The First Amendment, Unprotected Expression, and the U.S. Supreme Court (Free Expression in America): O'Brien, David M.: 9781442205109: Amazon.com: Books
The First Amendment declares that 'Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press. . . . ' Yet, in the following two hundred years, Congress and the states have sought repeatedly to curb these freedoms.
Top answer
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Well, for starters, the 5th amendment doesn't really apply to Congress as much as the Executive and the Judicial branchs. Congress merely makes the laws. The Executive enforces the laws, and the Judicial interprets the laws.

In the criminal justice system, violations of the law are prosecuted by the Executive in the form of police authorities and prosecutions, and the legal case is put to an impartial trial (Cue Law and Order "Doing Doing")

In the court room, there are two powers: Trier of Law, and Trier of Fact. The former is the Judge, whose job it is to set up the game rules of the trial and interpret the laws in question and what is needed to convict on any charges brought against the defending. The latter is typically the Jury, who determine if the evidence presented supports the Judge's interpretation of the benchmarks for conviction. At the request of the Defense, the Trier of Fact may instead be the Judge himself (A Bench Trial), who will make the determination. The prosecution has no right to request this or contest this.

Once the law is created, Congress has little say in the process. Judges in the US are notoriously territorial. If Congress or the Executive (or anyone, really) tries to tell them how to run their court, they will tell that group where they can stick their "rule". One quite notable instance, a case before SCOTUS on Affordible Care Act, then President Barrack Obama insisted the court must rule in favor of the act. SCOTUS responded by holding off on releasing the decision until Obama wrote them an essay on the nature of the Checks and Balances of the Three Branches of Government according to the President (Petty, yes. But it got the point across: "Don't tell us how to do our job").

Judges are mostly administered by the superior court they fall under, with the Chief Justice of SCOTUS administering the U.S. Federal system. Congress can impeach a judge for misconduct but rarely does so. Judges will typically have long terms OR life time appointments to prevent the political nature of running for elected office from introducing bias into the court (often recusing themselves if it appears they could be biased.). Typically, violations of the 5th amendment are handled by the judicial system through appeals to superior court who will review the case to ensure the Prosection and the Lower Judge followed the rules. The abuses violating the 5th Amendment (as well as search and seizure and right to council) are going to be abused by the enforcers and interpreters of the law, not by congress.

This doesn't mean Congress can't write a law that allows for the such abuses to happen, but that doesn't make it a legal law and it gets overturned by the same chain of judges declaring it unconstitutional. Rather, any party can be guilty of this.

Conversely, with the First Amendment, writing laws is the sole responsibility of Congress, so naturally, if there is a law saying they can't make this law, in a working system it shouldn't hit the Executive's desk at all. When such a thing does, the Executive is sworn to uphold as best he can. Judges again being territorial, have read previous case law on similar matters, so they would be aware that in American Jurisprudence, speech is considered Protected Speech until proven otherwise (its a hard criteria too), so any enforcement of law before a judge is going to have to prove that this is not Protected Speech automatically before they can proceed further (if you ever read some free speech cases, they are almost always 9-0 or 8-1 in favor of the speaker.).

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Has the Supreme Court ever used the difference in wording between the 1st Amendment and other amendments to decide a case? In particular, cases between the 1798 passage of the 11th Amendment and the 1868 passage of the 14th Amendment?

To the best of my knowledge, no.

Only a handful of cases invoked the First Amendment as an individual right prior to World War I and that was one of the first provisions of the Bill of Rights to be judicially enforced.

In particular, did any part of the Supreme Court's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chisholm_v._Georgia decision rely on the different wording in the amendments? I realize the 11th Amendment effectively invalidated this decision, though the later 14th Amendment largely annulled the 11th Amendment, at least in my opinion.

No. The full text of the opinion is here.

Currently, does the Supreme Court regard the Bill of Rights (excluding the 1st Amendment) as apply to the States because of their wording, because of the 14th Amendment, or is the issue largely moot now?

The U.S. Supreme Court regards most of the Bill of Rights including the 1st Amendment as applying to the States under a doctrine called selective incorporation that engaged in an analysis under the due process clause of the 14th Amendment.

The most recently incorporated provision of the Bill of Rights was the Second Amendment. McDonald v. City of Chicago (U.S. 2010).

The most notable rights not incorporated are:

  1. The right to a unanimous jury of twelve from the state and district where a crime occurred in a criminal case (smaller juries and non-unanimous juries are allowed in some cases and the locality requirement does not apply to the states either) under the 6th Amendment. Only a couple of states choose to allow non-unanimous juries, however.

  2. The right to be indicted by a grand jury prior to being prosecuted in cases charging an "infamous crime" (i.e. a felony) under the 5th Amendment. About half of U.S. states, mostly in the Eastern U.S. retain this right.

  3. The right to a jury in a civil case under the 7th Amendment. In practice, the vast majority of the states honor this right as a matter of policy, however.

  4. The prohibition of excessive fines under the 8th Amendment. Many states have comparable prohibitions under state constitutions, however.

  5. There is not binding case law in all parts of the United States on the incorporation of the 3rd Amendment on quartering soldiers under the 3rd Amendment (but this is not a big deal since there are very few soldiers who don't count as federal who seek to be quartered in someone's house and there are other incorporated rights which overlap with this one like the 5th Amendment eminent domain rights that overlap with the protections of the 3rd Amendment, and because many state constitutions contains 3rd Amendment protections anyway).

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Legal Information Institute
law.cornell.edu › lii › u.s. constitution annotated › amendment i. fundamental freedoms › free speech clause › content-based and content-neutral regulation of speech › content-based and compelled speech
Content-Based and Compelled Speech | U.S. Constitution Annotated | US Law | LII / Legal Information Institute
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 ...
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In These Times
inthesetimes.com › homepage › “congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of the press, but george bush can”
“Congress Shall Make No Law Abridging The Freedom Of The Press, But George Bush Can” - In These Times
August 13, 2020 - Amendment I 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.
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The First Amendment Encyclopedia
firstamendment.mtsu.edu › home › articles › topic › issues › issues related to speech, press, assembly, or petition › congress
Congress | The First Amendment Encyclopedia
March 31, 2025 - “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 ...
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FindLaw
constitution.findlaw.com › u.s. constitution › the first amendment freedoms of speech, religion, and the press
The First Amendment Freedoms of Speech, Religion, and the Press - FindLaw
July 26, 2024 - “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 ...
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Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org › wiki › First_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution
First Amendment to the United States Constitution - Wikipedia
4 days ago - 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.
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X
x.com › MarkWarner › status › 2101034374309245072
Mark Warner on X: ""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."" / X
September 18, 2026 - "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 ...
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Constitution Center
constitutioncenter.org › the-constitution › amendments › amendment-i › interpretations › 266
Interpretation: Freedom of Speech and the Press | Constitution Center
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.
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Free Speech
freespeech.ucdavis.edu › learn › first-amendment-and-laws
First Amendment and State Laws | Free Speech - UC Davis
August 28, 2024 - U.S. Constitution"Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech …"—Amendment I"No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States."—Amendment XIV, Section 1, Making the First Amendment Applicable to State ...