First Amendment to the United States Constitution
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Search complete. 6281 mentions across 2793 episodes found for "First Amendment to the United States Constitution".
Sep 14, 2026
Melissa MurrayHOST
On June thirtieth, twenty twenty-six, the Supreme Court issued a decision on its merits docket in a campaign finance dispute called National Republican Senatorial Committee versus FEC.
Melissa MurrayHOST
FEC.In that case, the court invalidated a campaign finance law that limited coordinated expenditures by political parties on the ground that the challenge law that restricted that kind of coordinated expenditure violated the First Amendment rights of political parties.
Melissa MurrayHOST
When that decision was announced, Leah Kate and I said that it would have real impact on campaign spending in the run-up to the midterms.
Melissa MurrayHOST
And lo and behold, your favorite Cassandras were absolutely right because on the Friday before Labor Day weekend, this court decided to issue a shadow docket ruling where it cited its recent decision in NRSC versus FEC.
Melissa MurrayHOST
Of course, the candidates went to the Fourth Circuit without waiting for a decision from the commission because, one, it's pretty clear what the commission's ruling on its own guidance would be, and two, the election is literally in a couple of months.
Melissa MurrayHOST
Time is ticking, and this is a pretty critical question.
Melissa MurrayHOST
All to say, the court also determined that the Republican Party committees had demonstrated that if the lower court ruling remained in place, they would suffer irreparable harm because they would not be able to access the more favorable ad rates, quote, "Thereby hampering their efforts to reach the electorate in the critical weeks leading up to the midterms." The court, again citing its June decision, NSRC versus FEC, said that this injury would, quote, "Implicate the GOP committee's First Amendment rights to speak and coordinate their political activities freely," because that-
Rashad RobinsonGUEST
Yeah
Anna BauerPANELIST
Um, each of them made comments, um, t- uh, about, you know, the editorial independence issue, um, and subsequently, uh, uh, w- were terminated.
Anna BauerPANELIST
Um, and then f- then they subsequently also filed suit, uh, alleging, you know, violation of their First Amendment rights, um, uh, because they were being terminated related to the comments that they made in that CBS News interview.
Anna BauerPANELIST
Um, Judge McFadden, the, the reason that he declined this request to reinstate them or to prevent their firing, um, has to do with this question of the likelihood of success on the merits of their claim related to the First Amendment, um, issues.
Anna BauerPANELIST
Um, one of the things that you look at, uh, when you're looking at...
Anna BauerPANELIST
You know, typically you have to balance this question of is a government employee speaking on an issue of, of public concern, um, and then balancing kind of, you know, that, uh, a speech, uh, kind of, uh, talking about an issue of public concern, um, with the government's interest, that kind of thing.
Anna BauerPANELIST
Um, you really only just look at right now the fact that according to McFadden, um, this was speech that was within their official duties, and, and, you know, the government can, uh, can terminate people for conduct that, um, is, uh, insufficient, uh, or insubordinate within the scope of their official duties.
Anna BauerPANELIST
Um, so that's kind of the basis of that decision there, Ben.
Anna BauerPANELIST
Um, meanwhile, we also had a, a second First Amendment development that's interesting related to, uh, the Pentagon and the military this week and, but in a different context, and I'm only going to men-
Josh PateHOST
I don't want him banned.
Josh PateHOST
First Amendment and all.
Josh PateHOST
I don't want him banned.
Josh PateHOST
But you know what? It's so funny that he mentions that because of what I have to say next.
James StoutHOST
Yes, what the government is alleging is part of the consequences of that free speech were that they are saying that people who were doing violence were organizing on it.
James StoutHOST
Free speech is also like a, to just go like super liberal American, right? Like it is the very first amendment-
Margaret KilljoyGUEST
Yeah
James StoutHOST
... that they made to the Constitution.
14 MINS LATER
James StoutHOST
Yeah.
James StoutHOST
And again, this will have global implications, right? Just real quick to sum up the other stuff that they, they talked about, uh, in that sanction document.
James StoutHOST
Talk about how like violent acts and acts dangerous to human life are exempt from the First Amendment.
James StoutHOST
Again, we, we've been over how like AI was not doing violent acts, right?
Jacob JarvisHOST
Yeah.
Jacob WeisbergGUEST
Um, and I think, you know, we still have the First Amendment, and thank God for it, and there are no journalists in prison in the United States.
Jacob WeisbergGUEST
I mean, in, in another part of my life, I chair an organization called the Committee to Protect Journalists, and we're active all over the world.
Jacob WeisbergGUEST
We have, we have had to be more active in, in the United States because of threats against journalists, because of actions by the administration to lock them out of coverage, but the First Amendment stands, but it's...
Jacob WeisbergGUEST
You know, it by itself, um, without people to defend it, it doesn't do the job alone.
Jacob JarvisHOST
Let's get into those, those people you mentioned, those people that, uh, should have known better, but capitulated to Trump.
Ben SasseGUEST
But what the hell? Let's go ahead and list some of the most important ones.
Ben SasseGUEST
And so in the First Amendment, speech and press and religion and assembly and protest.
Ben SasseGUEST
And then you get to 9 and 10.
Ben SasseGUEST
And by the way, if we didn't list any other rights and you're confused about that, all the extra rights of the people and peoples and all the extra authorities go to the states.
Bobby CapucciHOST
Shepard v. Maxwell, 384 U.S. 333, 86S.CT 1507, 16L.E.D., 2d 600 1966 the language of the shepherd court is not equivocal the duty of the court to enter such orders and the authority for enforcement are spelled out Two, the court has power to evaluate the types of speech which could impact the right to a fair trial and to take measures where a case is highly publicized.
Bobby CapucciHOST
In the case of Gentile versus the State Bar of Nevada, the U.S. Supreme Court considered whether a disciplinary action by the State Bar of Nevada against a defense attorney for holding a press conference and stating his client is innocent of the charges and that the police department was corrupt, violated the dictates of the First Amendment.
Bobby CapucciHOST
501 U.S. 1030-1058-1991.
Bobby CapucciHOST
While the court found that the defense attorney's statements were protected by the First Amendment, it noted that his conduct did not demonstrate any real or specific threat to the legal process and that only the occasional case presents a danger of prejudice from pre-trial publicity.
Bobby CapucciHOST
ID at 1058-1054.
Bobby CapucciHOST
The holding in Gentile that the bar on the attorney's one-time political speech violated the First Amendment was well distinguished by the U.S. District Court in Louisiana when it considered a gag order related to a highly publicized criminal case and stated...
Bobby CapucciHOST
In Gentile, the defendant was indicted, and within a few hours of the indictment, his attorney held a press conference.
Bobby CapucciHOST
The attorney denounced the government and charged certain officials with corruption.
Bobby CapucciHOST
And that's why there's people that have issues with this sort of thing.
Bobby CapucciHOST
As far as it's stepping on the First Amendment, at what point do we say as a society that a judge has that much power? Now, of course, this is a unique situation.
Bobby CapucciHOST
And I think that a gag order of some sort is probably a good way to go here.
Bobby CapucciHOST
But this overreaching gag order that we see here, the second one, the amended one, I think it's a bit of an overreach, honestly, by the court.
Bobby CapucciHOST
Look, you have to find that fine line.
Bobby CapucciHOST
And I'm certainly not qualified to sit in that courtroom and figure it out.
Bobby CapucciHOST
But there has to be a less restrictive way where we can maintain the integrity of the trial, maintain Brian Koberger's rights as the accused person here, and also, at the same time, maintaining a very, very important aspect of all of this, which is the First Amendment.
Bobby CapucciHOST
So it's up to Judge Marshall to toe that line.
Dean KarayanisHOST
Yeah, okay, maybe you are.
Dean KarayanisHOST
But I see an awful lot of people who say, I believe in a First Amendment but.
Dean KarayanisHOST
Well, no, no, nothing you say after but matters.
Dean KarayanisHOST
or I believe that America has to have liberty and these property rights, but, no, no, no, nothing after but matters.
Dean KarayanisHOST
There's no but.
Dean KarayanisHOST
Free speech doesn't say but.
Dean KarayanisHOST
First Amendment language does not say but.
Dean KarayanisHOST
It doesn't say Congress shall make no law, but if we really don't like what somebody's saying and you can get 51 votes for it, then you can tell them to shut the hell up.
Nikki TruesdaleHOST
I mean, multiple, multiple founders, I would say the overwhelming majority of them agreed with George Washington on this.
Nikki TruesdaleHOST
But what I would love for you to do is to address a little bit about the First Amendment and this fake separation of church and state that people misunderstand so terribly.
Tara RossGUEST
Well, people, like you said, kind of think the Constitution requires it.
Tara RossGUEST
I think some people might even think that the separation of church and state is the text is actually in the Constitution.
Nikki TruesdaleHOST
He's my favorite ever.
Nikki TruesdaleHOST
So I really love this book.
Nikki TruesdaleHOST
But can you go back to the First Amendment and explain what does it mean?
Tara RossGUEST
Really what it means is there's no Church of England here, right? There's no official, like, which is what they would have been leaving.
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