The First Amendment was ratified on December 15, 1791, the day Virginia became the eleventh state to approve the Bill of Rights and cleared the three-fourths threshold that Article V of the Constitution requires for any amendment to take effect.1National Archives. Ratifying the Bill of Rights . . . in 1939 With that vote, five freedoms — religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition — moved from political promise into enforceable constitutional law.
Why the Amendments Were Proposed in the First Place
The 1787 Constitution built a federal government but said almost nothing about individual rights. Anti-Federalists warned that without written protections, the new government’s sweeping powers could eventually be turned against the people it was meant to serve. Several state ratifying conventions approved the Constitution only after receiving assurances that a bill of rights would follow.
James Madison carried that promise into the First Congress. On June 8, 1789, he introduced a package of proposed amendments in the House of Representatives, saying he felt compelled to act rather than “let the subject pass over in silence.” He framed the effort partly as a gesture to skeptics, an opportunity for the Constitution’s supporters to show “that they were as sincerely devoted to liberty and a republican government” as anyone who had opposed ratification. A summer of debate followed.
Twelve Articles Left Congress, Not Ten
After months of revision, lawmakers narrowed Madison’s proposals to twelve articles. On September 25, 1789, both the House and Senate formally approved the package and sent it to the state legislatures.2National Archives. The Bill of Rights: A Transcription
What Americans now know as the First Amendment was actually the third article on that list. The first two dealt with the size of congressional districts and the timing of pay raises for members of Congress.2National Archives. The Bill of Rights: A Transcription States rejected the apportionment article entirely. The pay-raise article sat dormant for more than two centuries before finally being ratified as the Twenty-Seventh Amendment in 1992.3United States Senate. Congress Submits the First Constitutional Amendments to the States With those first two set aside, Articles Three through Twelve became the ten amendments known as the Bill of Rights, and Article Three became the First Amendment.
The Three-Fourths Requirement Set a Moving Target
Article V of the Constitution requires three-fourths of the state legislatures to approve a proposed amendment before it becomes part of the Constitution.4Congress.gov. Article V – Amending the Constitution When the Bill of Rights left Congress in September 1789, there were thirteen states in the union, so ten had to approve. Vermont’s admission as the fourteenth state on March 4, 1791, raised the bar to eleven.
Each state legislature followed its own procedures to review and vote on the text. After approving the amendments, a state sent certification documents to the federal government, where officials examined them for authenticity and legal sufficiency before acknowledging receipt.5National Archives. Constitutional Amendment Process
How the Ratification Unfolded, 1789 to 1791
State legislatures began acting almost immediately after receiving the proposed amendments in late 1789. New Jersey voted first in November of that year. Maryland and North Carolina followed shortly after. Ratifications continued through 1790 as additional legislatures debated the scope of the new protections and cast their votes.
The process concluded on December 15, 1791, when Virginia became the eleventh state to ratify. That vote cleared the three-fourths threshold, and Articles Three through Twelve became part of the Constitution as the Bill of Rights.1National Archives. Ratifying the Bill of Rights . . . in 1939 The entire journey from congressional proposal to final ratification took just over two years.
What the Ratified Text Actually Protects
The First Amendment packs five distinct freedoms into a single sentence: “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.”6Congress.gov. U.S. Constitution – First Amendment Each of those clauses has generated its own body of law over the two centuries since ratification.
Religion
The Establishment Clause bars the government from creating an official religion or favoring one faith over others. The Free Exercise Clause prevents the government from interfering with personal religious practice. The two sometimes pull in opposite directions, and courts have spent generations working out where the line falls.
Speech and Press
Freedom of speech protects the right to express opinions and ideas without government punishment. The protection reaches beyond spoken words to cover written communication, symbolic acts, and artistic expression. Freedom of the press ensures that media organizations and individual publishers can report on government and public affairs without censorship.
Assembly and Petition
The right of assembly protects people gathering peacefully for shared purposes, whether that means protests, rallies, community organizing, or worship. The right to petition guarantees that individuals can formally ask the government to change laws or address wrongs without retaliation.
Ratification in 1791 Only Bound the Federal Government
Here is a point that trips up many readers: as originally ratified, the First Amendment restricted only Congress. Its opening words are “Congress shall make no law,” and for more than a century, courts read that limit literally. State and local governments remained free to restrict speech, establish official churches, or suppress assembly without violating the First Amendment.
That changed after the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified in 1868. Through a gradual process called incorporation, the Supreme Court began ruling that specific rights from the Bill of Rights were so fundamental that the Fourteenth Amendment’s due process guarantee extended them against state and local governments as well.7Congress.gov. State Action Doctrine and Free Speech The First Amendment was incorporated right by right, over several decades:
- Freedom of speech was incorporated in 1925. In Gitlow v. New York, the Court declared that free speech protections “are among the fundamental personal rights and ‘liberties’ protected by the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment from impairment by the States.”8Justia Law. Gitlow v. New York, 268 U.S. 652 (1925)
- Freedom of the press was incorporated in 1931 through Near v. Minnesota, which struck down a state law allowing courts to shut down newspapers as a public nuisance and held that such prior restraints were “inconsistent with the conception of the liberty of the press as historically conceived and guaranteed.”9Justia Law. Near v. Minnesota, 283 U.S. 697 (1931)
- Assembly and petition were incorporated in 1937 through DeJonge v. Oregon.
- Free exercise of religion was incorporated in 1940 through Cantwell v. Connecticut.
- The Establishment Clause was incorporated in 1947 through Everson v. Board of Education.
Today every component of the First Amendment applies to federal, state, and local government action alike. It still restricts only the government, though. Private employers, social media platforms, and other non-government entities are not bound by it.7Congress.gov. State Action Doctrine and Free Speech The 1791 ratification set the ceiling on federal power; everything beyond that came later.