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1774
Eighteen baptist are thrown in jail in Massachusetts for refusing to pay taxes that supported the Congregational Church. -
1868
The 14th amendment to the Constitution is ratified. The amendment says that no state shall deprive any person of life, liberty or property, without due process of law; nor to deny any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of laws. -
1917
Congress passes the Espionage Act, making it a crime to willingly cause or attempt to cause insubordinate, disloyalty, or refusal of duty, in the military or naval forces, or to willfully obstruct the recruiting or enlistment service of the United States. -
1918
Congress passes the Sedition Act, which forbids spoken or printed criticism of the US Government, the Constitution or the American flag. -
1920
Roger Baldwin and others start up a new organization dedicated to preserving civil liberties called the American Civil Liberties Union. -
1926
H.L. Mencken is arrested for giving out copies of American Mercury. Censorship groups in Boston contend the periodical is obscene. -
1933
President Franklin D. Roosevelt pardons those convicted under the Espionage and Sedition Act. -
1939
Georgia, Massachusetts and Connecticut finally ratify the Bill of Rights. -
1940
In Cantwell v. Connecticut, the U.S. Supreme Court holds for the first time that the due-process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment makes the free-exercise clause of the First Amendment applicable to states. -
1941
Congress authorizes President Franklin D. Roosevelt to create the Office of Censorship. -
1943
In West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that a West Virginia requirement to salute the flag violates the free-speech clause of the First Amendment. -
1982
The U.S. Supreme Court rules in New York v. Ferber that child pornography is not protected by the First Amendment.
