The First Amendment protects freedom of speech, religion, press, assembly, and petition.
It was ratified on December 15, 1791, as one of the ten amendments known collectively as the Bill of Rights. Its text restricts Congress from establishing a religion or prohibiting its free exercise, and it protects several forms of public expression and participation in government.
A historical numbering detail often causes confusion. Congress originally proposed twelve amendments in 1789. The articles that became today’s First and Second Amendments were not ratified at that time, so the original third article became the First Amendment after ratification.
The amendment’s wording specifically limits Congress, although later constitutional interpretation and the Fourteenth Amendment applied many rights protections more broadly against state governments. Its ratification is part of the constitutional founding story commemorated during America250.