In their Supreme Court brief, the families' attorneys argue that the law violates basic First Amendment principles governing the separation of church and state.
"The question of whether a state may impose scripture on impressionable, captive-audience children — for nearly every hour of every school day, for up to (13) years — implicates the most fundamental guarantees of the First Amendment and our Nation's highest ideals," they wrote...
Case was seen as major test of the first amendment and whether the US could use broad anti-terrorism statute to prosecute leftwing protesters…
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/13/texas-terrorism-trial
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34qEEaazqJw
"It's a pretty damn dangerous document," former FBI agent Michael Feinberg, who is now a senior editor at Lawfare, said of Bondi's memorandum. "It's dangerous in the sense that it is directed at a specific ideology, namely the left, without offering much evidence as to why that is necessary. And it's also dangerous in the sense that it's ignoring the lion's share of nihilistic violent extremists." Such acts, which the FBI categorizes as being motivated not by political ideology but by a hatred for society at large, constituted a "large chunk" of current domestic terrorism investigations, FBI Director Kash Patel tolda Senate committee in September. …
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon), who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee, is not convinced. "It is a throwback to McCarthyism and the worst abuses of Hoover's FBI to use federal law enforcement against Americans purely because of their political beliefs or because they disagree with the current president's politics," he said in a statement to The Post…
"No court has ever held a law like this implicates the First Amendment," concluded Stevenson. "The law applies only to treatments, that is, only when a licensed professional is delivering clinical care to an individual patient … A state cannot lose its power to regulate the very professionals that it licenses just because they are using words."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyF2fyeCseU
Are therapists protected by the First Amendment during talk therapy sessions with their clients? And are these free speech protections so robust that they prevent the government from regulating talk therapy to ensure that it does not harm patients or depart from professional standards of care?
That's the central question in Chiles v. Salazar, which the Supreme Court will hear on October 7. And, while the idea that incompetent or even abusive talk therapists may be immune from regulation altogether may seem extreme, there is a very real chance that this Court will embrace that uncompromising position…
https://www.vox.com/politics/463357/supreme-court-conversion-therapy-chiles-salazar
Judge rules non-citizens have the same free speech rights as US citizens under the first amendment…
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/30/trump-administration-immigration-palestine
"The McCarthy Era ended when Americans from across the political spectrum finally came together and stood up for the principles in the Constitution against the forces of repression," Fonda said in a statement. "Those forces have returned. And it is our turn to stand together in defense of our constitutional rights. "
We refuse to stand by and let that happen," she continued. "Free speech and free expression are the inalienable rights of every American of all backgrounds and political beliefs – no matter how liberal or conservative you may be. The ability to criticize, question, protest, and even mock those in power is foundational to what America has always aspired to be."…
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/oct/01/jane-fonda-committee-first-amendment-trump
Commentators also pointed to Kirk's own comments from 2024 concerning the idea of hate speech.
"Hate speech does not exist legally in America. There's ugly speech. There's gross speech. There's evil speech," Kirk wrote. "And ALL of it is protected by the First Amendment. Keep America free."…
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/17/pam-bondi-hate-speech-charlie-kirk
Legal experts say the case marks an escalation in the administration's attacks on first amendment rights. Afghanistan war veterans who know him say the case against Mavalwalla appears unjust.
"Here's a guy who held a top secret clearance and was privy to some of the most sensitive information we have, who served in a combat zone," said Kenneth Koop, a retired colonel who trained the Afghan military and police during Mavalwalla's deployment. "To see him treated like this really sticks in my craw."…
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/02/fbi-arrest-us-army-veteran-ice-protest
"Under the First Amendment, if the government opens its doors to some journalists – be it to the Oval Office, the East Room, or elsewhere – it cannot then shut those doors to other journalists because of their viewpoints," McFadden wrote. "The Constitution requires no less."…
