First Amendment
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50 free First Amendment trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The First Amendment is a single sentence written in 1789, yet it sits behind many of the loudest arguments in American life. Students, preachers, publishers, protesters and comedians have all carried its text to the Supreme Court, and the rulings that came back still shape what Americans may say, print, believe and gather to demand. This quiz covers the amendment's exact wording and how it came to be written, the landmark religion cases on school prayer and free exercise, and the speech and press cases every civics class meets. Many questions describe a real situation and ask how the justices ruled, so you can see whether your instincts match the law. It suits students revising for an American history or civics exam, teachers who want a ready-made printable quiz with answers, and anyone curious about where free expression begins and ends. Every answer comes with a short explanation of the story behind the case.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What did Mary Beth Tinker and other Des Moines students wear to school to protest the Vietnam War?
Black armbands
Black armbands got 13-year-old Mary Beth Tinker suspended, and the Supreme Court sided with the students 7–2 in 1969. The ruling said the First Amendment applies inside public schools.
Q 02Citizens United v. FEC began with a documentary film attacking which 2008 presidential candidate?
Hillary Clinton
Hillary Clinton was the target of Hillary: The Movie, which the nonprofit wanted to air on DirecTV. The Supreme Court used the case to strike down curbs on independent political spending by corporations.
Q 03Which comedian's monologue about words unfit for broadcast led to FCC v. Pacifica Foundation in 1978?
George Carlin
George Carlin's routine aired on a New York station one afternoon in 1973, and a father who heard it in the car with his young son complained. The Court let the FCC regulate indecent material on the airwaves.
Q 04Which televangelist lost a unanimous Supreme Court case against Hustler magazine over a crude parody ad?
Jerry Falwell
Jerry Falwell had won damages from a jury for emotional distress before the justices ruled 8–0 against him in 1988. They held that a public figure cannot collect for an obvious parody.
Q 05Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association struck down a California ban on selling what to minors?
Violent video games
Violent video games were ruled protected speech like other media in a 7–2 decision in 2011. Justice Antonin Scalia wondered whether the law's vague idea of violence could also cover Grimms' Fairy Tales.
Q 06Which religious community won the right to end schooling after eighth grade in Wisconsin v. Yoder?
The Amish
The Amish parents had each been fined a nominal $5 for keeping their teenagers out of high school. The Court ruled that their religious freedom outweighed the state's interest in educating the children.
Q 07Which scientific theory did Arkansas ban from public schools until Epperson v. Arkansas in 1968?
Evolution
Evolution had been kept out of Arkansas classrooms by a 1928 statute. Susan Epperson, a 10th-grade biology teacher at Little Rock Central High School, brought the case, and the justices were unanimous.
Q 08Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L. protected a cheerleader's profane off-campus post on which app?
Snapchat
Snapchat was where Brandi Levy vented after missing the varsity squad, and her school suspended her from cheerleading for a year. The Supreme Court sided with her 8–1 in 2021.
Q 09Which president's 1802 letter described a wall of separation between church and state?
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson used the image to reassure a religious minority in Danbury, Connecticut, worried about the state's dominant Congregational church. The phrase itself appears nowhere in the Constitution.
Q 10Cohen v. California protected a man who wore which item bearing a profane antiwar message in a courthouse?
A jacket
A jacket bearing a four-letter word about the Vietnam-era call-up earned 19-year-old Paul Cohen 30 days in jail. He had worn it in a corridor of the Los Angeles Hall of Justice in 1968.
Q 11The First Amendment's opening words bar which body from making laws on religion, speech and the press?
Congress
Congress is the only body the text names, so the First Amendment long restrained just the federal government. The Supreme Court began applying it to the states in 1925.
Q 12Which 1962 Supreme Court case barred public schools from leading a prayer written by state officials?
Engel v. Vitale
Engel v. Vitale struck down the Regents' Prayer, which New York's Board of Regents had written to open the school day. The vote was 6–1, with two justices sitting out.
Q 13Stone v. Graham struck down a Kentucky law requiring which text on every public school classroom wall?
The Ten Commandments
Q 21Which justice wrote the 1919 Schenck opinion that introduced the clear and present danger standard?
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Oliver Wendell Holmes also wrote there that free speech would not protect a man falsely shouting fire in a theatre. Retellings add the word crowded, which he never used.
Q 22Which 1989 Supreme Court case held that burning the American flag in protest is protected expression?
Texas v. Johnson
Texas v. Johnson wiped out flag-desecration laws then enforced in 48 states. Gregory Lee Johnson had been fined $2,000 and sentenced to a year in jail for his protest outside the 1984 Republican convention.
Q 23Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969) overturned the conviction of a rural leader of which group over a filmed rally?
The Ten Commandments copies were bought with private money, but the Court ruled in 1980 that hanging them in public classrooms still violated the First Amendment.
Q 14Children of which faith won the 1943 Barnette ruling that public schools cannot force a flag salute?
Jehovah's Witnesses
Jehovah's Witnesses regard saluting a flag as idolatry, and their children had been expelled for refusing. The decision overruled a case the Court had decided the other way just three years earlier.
Q 15Which practice did the Supreme Court refuse to excuse as a religious duty in the 1870s Reynolds case?
Polygamy
Polygamy was a religious duty to George Reynolds, a secretary to Brigham Young who offered himself as a test case. The Court held that belief is no defense to a criminal charge.
Q 16Which substance, used in Native American Church rites, was at issue in Employment Division v. Smith?
Peyote
Peyote was illegal in Oregon, so in 1990 the Court let the state deny unemployment benefits to two drug counselors fired for taking it. Lawmakers answered three years later with the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
Q 17Which religion's followers won a 1993 Supreme Court case over a Florida city's ban on animal sacrifice?
Santería
Santería blends Roman Catholicism with Yoruba religion carried to Cuba by enslaved people. The Court found Hialeah's ordinances suppressed more religious conduct than their stated aims required.
Q 18Kennedy v. Bremerton School District backed a coach of which sport who prayed on the field after games?
Football
Football assistant Joseph Kennedy knelt at the 50-yard line of Bremerton High School in Washington state after each game. The Court ruled 6–3 in 2022 that the district could not suppress his personal prayer.
Q 19Which three-part standard, named for a 1971 school-aid case, long guided Establishment Clause rulings?
The Lemon test
The Lemon test took its name from Alton Lemon, the lead plaintiff in the case. In 2022 the Supreme Court told lower courts to stop relying on it.
Q 20Which Virginian wrote the First Amendment's first version to keep a campaign pledge for a bill of rights?
James Madison
James Madison had beaten James Monroe for his House seat after making that pledge. He introduced his proposed amendments in the House in 1789.
The Ku Klux Klan
The Ku Klux Klan leader, Clarence Brandenburg, had invited a Cincinnati TV reporter to film the rally. The Court said speech can be punished only when it is meant and likely to spark imminent lawless action.
Q 24New York Times v. Sullivan said public officials must prove which standard to win a libel suit?
Actual malice
Actual malice means knowing a statement is false or recklessly ignoring whether it is. The 1964 case began with a full-page ad by supporters of Martin Luther King Jr. criticizing police in Montgomery, Alabama.
Q 25Which secret Vietnam War study did the Supreme Court let newspapers keep publishing in 1971?
The Pentagon Papers
The Pentagon Papers ran to 47 volumes and some 7,000 pages, and analyst Daniel Ellsberg, who had helped produce them, let a New York Times reporter read 43. The Washington Post published them too.
Q 26Which Kansas congregation's picketing at a Marine's funeral was ruled protected speech in Snyder v. Phelps?
Westboro Baptist Church
Westboro Baptist Church, led by founder Fred Phelps, sent seven members to picket the funeral of Matthew Snyder in 2006. The Court ruled 8–1 in 2011 that speech on a matter of public concern was shielded from liability.
Q 27Morse v. Frederick involved a student's pro-drug banner unfurled as which event passed through Juneau?
The Olympic torch relay
The Olympic torch relay was passing Juneau-Douglas High School when Joseph Frederick raised the banner across the street. The Court ruled in 2007 that schools may punish student speech seen as promoting illegal drug use.
Q 28United States v. O'Brien upheld a conviction for burning which document on Boston courthouse steps?
A draft card
A draft card went up in flames in front of a crowd that happened to include several FBI agents. David Paul O'Brien lost 7–1 in 1968, and the O'Brien test is still applied to laws that restrict expressive conduct.
Q 29The Miller test, from a 1973 case about a mail-order brochure, decides whether material is what?
Obscene
Obscene material can be banned outright, which is why the line matters so much. Marvin Miller ran a California business selling pornographic films and books, and the three-part standard still bears his name.
Q 30In which Chicago suburb, home to many Holocaust survivors, did neo-Nazis win the right to march?
Skokie
Skokie's lawyers argued that for survivors, seeing a swastika was like being physically attacked. The neo-Nazis won in court in the late 1970s, then never marched there and rallied in Chicago instead.