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Trump’s Agenda: First, Undermine the First Amendment [1]
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Date: 2025-03-19
The First Amendment enshrines essential freedoms, but the U.S. Constitution was not initially guaranteed to include these protections. When the Constitution was adopted in 1787 and ratified in 1788, the Bill of Rights was not part of it. Federalists like James Madison and Alexander Hamilton did not see a need for a Bill of Rights. In contrast, Anti-Federalists such as Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson demanded it to safeguard individual liberties. Madison promised to draft a Bill of Rights, resulting in the proposal of 12 amendments, 10 of which were adopted. The Bill of Rights was ratified in 1791. It’s worth noting that the political parties of the 18th century do not align neatly with the political parties of today.
Conservatives and liberals interpret the First Ten Amendments differently. Conservatives prioritize the Second (gun rights) and Tenth (states’ rights) Amendments, while the First Amendment, emphasizing free speech and religion, ranks third. Liberals tend to start with the First Amendment, followed by the Fourth (protection against unreasonable searches and seizures) and Sixth (right to a fair trial) Amendments.
The First Amendment prevents Congress from infringing on five fundamental freedoms: 1) religion, 2) speech, 3) press, 4) assembly, and 5) petitioning the government for a redress of grievances. Historically, state and local governments infringed upon these rights, including the establishment of state religions. However, the Supreme Court’s ruling in Gitlow v. New York (1925) extended First Amendment protections to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment.
Under the Trump administration, there has been a concerted effort to undermine these freedoms. Trump and the Republican Party’s assault on the First Amendment has been wide-ranging and alarming, impacting all five freedoms.
1 “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.
Justice Hugo Black wrote, “The First Amendment has erected a wall between church and state. That wall must be kept high and impregnable. We could not approve the slightest breach.” (Source:
https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/supreme-court-case-library/everson-v-board-of-education-of-ewing-township)
Christian Nationalism asserts that the U.S. was founded as a Christian nation—it was not—and that Christian values should be promoted in governance and public life. They do not need to establish a religion if they can impose their religious values on the country. Many Christian nationalist groups viewed the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022) ruling as a religious victory because it aligns with certain Christian moral teachings, particularly regarding the sanctity of life.
On February 6, 2025, following the National Prayer Breakfast, President Trump signed an executive order, “Eradicating Anti-Christian Bias” that created a task force aimed at eliminating perceived discrimination against Christians within federal agencies, including the Department of Justice, the IRS, and the FBI. (Source:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/02/eradicating-anti-christian-bias/) Attorney General Pam Bondi and Pastor Paula White-Cain, senior advisor in the newly formed White House Faith Office, are directing this effort. This clearly is an action that advances Christian Nationalism within the Federal government.
The state of Louisiana has ordered the posting of a copy of the Ten Commandments in every classroom in the state. A district court stayed it, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit determined that the stay only applied to the five school districts that brought the case. The Ten Commandments are being posted in classrooms in the other 68 school districts. The Texas legislature is currently trying to advance a similar bill and another bill that allows prayer in school.
2 “Congress shall make no law abridging …the freedom of speech.”
One of America’s founders, Benjamin Franklin wrote, “Whoever would overthrow the Liberty of a Nation, must begin by subduing the Freeness of Speech.” (Source:
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-01-02-0015)
Senator Jodi Ernst, who rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Iowa National Guard and who was deployed in combat to both Bosnia and Kosovo, had significant reservations about Pete Hegseth as the nominee for the Department of Defense secretary. In response, Musk threatened a primary challenge, and Kari Lake was floated as a potential candidate. Ernst changed her position and endorsed Hegseth. This was raw political coercion, but it also stopped freedom of speech. While Presidents work very hard to keep their party in line and often use political coercion, Trump, with Musk, has taken this to a whole new level. The Senate’s role of advice and consent was short-circulated as Republican Senators refused to speak freely about their concerns about many of the nominees and voting accordingly. They abandoned freedom of speech to the detriment of America.
The Trump administration appears to have violated freedom of speech (and the right to assembly, see below) by detaining Mahmoud Khalil, a green card holder who was a student leader in the protests over Gaza at Columbia University. He has been moved to an ICE facility in Louisiana with the threat of deportation by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who can order the deportation if he determines that Khalil “could” have “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences.” (Source:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2025/03/12/marco-rubio-mahmoud-khalil-deportation/) If this is not done with due process, how is it not the action of a police state?
Trump is attacking three law firms, Perkins Coie LLP, Covington & Burling LLP, and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP that he dislikes for their prior legal work against him. In these cases through Presidential Actions, he is abridging the freedom of speech and undermining due process. In a lawsuit involving Perkins Coie, Judge Beryl Howell ruled against elements of Trump’s Executive Order, quoting a Mad Queen in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland who attacks everyone and even announces sentences before verdicts. Howell concluded, “But this cannot be the reality we are living under.” (Source:
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/12/perkins-coie-trump-executive-order-025783) Howell noted, “The chilling effect of this executive order threatens to undermine our entire legal system and the ability of all individuals to access justice in the American judicial system.” (Source:
https://www.courthousenews.com/federal-judge-blocks-trump-throttling-of-perkins-coie/) Howell observed that Trump’s Executive Order would put Perkins Coie out of business.
3 Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of the press;
Walter Cronkite said, “Freedom of the press is not just important to democracy, it is democracy. (Source:
https://nationalpress.org/newsfeed/world-press-freedom-day-2024-national-press-foundation-urges-support-protection-of-journalists/)
Trump has used lawsuits against a number of media outlets, charging defamation and more to stop negative coverage. ABC folded and settled when they would have likely prevailed if the case had continued.
The actions of Jeff Bezos, owner of the Washington Press, have all but destroyed that paper in his goal to ingratiate himself with Trump— “Democracy Dies in Darkness” and Bezos is helping to kill it. The owner of the Los Angeles Times— Patrick Soon-Shiong—is doing the same thing.
On February 11, 2025, Trump began restricting the Associated Press (AP) from access in the White House and on Air Force One. His unilateral renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America in a January 20, 2025 Executive Order began the controversy. On January 23, 2025, Amanda Barrett wrote, “The Gulf of Mexico has carried that name for more than 400 years. The Associated Press will refer to it by its original name while acknowledging the new name Trump has chosen. As a global news agency that disseminates news around the world, the AP must ensure that place names and geography are easily recognizable to all audiences.” (Source:
https://www.ap.org/the-definitive-source/announcements/ap-style-guidance-on-gulf-of-mexico-mount-mckinley/) Trump banished them because they exercised free speech.
4 Congress shall make no law abridging the right of the people peaceably to assemble,
In her 2020 historical novel, “Kent State,” Deborah Wiles wrote, “When the State silences freedom of assembly and freedom to dissent, it silences the people it is sworn to protect.” (Source:
https://www.blipfoto.com/entry/3233308288623838305)
In early June 2020, during nationwide protests regarding the murder of George Floyd, Trump wanted to deploy active-duty military personnel to manage the unrest. In a meeting, he asked senior officials, “Can’t you just shoot them? Just shoot them in the legs or something.” (Source:
https://www.npr.org/2022/05/09/1097517470/trump-esper-book-defense-secretary)
On June 1, 2020, federal law enforcement officers from the U.S. Park Police (USPP), the Secret Service, and, remarkably, the Bureau of Prisons forcibly removed peaceful demonstrators from Lafayette Square near the White House using tear gas, flashbangs, and rubber bullets. Not only was the protest on behalf of George Floyd peaceful, they had a valid permit for the demonstration. Shortly after this police action, Trump showed up with his famous upside-down Bible for a photo op at St. John’s Episcopal Church.
At his Tesla car show at the White House on March 11, 2025, to support his bro, Musk, Trump was asked by a reporter if protesters should be labeled as domestic terrorists. Trump said, “I'll do it. I’m going to stop them. If we catch anybody doing it, because they’re harming a great American company.” (Source:
https://www.npr.org/2025/03/17/nx-s1-5328626/elon-musk-protests-tesla-takedown) The vast majority of these demonstrations are entirely peaceful, although there has been some incidents of vandalism which undermine the purpose of the protests.
The detention of Mahmoud Khalil on March 8, 2025, was directly related to his involvement in protesting what Israel has been doing in Gaza. He is married to an American who is eight months pregnant and holds a green card, which makes him a legal resident. The facts of the ICE raid to seize him appear to involve clear violations of the law. The charge that he is part of Hamas seems ridiculous on its face, but no matter. The likelihood of his deportation as punishment for protesting suggests that peaceful protests are a target of the Trump administration.
5 Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Sarah A. Morgan Smith writes, “The First Amendment protects five distinct freedoms… In antebellum America, however, the right to petition was once among the most controversial of these protected freedoms, because it was a political right belonging to all the people—and not simply to voters. Petitions allowed even the disenfranchised to participate in the political system; because petitions were explicitly linked to the “redress of grievances,” they carried an innate recognition that nonvoters had interests and even rights that the government was obligated to respect. … They were also considered to be a perfect vehicle for women’s political expression.” (Source:
https://teachingamericanhistory.org/blog/the-right-of-the-disenfranchised-to-petition/)
One way of petitioning the government for a redress of grievances is to attend a town hall held by one’s elected representatives with the goal of communication, persuasion, and protest. Unfortunately, Republican officeholders are afraid of their constituents and now are refusing to hold in-person town halls.
The Trump administration has taken a concerted and dangerous approach to erode the First Amendment protections that have been integral to American democracy. These actions represent an unprecedented assault on the fundamental rights that define this nation. This disregard for the Constitution is not just a political issue—it’s a threat to the very foundation of American liberty. We must use every tool that the First Amendment gives us to oppose Trump and Republicans. Our freedom depends upon it.
Time left to January 20, 2029: 1,402 days
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