Talk:First Amendment to the United States Constitution

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This article is written in American English, which has its own spelling conventions (color, defense, traveled) and some terms that are used in it may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus.

First Amendment to the United States Constitution is a former featured article. Please see the links under Article milestones below for its original nomination page (for older articles, check the nomination archive) and why it was removed.

First Amendment to the United States Constitution has been listed as one of the Social sciences and society good articles under the good article criteria. If you can improve it further, please do so. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can reassess it.

This article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page as Today's featured article on October 10, 2004.

Article milestones
Date	Process	Result
June 17, 2004	Featured article candidate	Promoted
January 7, 2007	Featured article review	Demoted
May 4, 2013	Good article nominee	Listed

Current status: Former featured article, current good article

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Wikipedia's Paraphrasing of the First Amendment is Opposite to the Actual Verbiage

Wikipedia's claim that the First Amendment "...prevents the government from making laws that regulate an establishment of religion" is a misleading paraphrase of the First Amendment's actual verbiage, which is Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion

The Wikipedia version claims the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights does not allow religion to be regulated, which is the exact opposite to what the Founding Fathers had intended when they wrote that the government can't establish religion, which is why it is known as the Establishment Clause.

Case law throughout history has ruled against government-sponsored religion.

Suggested change:

The First Amendment "...prevents the government from making laws that regulate an establishment of religion"

to

The First Amendment "...prevents the government from making laws respecting an establishment of religion" AndreaMastersEd (talk) 13:46, 19 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I just made this change since no one disagreed with your suggestion, and since you are obviously correct that there was a discrepancy with the First Amendment's actual text. I assume the prior version, which said it "regulates" an establishment of religion, was a typographical error Jameson Nightowl (talk) 06:07, 15 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I think there's a mistake in the first paragraph. This bit doesn't make sense: "... prevents the government from making laws respecting an establishment of religion...". Needs to be changed to "prevents the government from making laws DISrespecting religion..." (or similar). 117.20.69.63 (talk) 22:43, 30 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The wording is correct. In this case, "respecting" means in relation to or regarding. It means neither the federal government, nor any State or local government, can put any religion in a superior position to the secular. SMP0328. (talk) 05:22, 31 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It also means not putting any religion in a superior position over any other. Zaslav (talk) 18:33, 4 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

First sentence needs improvement

I don't think the current first sentence is good. It is too long when it could be more concise. It is attempting to include everything about the First Amendment when according to MOS:LEAD, that should not be the case, and instead the info should spread through the lead. Thinker78 (talk) 20:56, 31 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

How would you propose to re-write it? Jameson Nightowl (talk) 04:31, 2 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Why isn't the first sentence just the text of the amendement, instead of this clumsy paraphrase of it? It is pretty short and easily understood, even though the implications showed somewhat more tricky. 2A01:E0A:1DC:4570:244F:4B9D:CDFF:495A (talk) 17:39, 16 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Original position of what is now the First Amendment.

Original position of what is now the First Amendment. I wanted to add a note on the First Amendment's original position in the Bill of Rights. Although many mistakenly assume that it was always at the top, it occupied third place in the original draft. The first two articles did not pass, so the article on disestablishment and free speech ended up being first. However, the page is semi-restricted. If there is an authorized editor who regards this detail as pertinent and would like to add it, here is a source: https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/bill-of-rights-transcript#:~:text=On%20September%2025%2C%201789%2C%20the,Article%201%20was%20never%20ratified. Free speech scholar Free speech scholar (talk) 03:24, 29 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]