Hear how the 2 religious clauses in the First Amendment have been tested and evolved over time

Read the language in the Constitution that protects religious freedom in the US

The First Amendment's religion clauses include two provisions: the establishment clause and the free exercise clause. These two parts prevent the government from endorsing any specific religion and from interfering with the free practice of religion.

Learn about the long and contested history of free speech in America

This podcast examines how American free speech protections evolved—from the Founders' debates to landmark Supreme Court rulings—and why the country arrived at one of the most expansive speech regimes in the world.

The First Amendment established religious freedom as a constitutional right—a safeguard no other nation had before

Europe had limited religious tolerance for centuries, but always as a privilege granted by rulers who could revoke it. The First Amendment in the United States was unique for the time: It banned the government from interfering with religion, making religious freedom a permanent constitutional limit on state power.

Hear experts discuss how religion has shaped American life

Produced by the National Museum of American Religion, this podcast examines how religion has shaped America and how America has influenced religion—covering topics from the Nation of Islam and rock 'n' roll to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, with scholars and everyday citizens as guides.

Reynolds v. United States (1878) established that religious belief is not a defense for a crime

In the first major Supreme Court case on the free exercise clause, the court ruled that the government cannot regulate religious belief, but it can regulate religious practice if it violates the law. The case arose from a Mormon man convicted of polygamy who argued his faith required it.

The words 'separation of church and state' are not found in the Constitution

Responding to Connecticut Baptists concerned about religious liberty, Jefferson described the First Amendment as building "a wall of separation between church and state." The Supreme Court later cited the letter as an authoritative guide to the Establishment Clause.

Hear about the individuals who have reshaped the Constitution throughout American history

This multi-episode podcast series from The Washington Post explores how debates, court decisions, and influential individuals have shaped the Constitution as Americans pushed the nation to live up to its founding ideals.

Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971) created a 3-part test for church-state entanglement

In this case, the Supreme Court established a three-part test—requiring a secular purpose, no advancement of religion, and avoidance of excessive entanglement—for laws concerning the Establishment Clause. The test was later effectively sidelined in recent rulings.

The Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 restricted the government's ability to limit religious practice

Congress enacted RFRA in response to the Supreme Court's decision in Employment Division v. Smith. The law requires the government to use the least restrictive means before substantially burdening an individual's religious exercise.

The powers of the judicial branch have expanded since the nation's founding

Initially, the Supreme Court was seen as the weakest branch, lacking "the power of the sword or the purse," as Alexander Hamilton noted in *Federalist No. 78*. This podcast explores the political conflicts and pivotal decisions that transformed the court into the powerful constitutional authority it is today.

July Fourth wasn't always a holiday, and its meaning has changed over time

This podcast explores how July Fourth evolved from an ordinary day into a national holiday, tracing its radical origins, the shifting interpretations of the Declaration, and how later generations claimed its language of liberty and equality.

The US Constitution has been amended 27 different times since its ratification

Dive deeper into each amendment to the Constitution with resources provided by the National Constitution Center. This website features podcasts, videos, and other web resources for each of the amendments, examining their creation and their impact on today’s political and social landscape.

Trace how the Bill of Rights, inspired by centuries of political theory, took shape between 1774 and 1789.

Hear about the Enlightenment origins of the Declaration's ideas

This podcast examines the Enlightenment thinkers and earlier political texts that influenced the Declaration, demonstrating how Jefferson built upon existing ideas rather than inventing them wholesale.

Native religious practices were suppressed for centuries before receiving federal protection in 1978

During the first two centuries of American history, the government frequently banned Native ceremonial dances, took sacred sites, and enrolled children in boarding schools where they were prevented from practicing their faith. The American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978 committed the federal government to safeguarding Native spiritual practices.

'Pastafarians' have used their pasta-strainer-wearing faith to test the legal limits of what counts as religion

Founded in 2005 to mock the teaching of creationism in public schools, the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster has led to real First Amendment cases—over driver's license photos, courthouse statues, and prison rights. Courts have generally ruled it as satire rather than religion.

Mahmoud v. Taylor (2025) broadened parents' rights regarding what their children learn in public schools

The case, brought by parents in Maryland, focused on religious objections to books with same-sex and transgender characters in elementary classrooms. The court ruled that the district's denial of parents' opt-out requests violated the free exercise clause of the First Amendment.

A map of religious radio stations in the US

A Pew analysis of 440,000 hours of broadcasts found more than 4,000 faith-based AM/FM stations reach 98% of American adults (out of a total of 17,000 licensed stations). Ownership is highly concentrated, with the top 30% of stations belonging to large groups; Educational Media Foundation's K-LOVE and Air1 networks alone hold hundreds of licenses nationwide.

Explore the state of religious freedom around the world

This interactive tool visualizes government restrictions on religion and social hostilities involving religion across countries worldwide. It enables users to compare nations and monitor changes over time.

Most Americans support the separation of church and state

A 2021 Pew survey found that 55% of Americans strongly or moderately support the separation of church and state, while 14% favor integrating religion more into government.

Constitutional originalism and living constitutionalism are the 2 main theories of interpretation

Hear from experts about originalism—the view that the Constitution should be interpreted according to its original public meaning—alongside its main counter-ideology, living constitutionalism, which argues that the document's meaning should evolve with changing social and legal norms.

Citizens United extended First Amendment protections to corporate political spending

The Supreme Court's 2010 decision struck down limits on independent political expenditures by corporations and other organizations, ruling that such spending is protected speech—a decision that was deeply contested and reshaped campaign finance law.

How income taxes evolved from a funding tool for war into a crucial revenue source for the federal government

Americans have long resisted income taxes. So, how did they become permanent? This overview explains how wartime funding needs, constitutional changes, and economic shifts gave rise to the modern tax system, from the Civil War to the payroll withholding rules we follow today.

The earliest colonial schools were often religious

The earliest American schools were far from our notions of “public” or “private”—they were neighborhood institutions, often founded by religious groups, that sought to educate children academically and spiritually.

Immigration enforcement shows how federalism plays out on the ground

In recent years, federalism has shifted from allowing policy diversity across states to open conflict, with states and the federal government increasingly trying to impose their preferences on one another over issues like abortion, voting, immigration, and public health.

See a timeline of commercial radio history

Radio, as we know it, began in the 1910s. This FCC timeline traces the evolution of the medium over the century that followed, highlighting groundbreaking broadcasts, speeches, and technological breakthroughs.

44% of Americans say they pray at least once a day—discover how your state's religiosity stacks up against the rest of the country.

Hear about the 250-year history of the United States Postal Service, complete with some of its strangest deliveries, important innovations, and the figures that made it an American institution.

The story of Dollree Mapp, whose legal challenge over her 1957 conviction for possessing "obscene material" led to a major strengthening of the Fourth Amendment

The rivalry between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson centered on federalism—the question of how much power the federal government should hold relative to the states.

20,000 letters to the advice columnist 'Dear Abby' provide insight into prevailing sex, religion, and LGBTQ fears, anxieties, and concerns from the 1950s onward.

A century of Billboard issues documenting the evolution of popular music.

While the first exchange-traded fund (a 'basket' of different assets that can be bought and sold on a stock exchange) in the US only launched in 1993, the global ETF market has grown to more than $10T in the short time since.

Listen to an in-depth conversation on the links between Parkinson's disease and herbicide exposure and the challenging pace of scientific investigation.

Budweiser stores yeast derived from the original 1800s strain in a secret bunker, which only the Head of Yeast Management can access—not even the CEO

70 years ago today, city officials in Santa Cruz, California, banned rock 'n' roll to protect its youth from corruption after witnessing a 'provocative' concert the night before.

At the beginning of the 20th century, a group of young men ate standard American food—replete with food additives like borax and formaldehyde—as part of government research to better understand food safety.

A small portion of The Winstons' 'Amen, Brother,' an obscure '60s gospel record, is the basis for thousands of hip-hop tracks, making it one of the most sampled records ever that's informally known as 'the Amen break.'

See the evolution of Ebola vaccine and treatment development.

Long before Major League Baseball began allowing instant replay for balls and strikes, an umpire reluctantly used the technology to determine whether a hit was a home run, a move that inadvertently ushered in a new era for the sport.

The American cockroach is actually from Africa, an apparent hitchhiker aboard ships carrying enslaved people, with evidence suggesting the bug may have arrived in the New World as early as the 1600s.

In 2018, 26-year-old missionary John Allen Chau was killed by tribesmen after attempting to reach and evangelize on India's isolated North Sentinel Island

Learn how your body is, scientifically, like a firework with its own slow, controlled burn.

Explore chaos in this simulation of two double pendulums, where small differences in the release angles produce wildly different outcomes.

Fish populations in the Great Barrier Reef have increased after installing waterproof speakers on the ocean floor that played recordings of sounds from healthy coral reefs.

For centuries, it was common to sleep in two shifts: a few hours at the beginning of the night, and a longer period beginning around midnight

Legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed the SC Johnson headquarters in Wisconsin, aiming to make a cathedral-like workplace

The Brothers Grimm were lawyers before they were storytellers, but became interested in fairy tales as they began investigating how rules and customs had been passed down through cultures.

Children are now three times more likely to say they want to be a YouTuber when they grow up than an astronaut, with some even attending 'YouTube camps' that teach kids how to create content for the platform.