Under the First Amendment, all Americans are granted freedom of assembly. That means protesters are allowed to gather together peacefully to express or defend their beliefs. It also means you’re allowed to join any group you want—like the Girl Scouts or Boy Scouts, or a certain political party.

The government can’t decide who is allowed to gather. It can, however, limit where and when you get together. That’s why in many states, curfews to make sure children are home by a certain time of night are legal.

Your Fourth Amendment rights protect you against “unreasonable searches and seizures” by the government and government agencies, including police. That means that the police aren’t allowed to physically search through your clothing, home, car, cell phone, or computer unless you give them permission. If you don’t, they’ll need to get a warrant signed by a judge by first proving that they have a justifiable reason to believe you’ve committed a crime, otherwise known as “probable cause.” What you post online, though, is a different story—if you upload photos or documents to social media, you’ve voluntarily shared that information with the world. In that case, privacy laws might not protect you from an online police search.

The First Amendment deals with free speech. That includes the freedom to follow any religion you choose, the freedom to publish any truth in the news, and the freedom to send written requests to the government asking for changes. The right to bear arms falls under the Second Amendment.

The Second Amendment states: A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed. It’s one of the most controversial passages in the entire Bill of Rights! For more than 200 years, courts in the United States have debated just how much freedom this amendment gives individuals to own and carry weapons, particularly guns. In 2010, the case McDonald v. Chicago decided that Americans in every state have the right to own certain kinds of guns. However, questions of who exactly can purchase them and how, what other types of firearms are allowed to be purchased, and where they can be carried are still debated today.

School officials can sometimes control your freedom of expression if they feel that you are disrupting learning. However, they do not have control over whether or not you must recite the Pledge of Allegiance. Your religious freedom is guaranteed under the First Amendment. That means that you have the right to pray in school if you choose, and you also have the right to refuse to pray. No student can be forced to recite the Pledge of Allegiance because it includes the phrase “under God.” 

School officials can sometimes control your freedom of expression if they feel that you are disrupting learning. However, they do not have control over whether or not you must recite the Pledge of Allegiance. Your religious freedom is guaranteed under the First Amendment. That means that you have the right to pray in school if you choose, and you also have the right to refuse to pray. Because the Pledge of Allegiance includes the phrase “under God,” the 1943 court case West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette upholds every student’s right to refuse to salute the flag or recite the Pledge.

The First Amendment protects your freedom of speech. That doesn’t include only what you say aloud! It also covers every way you express yourself, like the way you dress and the art you make. Schools are allowed to have dress codes, but these are based on preventing disruptions to learning. Schools aren’t allowed to ban personal expression just because your ideas and opinions are controversial or unpopular. 

The First Amendment protects your freedom of expression. Under the First Amendment, you are allowed to practice any religion, no matter how unpopular. You are allowed to peacefully protest against anything you disagree with, though the government may dictate where and when you are allowed to gather. You are allowed to send a written request to the government about anything you want—even making video games a mandatory school subject!—though the government can always deny your request. You also have the freedom to voice your ideas in public and to publish information online and in newspapers, without fear of the government changing or blocking those ideas and information.

However, there are limits to what kinds of information and ideas you can express. Threats, harassment, and other words that could harm people or push them to commit crimes are not protected by the First Amendment, and any information you publish about someone else has to be true. Otherwise, you could be sued for libel—intentionally insulting someone’s character!

The First Amendment guarantees freedom of the press. That means that any American can publish his or her opinion without needing to worry about being punished or arrested. Additionally, Americans can rest easy knowing that their printed words won’t be censored—deleted or changed to sound more acceptable to the government. Newspapers can choose which pieces they want to publish, and they can make small changes to correct grammar. But if an opinion piece is published, it cannot legally be removed just because it disagrees with something the government supports.

Though all of the above are American rights, cruel and unusual punishment is the only one that falls under the Eighth Amendment. In the past, the “cruel and unusual punishment” clause was used to prevent certain forms of torture, such as burning at the stake. More recently, this clause has been interpreted to mean that the punishment for a crime shouldn’t exceed the severity of the crime. Thanks to this amendment, landmark cases in 2002 and 2010 decided that anyone under 18 could not be sentenced to the death penalty or to life in jail without possibility of parole (if killing was not involved in the crime committed). The Eighth Amendment also prevents the cost of bail from being too high for the majority of people to afford. 

Sometimes characters in movies and TV shows say they “plead the Fifth.” They are talking about a specific part of the Fifth Amendment. This part is sometimes called the “self-incrimination clause.” It might be the best known of all constitutional rights! Your right to stay silent protects you from being forced to tell police. It also protects you from answering questions at a trial that might reveal that you are guilty of a crime. Whether you did something wrong or not, you don’t have to say anything if you don’t want to. 

When characters in movies and TV shows say they “plead the Fifth,” they are talking about a specific part of the Fifth Amendment sometimes called the “self-incrimination clause.” This clause might be the best known of all constitutional rights! Your right to stay silent protects you from being forced to tell police or anyone questioning you at trial anything that might reveal that you are guilty of a crime. Whether you did something wrong or not, you don’t have to say anything if you don’t want to. 

The First Amendment protects your freedom of expression, as long as what you are expressing isn’t threatening, untrue, a disruption to learning, or otherwise potentially harmful. However, the First Amendment covers only federal institutions—meaning government agencies, including public schools and police. Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok are all owned by private companies. They have much greater freedom to block content and even to ban users altogether. 

The First Amendment protects your freedom of expression, as long as what you are expressing isn’t threatening, untrue, a disruption to learning, or otherwise potentially harmful. However, the First Amendment covers only federal institutions—meaning government agencies, including public schools and police. Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok are all owned by private companies. They have much greater freedom to block content and even to ban users altogether. 

The  Fourth Amendment protects people against “unreasonable searches and seizures” by the government and government agencies. That includes police. Police aren’t allowed to physically search through your clothing, home, car, cell phone, or computer unless you give them permission. If you don’t, they’ll need to get a warrant signed by a judge. To get this official document, they’ll need to prove why they believe you’ve committed a crime. This is known as “probable cause.” What you post online, though, is a different story—if you upload photos or documents to social media, you’ve voluntarily shared that information with the world. In that case, privacy laws might not protect you from an online police search.

Under the Sixth Amendment, criminal trials are guaranteed to be open to the public. You are allowed to waive that right, and at times a judge may call for a “closed hearing” to prevent the intimidation of a witness. But as a rule, having a public criminal trial protects you from abuses of justice that could occur if a trial were held in secret, and it allows everyone in the nation a view into the justice system.

The Third Amendment says people have the right to refuse to let soldiers stay in their homes. Why do we have this amendment? Before the Revolutionary War (1775-1783), the British troops lived in the colonies. And under King George III, colonists in America were forced to house them. The new nation’s leaders wanted to make sure that never happened again.

The First Amendment doesn’t guarantee just freedom of speech. It also covers nonverbal and symbolic forms of expression, like the way you dress and the art you make. Schools are allowed to have dress codes, but these are based on preventing disruptions to learning. Schools aren’t allowed to ban personal expression just because your ideas and opinions are controversial or unpopular. In fact, the 1965 case Tinker v. Des Moines explicitly upholds this right. The justices ruled in favor of a student who was suspended for wearing a black armband in protest of the Vietnam War, declaring that students and teachers do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.”