1. The First Amendment of the Bill of Rights
Madison, later a congressman, drafted a bill of rights, drawing heavily upon the Virginia Declaration of Rights that was the work primarily of anti-federalist George Mason. ... The Act was enforced against Republican papers in an effort to keep Jefferson's party from defeating the federalists in the 1800 election. ... "Judges who are hostile to the often philosophical basis of the right of free speech and to the values that right promotes, could at any time shift the First Amendment doctrine back to the days when speaking out against the draft could land one in jail for 10 yrs" (Ostrows...