Instead, because the supremacy clause of the U.S. Those (ten) that originally passed came to be known as the Bill of Rights.Īlthough state bills of rights had inspired the construction of federal constitutional rights, recourse to state constitutions as an independent source of protection for expressive rights was not common until the later 1990s. The 1776 Virginia Declaration of Rights is often credited with being the source or inspiration for the amendments James Madison offered to the Constitution in 1791. The history and relationship between rights protected under federal and various state constitutions provide important insights into federalism. State bills of rights inspired federal constitutional rights Today all of the states have provisions in their constitutions that protect these or similar rights, and in some cases offer greater protection for speech, press, and assembly rights than those based on the U.S. However, most states had adopted constitutions before the United States did, and most included bills or declarations of rights. Constitution is generally considered the main legal provision protecting expressive freedom. (Photo of Connecticut Supreme Court building in 2017, AP Photo/Dave Collins, used with permission from the Associated Press) Since then, some state supreme courts have chosen to grant more protection under their own constitutions than under the First Amendment, including those in New Jersey and Connecticut.

encouraged state courts and judges to use their own constitutions to protect individual rights independent of what the federal courts did through the U.S. All states have provisions in their constitutions protecting similar free speech rights to those found in the Bill of Rights.

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