When First Amendment Freedoms Conflict, Which Would You Pick?

Commentary
Inside the First Amendment

By Gene Policinski
First Amendment Center vice president/executive director

Balancing — or pitting — First Amendment freedoms against each other is tough work.

Akin to asking a parent which child is the favorite, seeking to favor one or two of the five freedoms — religion, speech, press, assembly or petition — over the others creates an inherent contradiction.

But that’s exactly the dilemma for First Amendment advocates, along with the…