Every First Amendment Case
Had a Name Behind It.
Until Dark Money Came Along.
A chronological review of landmark First Amendment cases reveals one consistent truth: the right was built by named individuals who stood behind their speech, accepted consequences, and put their lives and livelihoods on the line. Dark money claims that same right — with no name, no face, and no accountability.
The First Amendment was ratified in 1791. For its first 128 years, the Supreme Court largely ignored it. When the Court finally began interpreting it in 1919, every single landmark case bore the name of a real person — someone who paid a price for speaking, who could be questioned, and who stood behind their words.
That pattern held for 70 years — through socialists, Jehovah's Witnesses, civil rights workers, students, war protesters, and flag burners. Named people. Real consequences. Democratic accountability.
Then came Citizens United (2010) — and for the first time in First Amendment history, the right was extended to entities with no name, no face, and no accountability. What follows is the story of what was lost in that transition, told through the individuals who built the right that dark money now claims.
Who he was: General secretary of the Socialist Party of Philadelphia. A working-class organizer with no money and no power.
What he did: Distributed 15,000 leaflets to draft-age men arguing the military draft violated the Thirteenth Amendment's prohibition on involuntary servitude. Advocated peaceful resistance only.
The consequence: Convicted under the Espionage Act of 1917. Sentenced to six months in prison. His name is on the case.
The ruling: Court upheld his conviction. Justice Holmes established the "clear and present danger" test. Schenck lost — but the First Amendment found its first interpreter. His named, identified, individual speech created the constitutional framework that dark money now exploits.
Who he was: Five-time presidential candidate, labor leader, and the most prominent socialist in American history.
What he did: Delivered a public anti-war speech in Canton, Ohio. Said: "You need at this time especially to know that you are fit for something better than slavery and cannon fodder."
The consequence: Convicted under the Espionage Act. Sentenced to ten years in federal prison. Ran for president from his jail cell in 1920 and received nearly one million votes.
The ruling: Conviction upheld. The Court found his speech could obstruct military recruiting. He served three years before President Harding commuted his sentence. He put his name — and his freedom — behind his speech.
Who he was: A New York socialist and member of the Left Wing Section of the Socialist Party.
What he did: Wrote and distributed "The Left Wing Manifesto," a pamphlet calling for mass industrial action and the establishment of socialism.
The consequence: Convicted under New York's criminal anarchy statute. Imprisoned.
The ruling: Conviction upheld — but for the first time, the Court held that the First Amendment applies to state laws through the 14th Amendment. Gitlow lost his case but expanded free speech protection for everyone. His name made it possible.
Who they were: Jehovah's Witness children in West Virginia who refused to salute the flag and recite the Pledge of Allegiance on religious grounds. They were expelled from school.
What they did: Simply refused. Quietly. With their names attached, facing expulsion and their parents facing prosecution.
The ruling: Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in their favor. Justice Jackson wrote: "If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics." Children — named, identified, vulnerable — expanded the First Amendment for everyone.
Who they were: Black Americans in Jim Crow Alabama who joined the NAACP knowing that public identification could mean economic ruin, job loss, physical violence, or death.
What Alabama demanded: The full membership list of the NAACP — a tool that would have exposed every member to retaliation by the white power structure.
The ruling: Supreme Court unanimously said no. This is the foundational case for anonymous association rights. Note the critical distinction: these were powerless individuals seeking protection from a hostile, violent state government. This is the opposite of a billionaire hiding a $33M donation to avoid democratic accountability.
Who he was: A KKK leader in Ohio who allowed a TV station to film a rally. His speech was hateful and threatening — and the Court still protected it.
What he said: Threatened "revengeance" against the government and people of color. Convicted under the Ohio Criminal Syndicalism Act and sentenced to prison.
The ruling: Court struck down his conviction unanimously. Overruled Schenck — speech can only be punished if it's directed toward and likely to incite imminent lawless action. Brandenburg was a despicable figure — but he stood in public, gave his name, and faced consequences. The Court protected his speech. He was accountable for it.
Who she was: A 13-year-old girl in Des Moines, Iowa, who wore a black armband to school to protest the Vietnam War. She was suspended.
The consequence: Suspended from school. Faced social hostility. Her name was on the case for the rest of her life — she embraced it.
The ruling: 7-2 in her favor. "Students do not shed their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse gate." A 13-year-old girl with a black armband, facing suspension — named, identified, accountable — expanded First Amendment rights for 50 million American students.
Who they were: Daniel Ellsberg, a named military analyst who leaked classified Pentagon Papers. The New York Times and Washington Post, named institutions that published them under threat of federal injunction.
The consequence: Ellsberg faced 115 years in prison. Both papers faced government attempts to silence them.
The ruling: 6-3 for the press. No prior restraint on publication. Ellsberg's name, the papers' names — all public, all accountable, all protected because they stood behind their speech openly.
Who he was: A political protester who burned an American flag outside the 1984 Republican National Convention in Dallas. Not wealthy. Not powerful. Just a citizen making a statement.
The consequence: Convicted under Texas law. Sentenced to one year in prison and a $2,000 fine.
The ruling: 5-4 in his favor. Flag burning is protected symbolic speech. Justice Brennan wrote that "the government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive." Johnson was identifiable, accountable, and present. His named act of protest is why the First Amendment means what it means today.
Who she was: A private citizen in Ohio who distributed anonymous leaflets opposing a local school tax levy. She was fined $100.
The consequence: She died before the Supreme Court ruled in her favor. Her estate continued the case in her name.
The ruling: Anonymous political speech by a private citizen on a local issue is protected. The Court said anonymity protects ordinary people from retaliation. Note: Mrs. McIntyre was a private citizen opposing a local school levy — not a billionaire anonymously funding a Senate race. The principle was built for her, not for them.
From 1919 to 1995:
Every case. Every individual. Every name known.
What changed: For the first time in First Amendment history, the Supreme Court extended full speech rights to corporations and nonprofits — entities with no name on them, no individual accountability, no face behind the claim.
"Disclosure permits citizens and shareholders to react to the speech of corporate entities in a proper way. This transparency enables the electorate to make informed decisions and give proper weight to different speakers and messages."
"With the advent of the Internet, prompt disclosure of expenditures can provide shareholders and citizens with the information needed to hold corporations and elected officials accountable."
"Voters are fully informed about the person or group who is speaking" and able to "evaluate the arguments to which they are being subjected."
— Justice Kennedy, Citizens United majority opinion, January 21, 2010
Five years after writing the opinion, Kennedy lambasted the FEC for failing to require disclosure. He said the modern-age disclosure system he championed is "not working the way it should." The informed voter he promised never materialized.
"They were unintended in the fact that we didn't want them to happen. But they were predictable. And this caused a problem. But we just couldn't find a place to draw the line."
The author of Citizens United, on PBS, fifteen years later — admitting the consequences were predictable, that they caused a problem, and that the Court simply could not find where to draw the line. The informed voter he promised in 2010 is still waiting.
The full arc: Kennedy promised voters would know who was speaking. Dark money groups immediately challenged disclosure. The FEC deadlocked. By 2024, nearly $2 billion flowed from unnamed sources. Kennedy admitted it wasn't working in 2015. Admitted the consequences were predictable in 2025. The informed voter — the entire constitutional justification for Citizens United — never existed.
What Every Case Had in Common — Until 2010
- › A real, named individual at the center
- › Personal consequences for speaking
- › Public accountability — name on the record
- › Ordinary people — workers, students, activists
- › The right expanded by those with little power
- › No individual — a shell nonprofit with a patriotic name
- › No personal consequences — anonymous by design
- › No public accountability — donors never disclosed
- › Extraordinary wealth — $33M single donations
- › The right claimed by those with all the power
Charles Schenck went to prison for handing out leaflets. Gregory Lee Johnson faced a year in prison for burning a flag. Mary Beth Tinker was thirteen years old and wore a black armband. These are the people who built the First Amendment. Dark money claims their legacy while honoring none of their principles.
— Thomas LambThe First Amendment was built by people who had everything to lose. Charles Schenck. Eugene Debs. Benjamin Gitlow. The Barnette children. The NAACP members of Alabama. Mary Beth Tinker. Gregory Lee Johnson. Margaret McIntyre. They were socialists, Jehovah's Witnesses, civil rights workers, teenagers, veterans, and ordinary citizens. They stood in public, said what they believed, gave their names, and accepted the consequences.
Dark money claims the constitutional protection those people built — while refusing every obligation they honored. No name. No face. No accountability. No consequences. Just money, flowing in darkness, shaping elections that the named individuals above went to prison to make free.
The First Amendment belongs to the people who built it with their names. It should not be available to those who are unwilling to give theirs.
Sources: Constitution Center · First Amendment Encyclopedia (MTSU) · American Bar Association · Bill of Rights Institute · OpenSecrets · Brennan Center · Library of Congress · Justia U.S. Supreme Court
Thomas Lamb · Analyzing Politics That Control Our Lives · thomasalamb.blogspot.com · May 2026
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