First Amendment Fading Fast

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

While I’m not sure Congress could get away with making laws explicitly in violation of the First Amendment, I believe the First Amendment will be increasingly neutralized item by item nonetheless. Specifically…
prohibiting the free exercise of religion – By “criminal profiling” social media posts for evidence of religious “radicalization” without any indication of planning to act in a criminal manner and using that determination to curtail the rights of citizens by putting them on a no fly or no buy or no post list, a specific religion and perhaps ultimately religion in general can be targeted to be silenced. (That is, Radical Islam isn’t the only “radical religion” that might eventually come in the crosshairs. Is Opus Dei or the Kabbalah radical religion? Is extreme environmentalism or pro- or anti-abortion activism considered radical religiosity? Maybe not now, but let’s not forget the St Louis Fusion Center’s definition of threats to national security…don’t remember? Click here.)
abridging the freedom of speech or the press – Similar to the attack on religion, monitoring social media for hate speech or radical views, domestic terrorism, etc. will have the same affect – chilling speech or worse, punishing it; fake news and calls for censorship, curation and prioritization are all attacks on the free press that are obviously imminent.
the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances – There have already been several attacks on this as laws are passed to cordon off the press or protests from the vicinity of government action (Waco, the Bundy Ranch, etc.), but I also think police body cameras will be used to identify and catalogue through facial recognition which individuals are politically active, for what causes and in what ways. In addition, Operation Black v Blue (ie, Black Lives Matter v Blue Lives Matter) is helping get cops out of sympathy with the people, making them more likely to take the government’s side in the case of even justifiable civil unrest, specifically, as unruly protests occur with cops on edge, even shot as in Dallas, violence and suppression of citizen gatherings will more and more be used to deter people from coming out to petition the government or assemble for political purposes, or worse, punish them for doing so.