This term, the Supreme Court heard eight First Amendment-related cases. The Justices ruled on some cases and side-stepped the ultimate merits in others — but the term still provided important takeaways for Americans’ free speech rights. Here are five big things you should know about the Court’s First Amendment decisions. ...

Most of the rulings on First Amendment-related cases this term were speech-protective, even when they did not decide the overall merits of the claims. And in certain cases where they didn’t quite hit the mark, such as Vidal, the decisions were still made with an eye towards limiting the powers of the government to infringe the expressive rights of American citizens.