CAIRO — A prosecutor on Sunday charged one of Egypt’s most prominent liberal intellectuals with insulting the judiciary because he posted a message on Twitter criticizing a court ruling against three American nonprofits that promote democracy.

The intellectual, Amr Hamzawy, a political scientist and former lawmaker, was charged along with two dozen others — including liberals, Islamists, and the deposed president, Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood. Coming a day after the adoption of a new Constitution, the charges offered a glimpse of how the military-led government may apply the Constitution’s porous free-speech provisions and suggested that it may intensify its pressure on dissenters.

The crime of insulting the judiciary is a longstanding element of Egyptian law that inherently violates Western norms of free expression. Mr. Morsi, who is already on trial on several other charges, was charged on Sunday because, in a speech as president, he accused a judge of colluding in electoral fraud.

But the case against Mr. Hamzawy stands out because of his stature as a leading liberal, the ephemeral nature of his Twitter message, and the inconsistency of punishing him for a criticism many others also made.