The Evolution Of Individual Rights And Liberties Prior To The Constitutional Convention

The Nevada Constitution has much comparison to the U.S. Constitution, and has various perceptions and requirements of the Nevada Constitution, which have roots that go back to English common law.

The right of petition are often forgotten when people are asked to recite the rights guaranteed in the First Amendment. Up till now, this right could arguably be credited with providing the foundation for all other First Amendment rights. In this paper, I will analyze the evolution of individual rights and liberties in England, and in the Colonies, and States of the Confederation during the years preceding the Constitutional Convention.

In the year 1215, at a place called Runnymede in England, is where the story begins about the English barons forced King John to sign the Magna Carta, the first document to put limits on the king's power. While the document itself did not establish the right to petition, the very act of challenging the king, whose belief in his divine right to rule was firm, demonstrated the human aspiration to set right amiss by expression grievances.

More than 500 years later, American colonists spoke boldly against an unjust king and against Parliament, King George III, while the Britain's ruling society ignored their petitions. The colonist told the world why they were rebelling against the monarch in the Declaration of Independence.

(Bill of Rights and the First Amendments)

Given that the Bill of Rights contained freedoms that Americans held to be their inalienable rights, the Bill of Rights was the first ten amendments that became known to the Constitution of the United States. Due to the fact that these rights were very important, several states insisted on a promise of amendments guaranteeing individual r...

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...e Supreme Court began applying the provision of the Bill of Rights to each state. The Supreme Court ruled that no state or local government could deny its citizens free-speech and free-press rights protected by the First Amendment in 1925.

Freedom of religion, of speech, of the press, of assembly and of petition is the rights that Americans hold most dear; which also is the First Amendment protects rights essential to democratic and the most important amendment in the Bill of Rights.

References:

Education for Freedom, retrieved on May 24, 2006 from the World Wide Web:

http://www.freedomforum.org

History of the United States Constitution, retrieved on May 24, 2006 from the World

Wide Web: http://en.wikipedia.org

The Constitution of the State of Nevada, retrieved on May 24, 2006 from the World Wide

Web: http://www.nevada-history.org/constitution.html