“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or the press, or the right of peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for the redress of grievances” (United States Constitution). In 1789 the anti-federalist main concern was that the Constitution’s lack of adequate guarantees for civil liberties. To provide such guarantees, the First Amendment along with the other nine Amendments known as the Bill of Rights were submitted to the states for ratification on September 25, 1789 and adopted on December 15, 1791. This was a guarantee of the essential rights and liberties that were omitted in the original documents. A series of cases will be presented in this paper to provide a clear idea of the First Amendment. Cases that have cause an impact in society and have changed or modify a law. The five right listed under the First Amendment are: Freedom of religion; “Congress shall not make no law respecting an establishment of religion”. Citizens are allowed to practice any religion they want. Freedom of Speech; it allows the free exchange of ideas necessary for effective decision –making and protects the minority from complete domination by the majority. Freedom of Press; this right is design to discourage the government from operating in secrecy and from controlling the information citizens receive. Freedom of Assembly; Unites states citizens have the right to peacefully assemble to either make a point or protest against something that don’t agree with it. Freedom of Petition; citizens have the right to petition to the government. For example if a neighborhood wants more schools or playgrounds. Civil suits, written docu... ... middle of paper ... ...dentexpression/topic.aspx?topic=clothing_dress_codes_uniforms Newdow v. United States Congress, Elk Grove Unified School District, et al., 542 U.S. 1 (2004). (2010, 10 23). Retrieved 11 20, 2010, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elk_Grove_Unified_School_District_v._Newdow Religious liberty in public life. (2010, 24 2010). Retrieved 11 24, 2010, from firstamendmentcenter: http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/rel_liberty/free_exercise/index.aspx The Oyez Project, Morse v. Frederick , 551 U.S. ___ (2007) available at: ( HYPERLINK "http://www.oyez.org/cases/2000-2009/2006/2006_06_278" http://oyez.org/cases/2000-2009/2006/2006_06_278 ) (last visited Friday, November 25, 2010). Starr, I. (1978). The idea of Liberty: First Amendment Freedoms. St. Paul, MN: West Publishing. West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette, 591 (Supreme Court 6-3 03 11, 1943).
The Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment states “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”. Meaning, Congress cannot forbid or ban the exercises or beliefs of any religion. However, the government can in fact interfere with religions practices. This means that the government cannot prohibit the beliefs of any religion, but can intervene in certain practices.
1. The measure of a great society is the ability of its citizens to tolerate the viewpoints of those with whom they disagree. As Voltaire once said, “I may disagree with what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it” (Columbia). This right to express one's opinion can be characterized as “freedom of speech.” The concept of “freedom of speech” is a Constitutional right in the United States, guaranteed under the First Amendment to the Constitution:
information. It seems very natural that freedom to know is one of the basic rights
1. In the First Amendment, the clause that states “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion” is based on the Establishment Clauses that is incorporated in the amendment. This clauses prohibits the government to establish a state religion and then enforce it on its citizens to believe it. Without this clause, the government can force participation in this chosen religion, and then punish anyone who does not obey to the faith chosen. This clause was in issue in a court case mentioned in Gaustad’s reading “Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land”. March v. Chambers was a court case that involved the establishment clause. Chambers was a member of the Nebraska state legislature who began each session with prayer by a chaplain who was being paid the state. The case stated that this violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. However, the court stated that the establishment clause was not breached by the prayer, but was violated because of the fact that the chaplain was being paid from public funds.
"MORSE v. FREDERICK." Cornell University Law School. N.p., 19 Mar. 2007. Web. 10 Dec. 2013.
Wagner, F. D. (2010). McDonald et al. v. City of Chicago, Illinois, et al.. Supreme Court of the United States, 1, 1-214. Retrieved May 4, 2014, from http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/09pdf/08-1521.pdf
On December 15th, 1971, the first X amendments to the Constitution went into affect. The first X amendments to the constitution were known as the Bill of Rights. The First Amendment was written by James Madison because the American people were demanding a guarantee of their freedom. The First Amendment was put into place to protect American’s freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly and freedom of petition. The First Amendment was written as follows;
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.” These are the exact words used by our country’s forefathers when they made these amendments in the late 1700’s. Ever since then there have been people trying to abolish this right by censoring things that the American public has a right to see if they so choose. Movies, books, music, thoughts, ideas, and literature are all things that have fallen victims to censorship in this country. The idea and practice of censorship is unconstitutional and should be completely abolished in all forms.
The First Amendment is the first section of the Bill of Rights and is often considered the most important part of the U.S Constitution because it guarantees the citizens of United States the essential personal freedoms of religion, speech, press, peaceful assembly and the freedom to petition the Government. Thanks to the rights granted by the First Amendment, Americans are able to live in a country where they can freely express themselves, speak their mind, pray without interference, protest in peace and where their opinions are taken into consideration, which is something not many other nationalities have the fortune of saying. The Founding Fathers were the framers of the Constitution of the U.S., and the responsible for the elaboration of the First Amendment. The majority of the Founding Fathers were enlightenment thinkers who were in love with liberty, and thought that basic political rights were inevitable for man’s nature. After having experienced the tyranny from their mother countries, the Founding Fathers carefully constructed the Constitution of the United States in a way where tyranny was avoided and a government for the people, by the people and of the people was developed, which is clearly reflected in the Constitution. At the time of inception of the United States, the Founding Fathers created the First Amendment in order to ensure that the government would not interfere with Americans’ basic civil rights. The rights outlined on the First Amendment were considered so important by these leaders that many states refused to ratify the Constitution of the United Sates until there was a conjecture of amendments that would protect individual rights in the future.
The First Amendment was written because at America's inceptions, many citizens demanded a guarantee of their basic freedoms. The First Amendment protects five basic rights. The First Amendment protects the freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom of religion,
When the United States of America was first formed, its citizens had many new rights and freedoms that they did not have in their motherland. Today; however, citizens of the United States do not share as many rights as the first immigrants had. A freedom that individuals think has been stripped away from them is the freedom to protest. This freedom has been restricted over time by the government who has set many rules and regulations on protesting laws. However, in society today, many wonder whether or not these restrictions are justified or if they break the constitutional rights of being an American.
...the First Amendment, and people have the right to execute this right. This coincides with the three Supreme Court decisions. In Goguen v. Smith due process allowed Goguen to exercise his ability to wear a flag. In Texas v. Johnson the Court had to make a difficult decision between the nation’s symbol, and a citizen’s right to protest government. And finally in United States v. Eichman the Texas v. Johnson was reaffirmed, and the people’s rights secured.
Since the early history of our country, the protection of basic freedoms has been very important to Americans. The American voice on freedom has been shaped throughout history. The Bill of Rights was originally drawn up in June, 1789. On December 15th, 1791, the Bill of Rights were ratified and added to the United States Constitution. James Madison said that a bill of rights was good for the “tranquility of the public mind, and the stability of the government” (Burgar, Michael, 2002). Free speech and free press were most important to the drafters of the Bill of Ri...
Without the rights available for the people, ultimately makes them subjects to the government in society rather than citizens. Human rights allow individuals or citizens of the society to govern themselves freely, openly, publicly and repeatedly. Particularly, freedom of speech is an inextricable aspect of a stable and order democratic society. Freedom of speech allows the one to speak his/her mind confidently, gives the free will or avenue to challenge the representatives of or the government (protests, written letter to the government), and/or in other words giving the community the reassurance that his/her voice is heard, ultimately everything is done in the best interest for them (no space for abuse of power)—a democracy. A civil society allows for animated debate among those in disagreement over the issues. In the modern United States, even major issues of national security, war, and peace are discussed freely and assertively in the media, that is newspapers or broadcast televisions or radios, even those who are opposed to the administrations’ foreign policy can easily publicize their views. To add on, another example that demonstrates that the other five characteristics would not exist without human rights is the right to vote and the freedom of speech. The right of vote and the freedom of speech allows citizens in the community to anonymously elect a government representative from the
freedom of thought, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of