Free Essay: The Freedoms Of The First Amendment

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The Freedoms of the First Amendment There are five freedoms of the First Amendment, freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, and freedom of petition. The purpose of the free speech is to protect the unpopular voices. It gives the minorities a voice without having to worry about the consequences (Your Rights). Many people over the years have tried to take advantage of the freedom of speech. We are allowed to speak freely about our president and not suffer consequences. Provocative or offensive political opinions are protected by the freedom. This does not entitle you to walk up to someone and threaten them. True threats and obscenity are not protected by the amendment (Your Rights). On one’s own property, one can do anything they want. If they want to have …show more content…

The first is known as pure speech. This is simply the verbal expression of thoughts and feelings to an audience. The next is speech-plus. This is words plus actions such as demonstrations or protests. The courts have ruled that demonstrations can not interfere with traffic, endanger public safety or trespass illegally. The third is symbolic speech. This involves no words, only symbols the court has ruled as expressions. Examples of this include wearing black armbands to school to protest and draft-card burning (Amendment Rights). The government can only regulate free speech in very specific cases such as protecting national security or public safety. One example is the Supreme Court case Schenck v. The United States. During World War I an antiwar activist charles Schenck was arrested and charged for sending leaflets to people who had received their draft cards. These leaflets encouraged them to ignore the draft notices. The US claimed that Schenck threatened national security and the justices agreed. Freedom of speech will not be protected if someone is a “clear and present danger” to the United States’ security (Amendment

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