Bill Of Rights: The Framers Of The Constitution

The bill of rights is a popular document that was not originally in the US constitution, but anti federalists wanted a bill of rights really bad because supposedly they were afraid of a strong central government. They did not want another king so some states refused the constitution until there was a bill of rights. Along with being afraid of a central government they wanted a limited government so that government could not control them. The anti federalists also thought the government would not protect their individual rights enough so they wanted a bill of rights.

The Westboro Baptist Church is a group that has been in the spotlight for the last two decades because of their unusual tactic of picketing at soldier’s funerals. The act is motivated by the notion that America’s moral are being corrupted by their acceptance of homosexuality. The act of picketing of soldier’s funerals according to the group is motivated by the fact that it is a time when mourners are emotionally vulnerable and they think of their mortality. They believe that by picketing in soldier’s funerals their message is stronger. However, this tactic has caused much consternation from both the public and the government. In the interest of the public, state legislatures have enacted laws against the actions of the Westboro Baptist Church. The landmark case of Snyder v. Phelps would have been the deciding factor against the group, but the Supreme Court held in favor of the group because their actions were protected by the First Amendment. This then would present the notion that the First Amendment trumped public interest in the decision. However, that is not the case because the case was an IIED case among others, it was a personal one. As long as the group coordinates with public authorities and does not break laws, then their acts are nothing more than nuisances that should not get in the way of celebrating the life of the dead.

Funeral protests have been an issue for years. During this most recent war, as soldiers were coming home to be laid to rest, Westboro Baptist Church made headlines by protesting at the funerals of fallen soldiers. During the services, members of the church would gather outside of many of the military funerals waving signs that had offensive messages on them such as, “God Hates You”, and “Thank God for Dead Soldiers”. The members of this church believe that the death of the soldiers is God’s punishment for the tolerance of homosexuality in the United States. Last year the U.S, Supreme Court ruled that the First Amendment protects these groups and any others who

In his book titled The Bill of Rights: Creation and Reconstruction, Akhil Amar tries to offer the interpretation of the Bill Rights by evoking the world of framers of the constitution and that of the people who amended the constitution. According to Amar, there are numerous differences about the original bill of rights as they were originally framed and those that are contained in the Fourteenth Amendment of 1868. Amar tries to construct a theory of Bill of Rights that is comprehensive by focusing on the implications that are drawn from constitutional text as well as its structure. Amar points out, “The main goal of the Federalists was to forge set of the federally enforceable rights which were against the abusive state governments and this resulted to Fourteenth Amendment” (4). The book tries to explain the first 10 amendments by interpreting them and offering the new insights. This essay focuses on discussing the differences between the Founding Fathers Bill of Rights and the Reconstruction Amendments as it argued by Amar.

The Bill of Rights, written by Antifederalists, shows us how some Americans were fearful of a strong central government, how they wanted a limited government so it wasn’t too powerful, and how they protected basic individual rights. The Anti-federalists begged and argued for a new list that secured the rights they believed the original Constitution did not provide. There was a constant debate between whether or not to add the Bill of Rights, because some people thought that if they created it, all other rights were insignificant. Many Americans were fearful that the government was going to have too much power because of the Constitution, but they felt secure if they made a list of their official rights. Most of the people who wanted the Bill of Rights, were poor people, who felt they needed a say in the government.

Whether or not to add in a Bill of Rights was a huge debate among the framers of our Constitution. While the framers ended up ratifying the Constitution without a Bill of Rights, shortly after a Bill of Rights was added in the first ten amendments to the Constitution. This Bill of Rights is what grants us our basic freedoms such as freedom of speech, religion, the press, and the right to bear arms.

Framers felt that any power to infringe was not granted to the United States by the constitution, the Bill of rights simply guarantees that the government will not violate upon the rights. The Bill of Rights protects us from ex post facto laws and bills of attainder by specifying inthe Constitution, article one, section nine and ten explaining that an individual is protected if he/she has committed a crime before it was illegal at the time it was performed.The ex post facto law is a law that makes illegal an act that was legal when committed, if the action was committed before a new law was passed, the criminal has to serve time in jail, but if the criminal committed the crime before the law was passed, it would be punishable based on the previous law as a punishment.“Framers used bill of attainder as part of their strategy of undoing the English law of treason, contend with what they regarded as the most serious historical instances of legislative tyranny.” (Troy, 2017) The bill of attainderA few Historical facts about ex post facto laws and bills of attainder are: A Supreme Court case over Connecticut legislation granting and rehearing of a probate dispute violated the Constitution's prohibition of ex post facto laws, it took place in Washington DC and verdict was decided on August 8, 1798.

As an American citizen, we are guaranteed many freedoms through the Constitution. The first amendment in the Constitution states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the 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,” (US Const. amend. I). This means that all people have the right to assemble a protest peacefully, and Congress in unable to prevent this practice. However, in recent years this has become controversial because many residents question how much protesters can get away with before a demonstration becomes turbulent. Because of this question, there have been many cases in which law enforcement has become involved in rallies. This essay will explore when law enforcement became involved in rallies, and when they did not.

On December 15, 1791, the first ten bill of rights which are the first ten amendments to the constitution went into effect. The first amendment states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress grievance”. This prohibits the government from establishing a religion. To Americans it is important to maintain their civil rights.

The Bill of Rights is the accumulation of the first ten amendments made to the United States Constitution. Before ratifying the Constitution, some states required that a Bill of Rights be instituted. James Madison, the primary author of these amendments and later America’s fourth President, drafted twelve revisions. Congress passed ten of the proposed amendments, creating the Bill of Rights. While these revisions did create new guidelines for the Constitution, they did not change the original intentions of the framers.

An important provision of the Bill of Rights is the protection of freedom to publish, as provided by the First Amendment. This protection applies to all kinds of publications, even those that print unpopular opinions. In most censorship cases, every attempt is made to suppress the written word after publication, not before. Minnesota passed a law in 1925 that sought to prevent newspapers, magazines, and other publications from printing obscene, malicious, scandalous and defamatory material. This law was called the Minnesota Gag Law . This law allowed private citizens and/or public prosecutors to request a court injunction to shut down any publication that was known as a public nuisance. Publishers of newspapers had to show that they had good motives for anything they were going to print before they printed it.

The Bill of Rights were added after the new U.S. Constitution was first ratified in 1788. The Bill of Rights is the first ten amendments of the US Constitution, it guaranteed such rights as the freedoms of speech, assembly, and worship. The Amendments created a black and white outline to what people would be allowed to do in this country, but, at points, the amendments have grey areas that can be used to justify actions of people considered guilty. Any case can be based around one of the Bill of Rights, like a case that went to the courts in January 17, 2014, was about a family fighting the eighth amendment, which is bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

Violent protest is divisive - it turns citizens away from seeing reason in your stance, costs taxpayers money for police protection and control and drives people strongly to one side or the other of the issues protested. The reason that protests are often seen as dangerous is because they can turn sour as the result of people using this power and ability to demonstrate as a reason to injure and destroy, often without any connection to the original protested topic. Protesters have been known to break shop windows, throw bricks at cars and even injure or kill one another in extreme situations. Peacekeepers attempting to protect the citizens and prevent escalation are often vilified and presented as brutalizing peaceful protesters.

National Organization of Women (NOW) published the bill of rights in 1968, which was adopted by the national conference in 1967. The purpose of this essay is to assess on the bill of rights. In order to do this, I will give a brief summary of its main points and then discuss it.

A controversial topic that many protested for was, freedom of speech. After many years of wanting to be heard, Americans finally achieved the assurance of having a voice. The Bill of Rights was passed on December 15, 1791; commencing with the First Amendment. The First Amendments defends freedom of speech, press, religion, assembly and petition. Stated in the U.S. Constitution, the First Amendment declares "Congress shall make no law… abridging the freedom of speech.” Thus, meaning that citizens cannot be imposed of civil liability from what they say or write with exceptions. Even though freedom of speech recognizes many arguments, discussions, and expression, it will only be valid through the qualifications the First Amendments states with the exceptions included.