First Amendment And Texas Similarities

Texas v. Johnson or American Flag Stands for Tolerance differences? Texas's v. Johnson is the courts decision and the American Flag Stands for Tolerance is the editors opinion. In the courts decision they had to accept Gregory Johnson for his beliefs people were very petulantly of Gregory's opinion. The news paper editor, Ronald J. Allen has his own opinion about the flag getting burnt by Gregory Johnson. Ronald J. Allen opinion is that it is wrong to discriminate the American flag and he still thinks we should have freedom. William J. Brennan thinks that the court opinion is right because the first amendment but he always says one mans opinion will not change our nations attitude towards the flag.

The bill of rights for Texas is located in Article I of the state constitution, while that for the United States is the first ten amendments to the US Constitution. The placement of Texas’ bill of rights as the first article serves to emphasize the importance of individual rights and the fact that the government cannot take away the rights of the people without due process of the law. Another difference between the two constitutions is the length of the respective constitutions. The Texas Constitution is much longer than the US Constitution, and this is because Texas’ goes into great detail on what the government can and cannot do in order to limit the power of the government and protect the rights of the people. The difference in length is also due to the fact that Texas has ratified over 400 amendments to its constitution, while there has been only 27 amendments to the US Constitution.

First, the strengths need to be acknowledged; Texas has always been about their own freedom and their own individuality and the constitution reflects that. The constitution establishes rights such as “freedom of speech, press, and assembly” (Collier et al 62). This is great because it provides a sense of security for the

The U.S Constitution also contains articles the Texas Constitution doesn't. The U.S. constitution talks about what privileges the states have. The rules they have to abide by to make the nation one. In the Texas Constitution it goes more into depth about what the state wants the people to abide by. The U.S. Constitution also talks about how our

Constitutions are a necessary tool in keeping a Nation running in a smooth manner. One is also necessary in keeping the components, which are states, running in an ordered way. The constitution of Texas has a long historical trail from 1827 to 1876 and there are many events that occurred during this time period. The current Texas constitution has many strengths and weaknesses and there have been revisions made to this document. This document limits the way government can be involved in certain problems that arise in Texas. The Texas constitution is a document with positives and negatives but it is definitely a necessity.

The Texas Constitution has many weaknesses, but has many strengths to correlate to such weaknesses. These drawbacks include the excessive length, the specificity of directly addressed policy problems, and the difficulty amending the Constitution. However, the Texas Constitution reserves additional rights to citizens and reflects the idea of preserving a limited federal government.

There are civil rights and civil liberties but they do not mean the same, a civil right is those rights protecting us from discrimination (14th Amendment in US Constitution) & Section 3 & 3a in Texas Constitution whereas a civil liberty is those rights protecting us from government (Bill of Rights in US Constitution) & most of Texas Bill of Rights. One of the Texas Constitutions states that in Sec. 3a. EQUALITY UNDER THE LAW. Equality under the law shall not be denied or abridged because of sex, race, color, creed, or national origin. This amendment is self-operative (Added Nov. 7, 1972.). This is a civil right because sex, race, color, creed, or national origin can all be discriminated, for example not long ago innocent men were shot based

The Texas Constitution has evolved in many ways throughout history. Before the current constitution there were five predecessors. There were many factors that effected each of the five constitutions. After very long governance by Spain and Mexico and a small war with Mexico, the Texans finally won their independence. The first constitution had become official in September of 1836. This first constitution was called the Republic Of Texas Constitution. After struggling for about nine years to become apart of the Union, Texas’s second constitution was created. The Second constitution was called the Statehood Constitution and was thought to be one of the best constitutions of time. The Jacksonian Democracy greatly influenced the Statehood Constitution. The idea of the Jacksonian Democracy was to increase the people’s participation in the government. This Constitution lasted about 16 years until Texas joined the Confederate Sates of America in 1861. This third constitution was called the Civil War Constitution. The main goal was to modify the

From March 2, 1836 to February 19, 1846, Texas as its own independent country in North America. Those who resided in this independent country were referred to as Texians. Texas declared its independence from Mexico in 1836 during the Texas revolution which ended on April 21 of that same exact year. However, Mexico did not want to give the Republic of Texas its independence which resulted in conflicts between that of Texas and Mexico that went on into the 1840s. As a result, The United States of America recognized the Republic of Texas as an independent country in 1837 but failed to append their land. Later receiving its independence, Texas elected a Congress of fourteen senators and twenty-nine representatives in the month of September and year of 1836. However, within the Republic, citizenship was not a privileged for everybody living in Texas. Not everybody had legal rights to reside within the limits of the Republic without Congress permission. The Constitution of the Republic of Texas created differences for each and every ethnicity for each individual person. Meaning, whoever was there on the day the Republic of Texas won their independence had to be classified as a citizen of the Republic including Africans, those with African descent, and Native Americans. For Caucasian immigrants to become citizens they would have to had lived in the Republic for six months or less and take an oath. Those who were brought to Texas as a slave had to stay a

On September 17, 1787, the U.S. constitution was signed. The U.S. constitution is a document that has a set of rules, guidelines, and principles that governs our nation. This constitution is the oldest written national document and has had 27 amendments. The current Texas constitution is the seventh document written for Texas. The previous six were all when Texas was still apart of Mexico. The current constitution hasn’t been revised since 1876, which makes it the longest state constitution in the United States.

Texas has not asserted an interest in support of Johnson 's conviction that is unrelated to the suppression of expression and would therefore permit application of the test set forth in the United State v. O 'Brien, 391 U.S. 367, where an important governmental interest in regulating nonspeech can justify incidental limitations on First Amendment Freedoms when speech and nonspeech elements are combined in the same course of conduct. "Expression may not be prohibited [p. 398] on the basis that an audience that takes serious offense to the expression may disturb the peace, since the Government cannot assume that every expression of a provocative idea will incite a riot, but must look to the actual circumstances surrounding the expression." Texas ' interest in preserving the flag as a symbol of nationhood and national unity is related to expression in this case, and thus falls outside the O 'Brien test. (Texas v. Johnson).

The act for which appellant was convicted was clearly 'speech' contemplated by the First Amendment." The court also stated that, "Recognizing that the right to differ is the centerpiece of our First Amendment freedoms," the court explained, "a government cannot mandate by fiat a feeling of unity in its citizens. Therefore, that very same government cannot carve out a symbol of unity and prescribe a set of approved messages to be associated with that symbol when it cannot mandate the status or feeling the symbol purports to represent." The Supreme Court found that the state's first interest of preserving the flag as a symbol of national unity was not made. The state had not shown that the flag was in danger of being stripped of its symbolic value, the Texas court also decided that flag's special status was not endangered by Johnson's actions.

In addition, the second problem of Texas Constitution is too much split of government authority and responsibility, particularly within the executive branch. Texas Constitution states that shall consists of six distinct offices: the governor, who serve as the chief executive; the lieutenant governor, who serves as the president of the Senate; the secretary of state, who keeps the official seal of the state; the comptroller of public accounts; the commissioner of the General Land Office; and the attorney general who act as the state’s chief legal office. too much spilled of government authorities can lead to conflict. The Texas Constitution creates a plural executive which means, an executive branch in which power is fragmented because the election

There has been seven Texas Constitutions since 1827 including our current Constitution, which was established on 1876. Our current constitution has been amended hundreds of times because of its tight restrictions. The Legislative department is the dominant branch of the Texas Constitution it is subject to check and balances in the tripartite system. The Executive department limits the government’s power, and the judicial powers is divided into smaller courts. These three branches of the Texas are examples of how restricted and limited our constitution is.

This system reflects Texas’ retaliation against Johnson because they are discriminating one expression of one’s ideology through the means of a double standard. Unfortunately, this course of action is unconstitutional and attempts to abolish the rights of the first amendment to some individuals due to ideological differences in expression.