First Amendment Defense Act Essay

From the beginning, the United States Constitution has guaranteed the American people civil liberties. These liberties have given citizens rights to speak, believe, and act freely. The Constitution grants citizens the courage to express their mind about something they believe is immoral or unjust. The question is, how far are citizens willing to extend the meanings of these liberties? Some people believe that American citizens take advantage of their civil liberties, harming those around them. On the contrary, many other people feel that civil liberties are necessary tools to fight for their Constitutional rights.

The controversy between marriage equality and the exercise of religious freedom is a confliction between nondiscrimination laws and religious freedom laws. Religious freedom seemed to be an important aspect of an American citizen, after all it is the very first amendment to the constitution. With each American citizen being granted equality by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, discrimination made against an individual based on his/her sexual preference may seem to violate this act. In history, religious organizations typically been immune from state and local laws prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation. However, with the cases of Obergefell v. Hodges and Kim Davis this stance is challenged.

The fight for religious freedom in America is tough for people who do not participate in the religion known as Christianity. Since America is a large and culturally diverse land, the United States of America’s government has to be religiously tolerant to every belief system. Throughout America's lifespan, the subject matter “Freedom of Religion” has increasingly gained attention from the American Act. Thecitizens. In order to protect the religious liberties of American citizens the government has put into place a free exercise clause in the year of 1878, this allowed American citizens to practice religion freely in America. However, many issues have risen and promoted the creation of America's Religious Freedom Act.The largest issue surrounding religious freedom in

What is the 1st amendment? It is what keeps the nation whole, it gives us americans our voice. In the first amendment, it gave us three rights. The amendment gave us the freedom from religion, the freedom of speech and the freedom press. The freedom is a big part of the united states. If we didn't have freedom of religion there would be a whole lot of chaos going around. In arkansas every block has a different church for a different part of a religion. Lets face it with over a billion people in the united states their is no way we could all be under one religion. With immigrants coming into america it doesn't just bring them but their religion too. But we didn’t always be allowed to get our voice out, thanks to the 1st

The first amendment to the U.S. Constitution states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…” The Supreme Court has been inconsistent in the application of these sometimes conflicting requirements. At times, the Court takes a separationist position, erecting a solid wall between church and state, and at other times takes an accommodationist position, siding with an individual’s right to exercise their religious beliefs. Religious liberty under the First Amendment should not be limited to private individuals, but extended to corporations, and only when its application does not interfere with legitimate governmental interests. History shows that the Court has repeatedly found that constitutional rights extend to corporations. This controversial approach was recently seen in the Supreme Court case Burwell v. Hobby Lobby (2014). Today, the Court continues to address this issue.

Every single person in the United States have the right to express their religion of preference or no religion at all, however him or her wants without offending anybody, and the best way to protect religion’s liberty was by keeping the government out if it and creating this First Amendment freedom of religion, to separate the church from the state.

Doma or The Defense of Marriage Act was passed in 1996 in efforts to stop same-sex marriages in fear of the debate in Hawaii. Doma this labeled gays as immoral, perverse, depraved, and an attack on God’s principles. Congress passed Doma defining marriage as between a women and a man for the first time in history (Stone, 2012). Congress was clearly influenced by religious beliefs in passing Doma, which makes this unconstitutional. The United states government provides many benefits to married couples such as federal employees are entitled to medical coverage, the spouse of an individual covered by Social Security is eligible for retirement and survivor benefits, and married couples who file joint tax returns usually pay considerably lower federal income taxes than individuals who file separately (Stone, 2012 p.1). However, gay couples are refused these rights under law. Gay couples are denied many rights making them second class in the eyes of the government. If the partner of a gay couple was to be hospitalized the other can be denied rights to see them because they are not considered family. If the partner was to pass away the family can come in and make all the decisions even though it might be against the wishes of the deceased. The family can then take everything away from the surviving partner that dedicated their life and love to. The

The United States of America was founded with a credo of religious freedom. They hoped to change the vicious cycle of religious persecution and intolerance that had been swirling through Europe for centuries. Over the last two hundred years this legacy has been shredded and stained. Our religious freedoms have been taken away by people who have twisted what our country was founded to protect.

Same sex marriage has been widely looked down upon for ages. People say, “It’s not the traditional constitutional marriage”, or “Children need a mother and a father”. It honestly doesn’t matter. If two people love each other, they should be allowed to marry. It’s just as simple as that. What other reason do you need? If two complete strangers of the same sex want to be together for the rest of their lives, we should let them.First, denying some people to marry is discriminatory. Judge Sarah Zabel of Miami-Dade Circuit Court ruled the gay marriage ban of Florida unconstitutional. She stated that it, “serves only to hurt, to discriminate, to deprive same-sex couples and their families of equal dignity, to label and treat them as 2nd class citizens, and to deem them unworthy of participation in one of the fundamental institutions of our society.” In other words, you’re looking down upon same sex couples that want to get married as if they’re lower than you; that they don’t deserve the same rights as us. Same sex couples would be able to enjoy the same benefits as heterosexual couples if they were able to be married.Furthermore, the General Accounting Office made an assessment in 2004 about the benefits that heterosexual married couples have that same sex couples could not. Some of these benefits include hospital visitation during an illness and the option of filing a joint tax return to reduce a tax burden. Imagine not being able to see your significant other in the hospital

There are also many federal laws that have been passed that prevent legal gay marriage. Most of these laws stem from the bill (H R 3396), the Defense of Marriage Act (DoMA), passed by the US House of Representatives in 1996. DoMA was drafted largely in response to the Baehr v. Lewin ruling. It contains two main points. The first item of significance in DoMA is that it sets forth official definitions of the words "marriage" and "spouse". Marriage is officially now defined as a union between a man and a woman,

I am not in favor of gay marriage. But when you start playing around with constitutions, just to prohibit somebody who cares about another person, it just seems to me that's not what America's about. Usually, our constitutions expand liberties, they don't contract them [Barack Obama; 4].” In other words, if we respect others for who they are instead of judging them for who they love, we would be setting an example for those who cannot acknowledge the one’s personal life. Furthermore, by exposing children to different family settings, it will provide a broad perspective on how these children perceive normality in those built upon different families than themselves, as well as teaching them how to respect the rights of others.

Obama administration has said that the law passed in 1996, on behalf of a group appointed by the Republican leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives was unconstitutional (Thomson Reuters 2012). So supporters ask questions that have not yet been answer these questions are; why shouldn’t lesbian, gay or bisexual be free to get married in all states. Why should they have to go or move to one of the nines states or the District of Columbia to join each other hands in marriage? If we are the land of the free and equal right, how come we are taken the freedom of marriage away from gays? I strongly believe that we are going against everything our country I said to be based on. If we are the land of the free and for equal right same sex marriage should be allowed in every state. Just because some may have different beliefs than other, does not give us the rights to discriminate or deny right to gay just because they are different. At the end of the day they are still Americans citizens and should be treated and allowed the same befits as everyone else. Gays should be able to express who they really are, even though marriage. So I

Not only is this situation against some people’s beliefs, but it also is against the constitution. “The first amendment of the constitution states that a person’s religious beliefs or lack of thereof must be protected. Legislatures also cannot discriminate against marriages of the minority party which

On the other side many people claim that it has nothing to do with discrimination and everything to do with religion. For example, the people who say they want to use the Arizona bill for their own religious purposes. Many people believe in what the Bible says. The bible claims that marriage was established by God, the creator of all things, and was intended to be

The main reason for denying marriage to gay couples is that all major religions consider homosexuality a sin, however, the First Amendment of the Constitution clearly states that a person's religious views or lack thereof must be protected. Marriage by the state is a secular activity, the government cannot start making laws just because a religion says they should. What's next, should we make taking the Lord's name in vain a criminal activity because Christians consider it a breaking of a commandment? No! There are at