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Essay on The First Amendment

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The First Amendment
The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is part of our countries Bill of Rights. The first amendment is perhaps the most important part of the U.S. Constitution because the amendment guarantees citizens freedom of religion, speech, writing and publishing, peaceful assembly, and the freedom to raise grievances with the Government. In addition, amendment requires that there be a separation maintained between church and state.
Our first amendment to the United States Constitution reads; 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 …show more content…

Judges should consider the consequence of the danger and the probability that the threat may actually take place in regards to the speech itself. Other judges disagree with this view and complained that the test made the decision about when speech may be limited a matter of degree and that each case could result in a contradictory decision (Cornell, 2006).
One opponent to the clear and present danger test thought that a balancing view of free speech destroyed freedom. Instead he proposed another approach to the First Amendment, called the absolutist view of free speech in which people may never be punished for what they say but they may be punished for the place, time, or way in which they say it. For example, someone might be charged with disturbing the peace for using a loudspeaker to broadcast a speech at 4:00 in the morning, but the speaker would face no charges for the content of the speech (Cornell, 2006).
Another case in regards to the first amendment was the Employment Division, Department of Human Resources of Oregon v. Smith. This case was related to the first amendments freedom of religion. In the case two Native Americans were fired from their jobs because they took peyote for sacramental purposes. Peyote is the common name for a small, turnip-shaped cactus native to Mexico. The active hallucinogenic material in peyote is mescaline. Peyote alters perceptions, producing vivid hallucinations, inaccurate estimations of

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