The Importance Of Freedom Of Speech

     The first and inargueably the most significant of the amendments to our Constitution is the First Amendment. The amendment that established our freedoms as citizens of our new confederation. The First Amendment insured, among other things, freedom of speech and of the press. Since the establishment of these rights, they have often been in question. People have debated over, "What is too much freedom?", and "When is this

The first amendment, the right of freedom of speech is one of the most important classic fantasy to almost anyone living in the United States, building the foundation of our nation. This right gives us plenty of different opportunities to express our opinions and political viewpoints on any issues in America. But it comes with a price, people have been protesting multiple different events trying to prevent people from expressing opposing opinions or political viewpoints on that has issues in America. For the minority of people, expressing a different opinion should be protected no matter how controversial or insensitive it may be.

A very popular constitutional issue in America is the First Amendment. The First Amendment is meant to protect, but in today’s society it is being questioned that the argument is being overly used. The First Amendment of the United States Constitution protects the right to freedom of religion and freedom of expression from government interference (Esmaili). Freedom of religion created the separation of church and state. It prohibits the government from interfering with a person's practice of their religion. The right to freedom of speech allows individuals to express themselves without government interference or regulation. The right of freedom of expression gives the right to assemble and gather for peaceful and lawful purposes. It was adopted into the Bill of Rights in 1791. The Court later interpreted the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment as protecting the rights in the First Amendment from interference by state governments. Putting this is layman’s term, you can pretty much say what you want without being penalized.

Under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution of December 1791, guaranteed the civil liberty of freedom of speech. It outlined that congress is not allowed to make any laws that may bridge a citizen’s freedom of speech, religion, press, and the right to assemble. This style of liberty gives all Americans the opportunity to express their thoughts openly without being shut down by the government. For example, there have been a great deal of protest the current president. Although, he is the president and should be respected Americans still have the right to display their opinions

So the need for more drastic, shock and awe type actions from people desiring to be heard on any particular matter has been brought to the forefront. This is where the Bill of Rights has drastically come into play. At this point the Supreme Court has to protect the freedoms without stripping Americans of their rights entirely but it also has to protect Americans from those who wish to do harm to others under the protection of freedom of speech or expression. Not only does the First Amendment provide for freedom of speech but also freedom of expression which is as equally controversial. By examining the First Amendment and the protections and exclusions it has provided over the years through three highly controversial cases, it will allow the reader some insight into the difficulties surrounding the protection of free speech. The cases that are to be examined are Snyder v. Phelps, Morse v. Frederick and Texas v. Johnson. All of these cases present a different freedom of speech or expression issue that was brought to the Supreme Court and therefore, set a standard for future rulings regarding that particular issue.

Being expression one of the most important rights of the people to maintain a connected society right to speech should be accepted to do so. The first amendment is one of the most fundamental rights that individuals have. It is fundamental to the existence of democracy and the respect of human dignity. This amendment describes the principal rights of the citizens of the United States. If the citizens were unable to criticize the government, it would be impossible to regulate order. By looking freedom of speech there is also freedom of assembly and freedom of press that are crucial for the United States democracy.

The First Amendment, in substance, does not provide absolute protection for all forms of speech, press, assembly, petition and association. It is not absolute. As a balance for interest of speech against competing government interest, an evolution of balancing tests were created and modified by the Supreme Court hence the Free Speech Clause.

For centuries the debate over how far our first amendment extends has reoccurred and been ever present in the court system. The Alien and Sedition acts was the first time it became noticeable that there were limits attached to our speech. They can be traced back as the beginning of this issue, since the dilemma of what exactly “freedom of speech” means began being argued. Multiple different scenarios were brought forth to the legal system in order to determine whether punishment was due or the act was excusable, simply because of the fact that our government was slacking in establishing a set-in stone meaning behind the first amendment.

There are many elements of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution to address. The area of the Freedom of Speech applies to every aspect of our daily lives. An examination of this area shows us why there are protected and unprotected areas of speech: speeches and actions that have been debated throughout our nation’s history and why they are important and have such an impact on our individual lives and social activities today.

The Unites States is known for our revolutionary thinking and just legal system. Our constitution establishes fundamental laws and guarantees basic rights for citizens in our national government. I find the First Amendment of the constitution quite interesting. It 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 of grievances.” This law establishes a standard for guaranteeing ones right of expression and free speech without prosecution from the law. Freedom of speech has been a subject of discussion for many years. Since democracy was established to provide safety and rights, the First Amendment has been one of the most important rights in our constitution. In other countries, they have certain levels of tolerance when it comes to executing this right. Sometimes freedom of speech can become more harmful than helpful and many people have been vocal on their opinion whether or not it should be limited in certain circumstances. This amendment was put in place because prior to our free nation, being legally prosecuting for you own expression of religion or preference in politics was not uncommon. This revolutionary idea of immunity from persecution, created a society that was more tolerant towards other cultures, religions and traditions. This tolerance and freedom that the right gave us proved to be largely beneficial for a society as a whole. Even though we are granted this privilege many people aren’t’ as lucky to exercise, we must be aware that this right can also be seen as a double-edged sword, that can create problems and outcries if others feel their personal liberties aren’t being honored in the same regard. This right may seem simple and self-explanatory, but there are common misconceptions and challenges that us as a democracy face. Even though freedom of speech is a defining and fundamental right in our country, it’s components are largely controversial at times.

The First Amendment protects any person’s freedom of speech from Congress, state government and local public officials. However, this does not allow individuals to be free in saying anything that they want to say. One example of speech that is not protected by the First Amendment are crimes involving speech. If a form of speech is used to commit a crime such as perjury, harassment or extortion, it will not be provided protection by the First Amendment. Another example is Conduct Regulations. Our government has the right to make laws in regards to the specific conduct used in the speech such as stating when, where and how the speech can be provided. These regulations can be upheld by courts as long as they considered content-neutral and are not constraining the expression of ideas. For example, they are allowed to limit the size of collateral used for speech and are also able to limit the level of sound in speech that can be heard at distinct times.

The First Amendment of The Constitution is acknowledged to be the guarantor of Freedom of Speech clause in the United States. The same level of recognition Freedom of Speech receives is also given to the controversy that is has created. The ambiguity that revolves around Freedom of Speech has led to question its validity, due to the scope in which each case is presented, most notably at the time in which the United States was experiencing social and political ideologies. Thus, the Supreme Court had the arduous task of intervening and creating measures that would distinguish constitutionally protected speech and speech that would be regulated. The two most important interpretations that have allowed the Supreme Court to distinguish constitutionally

The first amendment states that no law should be made when it comes to religion, or free exercise. Although, some people take granted of freedom of speech. There should be a limit imposed when it comes to free speech. Without limits, the world would be a chaos. Also, freedom and speech could easily turn into hate speech at anytime.

Freedom of expression has always been a heated and heavily debated topic throughout our society, more so in recent times due to the increasing amount of freedoms that we gain. However, it is only natural that free speech be something of extreme amounts of conflict since this right is expressed in the very first amendment of the Constitution. But, how loosely should such an important document within our history be interpreted? This has been a question for years, and it is obvious that this particular amendment presents itself through our day-to-day activities. The real issue with freedom of speech is that, even though it is presented to us, there are obviously people who would abuse it to invoke emotional distress, or even to invoke acts of

In the past, the Rule of Law for the First Amendment was that American citizens had the right not to speak (West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943)), right for students to wear black armbands to school to protest a war (Tinker v. Des Moines, 393 U.S. 503 (1969)), the right to use certain offensive words and phrases to convey political messages (Cohen v. California, 403 U.S. 15 (1971)), the right