The Pros And Cons Of The First Amendment

     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

Neil Gaiman once said, “The current total of countries in the world with First Amendments is one. You have guaranteed the freedom of speech. Other countries don’t have that.” At the time of the amendments’ creation, a vast majority of operating countries had not yet granted their people such freedoms. Granting every citizen of the United States this right seemed to have been an important landmark in this nation’s history. Along with others, this right is declared to the people in the first amendment of the constitution. The first amendment is the most important because it grants people freedom of speech, prohibits prior restraint, and declares the right to peaceable assembly.

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

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.

The United States has been well known and notable for its freedom and liberty that it upholds. Matter of fact, some people have even left their native countries to have a better successful life in the U.S. Unfortunately,their own country didn’t offer the opportunities that the U.S offered. Although freedom has been enjoyed for some years now, what if those freedoms were at risk? The Bill of Rights is unstable and could be modified at any moment in time. The 4th amendment is constantly being violated by law enforcement, allowing the amendment more than likely to be changed.

The first amendment is the most important part of the Constitution because it has been the most exercised right by U.S citizens. 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 of grievances.” Meaning, as citizens, the Constitution protects our freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly and petition the government. This amendment is a good reflection of what America represents, equality for all.

America was built on freedom. Freedom to speak, freedom to choose, freedom to worship, and freedom to do just about anything you want within the law. America’s law was designed to protect and preserve these freedoms. The reason the United States of America came to exist was because the colonists fled Great Britain to get back the freedoms that were taken away from them by the Monarchy. In countries where Monarchies and Dictatorships rule, there is little if any freedom to speak of. Citizens of these countries are persecuted or even killed if they attempt to exercise any of the basic freedoms. In these countries there is no free speech, no right to choose government, no right to express religion, no right to own

When talking about the First Amendment, the law protects us from freedom of speech and free exercise of religion and it also stops Congress from making any new law to prohibit free speech and free exercise. The case involving a Christian printer who refused to print gay pride T-shirts. The printer declined the printing job for T-shirts promoting a gay pride festival on religious grounds, but he did offer the customer to help them find other local printers to do the work for the same price. Based on the information that was provided the printer had a history of rejecting other orders for shirts promoting sexually explicit material/actions and violence.

The First Amendment guarantees the right of free speech, but there are many other forms of the first amendment. The most common, is pure speech, which is the use of the spoken word to transport a particular idea. Another form is symbolic speech that refers to the use of symbolic objects or action to express an idea. Some examples of symbolic speech might be waving a flag or burning a cross. The First Amendment protects almost of forms of pure speech and symbolic speech. The First Amendment protects some of symbolic meaning, but not all. Congress argued that burning the American flag was of symbolic meaning to express political views

When the original Articles of Confederation was drafted in 1777, a bill of rights was considered unnecessary. The U.S government was not considered a single national government, but an alliance of independent states. Since the national government has no power to restrict people’s rights, there was no need for laws to prevent it from doing so. During the Constitutional Convention of 1787 the Constitution was passed without a bill of rights. When the constitution was sent to the states for ratification, a debate broke out between the Federalists, who supported a strong national government, and the Anti-Federalists, who supported retaining the spirit of the Articles of Confederation . Although the constitution was passed without a bill of rights, some Anti-Federalists felt that that it would be worthwhile to specifically protect through constitutional amendments such individual rights as free speech, religious exercise, and jury trials. Thomas Jefferson who sided with Anti-Federalists on this matter, sent a letter in 1789 to James Madison to pass the bill of rights . Madison submitted a draft of his proposed bill of rights several months later, and Congress passed it modified version by the end of the year. After ratification by the states, the Final Bill of Rights consisted of ten amendments that covered a wide range of topics, guaranteeing citizens individual rights such as freedom of speech and religious liberty and protecting them from excessive bail, unwarranted searches,

The First Amendment was created in a way, to ensure that all those who seek freedom, in speech, press, religion, and assembling can do so. However, recently freedom of religion has not been fully secured. For instance, there has been bans against immigrants sorely because of their religion stereotype. Something that is contradictory to the First Amendment, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion...". The First Amendment should be able to encourage each and every religious freedom, because people no longer feel safe about expressing their religion as the United States government have shown favoritism towards other certain religions. And since numbers are rising in certain religions, diversity should be accepted and shown throughout the U.S. and by the government.

Your blog brought up many interesting points. It seems as though you are supporting the making of an amendment to counter the 2nd amendment in the Constitution. You stated that times have changed and you are absolutely right. There are not wild animals living on the streets nor are there state militias like there were in the 1700's. However, you also talked about the conservative view that many ignorant Republicans hold. I suggest that you check out this link http://heedinggodscall.org/content/pfctoolkit-10 as it has some astonishing numbers on injury or death related incidents due to firearms. Now check out this link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_firearm-related_death_rate. As you can see, countries with little

The first amendment was enacted December 15, 1791 by you, the founding fathers in the bill of rights. The first amendment was made in the intention of allowing people to speak against their government. It basically means that the government can’t jail fine or impose civil liability on anyone or company based on what they say or write about the government. Today we interpret the first amendment as a right to say whatever we want, including hate speech. Today people are allowed to speak against their government and can voice their opinion about the current political situation. Some people in the US use the first amendment as legal wall to hind behind. They can be racist towards somebody and say that they can’t be sued,

Thank you for contacting me regarding H.R 2802, the First Amendment Act. I appreciate you taking the time to share your concerns with me.

The Second Amendment states: A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. Even though this amendment has been around for hundreds of years, people still argue over what it means and if it should still apply today. The two extreme sides of this argument as stated in Henry Winkler’s book are the Gun Nuts and the Gun Grabbers (Winkler 15,45). One side argues that there should not be any guns at all, and the other side argues that everyone should have a gun. This discussion has been around for decades, and I believe that it is not going away anytime soon. There are a few arguments as to why I believe that the government shall not and cannot remove guns from American citizens. First, I believe that I have a constitutional right to own firearms due to the second amendment. Secondly, everyone should not be punished for the actions of a few lawless individuals. Thirdly, the removal of firearms would be costly, hard to enforce and unlikely to succeed, and finally, gun control laws are racially motivated. Through the use of what I believe combined with historical examples, my goal is to persuade a “Gun Grabber” on why the government cannot take away my guns.