Censorship Of The First Amendment Essay

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Censorship of The First Amendment This paper will discuss how censorship denies citizens of the United States our full rights as delineated in the First Amendment. It will outline how and why the first amendment was created and included in the Constitution of the United States of America. This paper will also define censorship, discuss a select few legal cases surrounding freedom of speech and censorship as well as provide national and local examples of censorship. The First Amendment was written because American citizens demanded a guarantee of their freedom. This led to James Madison writing the First Amendment. The First Amendment was established when the Founding Fathers wanted to guarantee that the Americans ' basic civil liberties would not be threatened by the government. The First Amendment was confirmed, along with nine other amendments,to the constitution of the United States. The 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.” James Madison, the …show more content…

One of these cases is Patterson V. Colorado. Patterson published comics and articles about the Colorado Supreme Court. These comics criticized the judges of that court, and questioned many of their motives. Afterwards, Patterson was charged with contempt. He quickly moved to void the information by citing local law, the Colorado Constitution, and the Fourteenth Amendment of the constitution. He denied contempt, and admitted to publicizing the articles. Patterson pleaded that he had a public duty to expose the court and what he allegedly thought their motives were doing. His motion was denied and he was charged with contempt and Patterson