Jackson Nguyen
Professor Lovelace
PLS 201
19 November 2014
The Evolution of Freedom of Speech
The United States is known for their government and how the laws and Constitution protect the citizens’ rights. For the last century, the government made laws to protect people’s rights. The famous Bill of Rights includes the first ten amendments and the first deals with freedom of speech, religion, and assemble. This amendment is crucial to our freedom. This allows the citizens to speak their mind without worry, believe in any religion, and protest in what they believe in. Without this amendment, the freedom we have today would be limited. The one clause of the first amendment that I will be focusing on will be the Freedom of Speech.
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The idea of freedom of speech started with Madison. In 1789, Madison wrote, “The people shall not be deprived or abridged of their write to speak, to write, or to publish their sentiments…” (Cornell 2). This was then revised by a committee saying that the freedom of speech will give people freedom of speech, as long as the Government will not be infringed. However, the Senate rewrote it saying, “That Congress shall make no law abridging freedom of speech, or the press…” (Cornell 5). Before going into depth about the freedom of speech, I will be explaining the history of the how the First Amendment was implanted as one of the most important laws in our country. Thomas Jefferson once claimed, “A democracy cannot be both ignorant and free.” The framers of the Constitution believed that if the U.S. citizens failed to take care to share information completely among them, they would be worse off than they had been as subjects of the British monarchy they fled. (rephrase) The Americans who migrated to the U.S brought with them the idea of freedom and democracy. This was their goal to how the U.S would function. Their motive for these ideas was because of the tyranny of the British. Our founding fathers then wrote our Constitution naming the first ten, the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights guarantees individual liberties by limiting the government interference when unnecessary. The First Amendment is known for the freedoms and protections. More specifically, it helped established the separation of church and state and guarantees freedom of worship, of speech and the press, the rights of peaceable assembly and petition. The Supreme Court has made a decision that the First Amendment shall be limited to protect the rights of other citizens, and if it shows a clear danger to the government or creating wartime. This