Evolution Of The First Amendment Essay

The author's primary focus in this article is to illustrate and create awareness for the evolution of the First Amendment. The first amendment has been defined over the years as protecting Americans basic liberties, that being the freedom of religion, speech, press, petition, and assembly. The author introduces the factors that ultimately altered the definition of the amendment. The people’s misinterpretation of the amendment was the primarily the factor developing the evolution of the First Amendment. The author splits the multiple defining factors into separate paragraphs and provides details on specific occurrences that limited these freedoms. The author begins on the Freedom of Religion. Initially, the author specifies the two separate clauses within the Freedom of Religion. The establishment and free exercise clauses being the two. Doing this, we, the readers, are provided with an original definition of this portion of the amendment. We are able to distinguish how the later mentioned court cases define these two clauses and understand the changes. Allowing us to be able to interpret the text and create our own connections to the text engages us into the

This gives us the ability to interpret and develop our own limits to free speech. As we establish our own meaning, the United States’ method of determining the limits of free speech. The “clear and present danger” test shows how new ways are being developed to limit our free speech. Boggling the mind of the reader, we are forced to realize that if we truly had free speech then why are methods being developed to limit it. Well, according to the United States’ treatment to Charles Schenck, freedom of speech was restricted if an individual was a “clear and present danger”. Again, the author mentions this court case to show exactly how the U.S. developed their method and to show exactly what it’s dealing