The first amendment is one that is fully incorporated, there have been many cases to assure that each freedom mentioned takes place in limiting the government’s power in contradicting the constitution. For example, in 1925 there was a case, Giltow v. New York, this case fought for freedom of speech. Giltow had been publishing communist articles for distribution in the U.S., he arrested under a state law of criminal anarchy. Giltow tried to argue that because there were no violent results due to his publications that his arrest was invalid. The court came to the decision that the right to free speech applies to state laws under the 14th amendment.
The Bill of Rights was passed by congress on September 25, 1789 and was ratified on December 15 , 1791. James Madison and George Manson contributed to the bill rights. In the website, “Bill of Rights Institute,” the “Bill of Rights of The United States of America (1791)” explains the history of the Bill of Rights. At first 17 amendments were agreed on at the house but only 12 out of those 17 were approved. From there , only 10 were passed after being sent to the rest of the states.
The first amendment protects our everyday life when it come to speaking, Writing, religion, signing a petition,or gathering together for a protest. Congress shall make no law respecting any of these topics. The scenario at hand explained how a group of students set the flag on fire and they all got arrested, the real question is however, are the police within their rights to do so? Overall, there are two sides to the subject, one is, the students are able to burn the flag and should not be punished at all, the other side is that burning the flag infringes upon our rights and it is not allowed. The students are able to burn the flag and they shall not be punished.
Today, it’s hard to imagine the U.S. Constitution without the Bill of Rights. However, when the founding fathers we’re drafting the Constitution they didn’t feel the first ten amendments were necessary. The three men that believed these amendments should be included were, George Mason, Elbridge Gerry, and Edmund Randolph (4). James Madison was responsible for drafting the document and came up with seventeen sections (4). This number then got reduced to twelve, but only ten of those twelve were ratified.
On the contrary, although the defendant didn’t violate those the limitations stated by the First Amendment, the First Amendment does have other limitations such as the First Amendment applies differently to students in school. As the Supreme Court ruled in the Tinker case, it states that “students are not granted an unlimited right to freedom of speech or self-expression by the First Amendment, because First Amendment guarantees must be balanced against a school’s need to keep order and their school policies. Another example is the case Bethel School District v. Fraser; in this case, high school student Matthew Fraser made a speech nominating another student for elective office, his speech involved graphic sexual metaphors. The Supreme court
Chapter 4 of the book We the People talks about Civil Liberties, this chapter mainly talks about the Rights that were placed in the Constitution (not in the Bill of Rights), it also talks about the Bill of Rights and it describes the rights protected by the Bill of Rights. It also talks about specific rights that work close together with the Bill of Rights and Amendments rights. One of the first Amendments that is described in great detail is Freedom of Speech and Religion. The first Amendment protects US citizens right to talk about almost any topic in the United States. I said almost any topic because there are some forms of speech that aren’t protected by the First Amendment (these forms of speech can be limited or prohibited), some of the forms of speech that aren’t protected by the First Amendment are Fighting Words and Hate Speech, Student Speech, Libel and Slander speech.
The First amendment also protects speech (Hall,2016.) The plain language of the clause, several words mean something different than what is plain (Hall, 2016.) First, the clause limits the authority of Congress, but in reality it limits all three branches of the federal government (Hall, 2016.) Second, the term speech is used (Hall, 2016.) The Supreme Court has held that more than the spoken word is protected (Hall, 2016.)
The First Amendment states that there shall be no law respecting an established religion, preventing the freedom of speech, or preventing the right for people to hold peaceful assemblies. I personally believe that the freedom of speech is the most critical out of the three freedoms. The freedom of speech encompasses all the freedoms in the First Amendment. Without the freedom of speech, there can not be peaceful assemblies or the freedom of religion. All of the freedoms requires the right to freely express opinions.
While having free speech can be a problem and anger many, it IS one of our basic freedoms. The Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution as the first ten amendments on December 15, 1791 and the fact that American’s rights were not protected and added to the Constitution any earlier heated up numerous debates! The First Amendment protects freedom of speech, press, religion, and petition. It is very well one of America’s special aspects and for some American’s, it is their most cherished personal freedoms. With that being said, I do not see a problem with one having the ability to speak their own opinion, I just think their should be a few limitations.
Legislatures in the United States continuously attempt to restrict the flow of new forms of entertainment that their constituents believe to be harmful to society. Yet, from the lower courts to supreme courts, contested legislation is overturned. The First Amendment’s assertion of the freedom of speech is afforded the highest standard of judicial review and very few exceptions are allowed. These exceptions to free speech are obscenity, incitement, fighting words, slander and libel. However, while adults enjoy the full extent of the priviledges in the Bill of Rights, minors are viewed as needing special consideration in certain situations.
The First Amendment guarantees freedoms concerning religion, expression, assembly, and the right to petition. There are many ideas expressed in times where it would be inappropriate or unnecessary to use one’s freedom of speech. These circumstances would be where something is inappropriate or misidentified as hate speech. There are many situations where someone may want to say something, yet there are times where some things should not be said.
An exception to those freedoms is obscenity. Obscenities are acts or statements that are extremely offensive under current societal standards. The courts knew that situations would come up testing individual rights and obscenities, so they created “The Miller Test.” This test has three points to check for when defining obscenities, “(a) whether the average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest, (b) whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law; and (c) whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value” (125). An example of that would be the Ku Klux Klan.
Another great example is social media which can portray many expressions. When using any type of social media you might feel violated of the first amendment when people can report your post to be “inappropriate”. This all goes back to not having 100% right to say or post whatever you'd like. Without the cues of body language and tone, a simple post can sound threatening and offensive. So how can you overpass the law of “threat to injure the person of another” if a post is made?
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
Censorship can be described as the act of cutting out certain material that can be considered obscene or inconvenient for the community. This material can be found in social media such as in the TV, radio, or the internet. Censorship can be challenged because of the first amendment: freedom of speech. Free expression is the right of expressing opinions and ideas without any fear of being restrained or censored. However, freedom of speech does not include the right to incite actions that would harm others or the distribution of obscene material (Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, 2000).
