Fifth Amendment Rights

Which amendments focus on the rights of people accused of crimes? What rights do these amendments guarantee?

The Fifth, Sixth, and Eighth Amendment focuses on the rights of people accused of crimes. The Fifth Amendment protects an accused citizen of self incrimination and double jeopardy. It also guarantees that life, liberty and property cannot be taken away without the due process of law. The Sixth Amendment allows for one accused of a crime to have a trial and a jury. The accused has the right to know what crime they were accused of, and has the right to hear all witnesses against them. The accused have the right to call witnesses to court. The accused is also guaranteed a lawyer, if they cannot afford one, the government must provide one.

The Thirteenth Amendment outlawed slavery in the United States. African Americans were now considered free people, just like any other American instead of slaves or property. The Fourteenth Amendment protects citizens against unfair actions from the state government. It also grants full citizenship to African Americans.

How have voting rights been expanded through constitutional amendments?

In the Fifteenth Amendment, African American men were guaranteed the right to vote. In the Seventeenth Amendment, the people could vote for U.S. senators. Before hand, state legislatures voted the Senators. The Nineteenth Amendment grants women the right to vote. The Twenty-Third Amendment gives the citizens of the District of Columbia the right to vote for president and vice president. The Twenty-Fourth Amendment bans the use of poll tax for National elections. The Supreme court later ruled that poll tax was unjust for state elections as well. The Twenty-Sixth Amendment lowered the voting age to 18 in all

Because this amendment seems to be far removed from Americans ' modern-day lives, should it be repealed? Why or why not?

No, I do not think it should be repealed. Just because it hasn`t ever been used doesn`t mean that it should be removed. It doesn`t hurt anyone by keeping the Amendment. In the distant future, there is also the possibility of needing to quarter soldiers into private homes. If this Amendment is repealed, the government can very well do that. Just to be safe, the Amendment should be kept.

Evaluating Which freedom in the Bill of Rights do you consider to be the most important, and why?

All five freedoms are very important, but I believe the freedom of speech is the most important. Freedom of speech allows us to speak our mind. It`s the very foundation on what our government runs on. It`s also not healthy to keep our emotions bottled up inside. Free speech allows us to say what we want when we are emotional, which is also very