First Amendment freedoms Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

First Amendment freedoms - Essay Example The Bill of Rights consists of the first ten amendments, which contain procedural and substantive guarantees of individual liberties and limits upon government control and intervention. The First Amendment, perhaps the best known of these freedoms and protections, prohibits the establishment of a state-supported church, requires the separation of church and state, and guarantees freedom of worship, of speech and the press, the rights of peaceable assembly, association and petition. While some Supreme Court justices have declared that First Amendment freedoms are absolute or occupy a preferred position, the Court has routinely held they may be limited so as to protect the rights of others (e.g. libel, privacy), or to guard against subversion of the government and the spreading of dissension in wartime. Thus, the Court's majority has remained firm - the First Amendment rights are not absolute. Only two Supreme Court justices, Justice Hugo Black and Justice William O. Douglas, insisted the First Amendment rights are absolute and their dissenting opinions fell to the wayside. Most court cases involving the First Amendment involve weighing two concerns: public vs. private. Also, the Supreme Court has often defined certain speech, also known as "at risk speech," as being unprotected by the First Amendment (Corwin 56). Freedom of speech and expression is not a luxury of democracy, but it should be recognized as a necessity. In order for a democratic form of government to function and continue to exist, it must have free expression and educated criticism. Most of the development of the United States' free society has come about because of public debate and disclosure, in both oratory and written form. The First Amendment was written because at America's inception, citizens demanded a guarantee of their basic freedoms. Without the First Amendment, religious minorities could be persecuted, the government might well establish a national religion, protesters could be silenced, the press could not criticize government, and citizens could not mobilize for social change. When the U.S. Constitution was signed on Sept. 17, 1787, it did not contain the essential freedoms now outlined in the Bill of Rights, because many of the Framers viewed their inclusion as unnecessary. However, after vigorous debate, the Bill of Rights was adopted. The first freedoms guaranteed in this historic document were articulated in the 45 words written by James Madison that we have come to know as the First Amendment. The Bill of Rights - the first 10 amendments to the Constitution - went into effect on Dec. 15, 1791, when the state of Virginia ratified it, giving the bill the majority of ratifying states required to protect citizens from the power of the federal government. First Amendment Speech and Provision was absolutely rigid by original intent, higher than modern standards (indeed unreasonable by modern standards) and not coincident with eighteenth century perceptions of the proper extent of the right to publish or speak freely. The strongest piece of new evidence involves the unofficial reporter who sat close to the Speaker of the House of Representatives. Near the end of the first session of the First Congress, after the drafting of the First Amendment (then third) but before submission of the amendment to the