The 1st Amendment

The 5 basic rights established by the 1st Amendment

With regards to the 1st Amendment, the U.S. Constitution states that: 

“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 right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances” (Constitute Project).

So let’s look at (1) what exactly the Framers meant and (2) what rights the First Amendment protects. 🚦

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Bill of Rights 📝

Before we dive deeper into the First Amendment itself, we need to look at the Bill of Rights, where the first ten amendments came from! 🤔

The Creation 🔥

Fun fact: the Bill of Rights was not actually part of the original Constitution! At first, the Framers (the Constitutional Convention delegates who helped in drafting the U.S. Constitution) did not want to add a Bill of Rights to the Constitution because they didn’t want to limit the rights of individuals to just 10. After a long debate between the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists, the Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution in 1791, a little over three years after the Constitution was ratified. 👌

Even though the Bill of Rights held little significance in the 18th century, it's now regarded as one of the most important documents that upholds individual rights within the United States we know of today. 🌈

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Free Exercise of Religion 🙏

When the Framers first drafted the Bill of Rights, the First Amendment protected the free exercise of religion—a dead giveaway on the American founders' priorities at the time. 

Historical Reasons ⏰

As the first English colonists settled in North America, religious wars raged throughout Europe. Most people who came to the United States fled from religious persecution back home. For this reason, the colonists wanted to ensure that there wasn’t going to be an established, centralized church. ❌

In other words, they wanted to ensure the separation of church and state so that each religion could be practiced freely (regardless of popularity). This is why many colonies took the policy of “religious tolerance”—the prohibition of persecution or discrimination against any religion. 😊

Interpretation of Establishment Clause 🗣️

A vast majority agrees that the freedom of religion, conscience, and philosophy are crucial to securing individual rights. After all, no government should be allowed to interfere with an individual’s way of thinking. Many people, however, disagree on the establishment clause. There are three types of interpretation when it comes to the clause prohibiting any establishment of religion. 

Broad Interpretation 🌎

People in this position argue that the First Amendment prevents the government from providing aid to any religion (tax money). Interestingly, they also believe that if the government gives every religious group the same service and treatment, tax money should be permitted. In their perspective, the government can also hypothetically provide assistance for people to make it easier to practice their religion, such as excusing students from classes on religious holidays. 💸

Narrow Interpretation 🏠

This viewpoint argues that the government is prohibited from giving one religious group any preferable treatment, but is allowed to support a group partially. A notable example includes the allowance of non-denominational prayers. 🤝

Literal Interpretation 🧍

This interpretation argues that the government is only prohibited from establishing an official religion, and that any other actions taken aside from that should be allowed. 📝

Regardless of interpretation, many agree that the establishment clause is the “ceiling,” and that the free exercise clause is the “floor” to the first amendment

Image Courtesy of Senate RPC

Significant Supreme Court Cases ⚖️

The Supreme Court, the highest federal court of the United States, has taken in many cases regarding the freedom of religion. Let’s take a look at a couple landmark ones:

Employment Division v. Smith (1990) 💼

The Oregon state law prohibits the use of peyote, which is a drug. This directly clashes with the Native American Church as it uses peyote during religious ceremonies. Consequently, the Church argued that the Oregon law violated the right to freely exercise a religion. 

Image Courtesy of Medical News Today

❓ The Outcome: The Supreme Court ruled that the Oregon law was constitutional because it was a neutral and impartial law that applies to everyone within the state, including the Native American Church.

Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye, Inc. v. City of Hialeah (1993) 🐻

In the City of Hialeah, Florida, the slaughter of animals in religious ceremonies is prohibited, which clashes with the common practice of animal sacrifice within the Santeria religion. 

❓ The Outcome: The Supreme Court ruled that the prohibition violated free practice of religion because animal slaughter is not prohibited in any other case and does not apply to everyone. 

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Free Expression 💬

Freedom of expression is an essential key to success in a representative democracy. It is vital to promoting growth (social, political, economic), advancement of knowledge, peaceful social change and, most of all, access to individual rights. With social media and the Internet becoming more and more prevalent today, freedom of speech can be more vital than ever.

Image Courtesy of Law Now Magazine

Limitations 🔒

Many people agree that there should be some limitations on freedom of expression. If someone started yelling across the street in the middle of the night about how a certain band was the best of all time, everyone would be annoyed, right? To protect important community values and interests, freedom of expression has its limitations. 🤭

The following limitations to freedom of expression are:

• Defamation (or injury to reputation) 😠
• Incitement to crime (urging others to take illegal action) ⛓️
• Revealing government or trade secrets (to the enemy or rival company) 🤫
• False advertising ☁️
• Obscenity (deeply offensive words) 🤬
• Time, place and manner ⌛

As seen above, it's pretty logical why there are some limitations on freedom of speech. Without them, the country would be more chaotic and prone to succumbing to anarchy—the lack of authority (or acknowledgement of) in a society.

Limits on Government Power ⚡

To avoid absolutism, the Supreme Court also established limitations on the government's power over its people! 

• Laws are not allowed to unfairly discriminate on the basis of content. ✏️
  • For example, a city council is not allowed to let one religious group pass out pamphlets while prohibiting other religious groups.
• Laws and regulations cannot single out unpopular views and prevent them from being expressed. 👎
  • Note that while laws become an issue when only one view is prohibited, no one has the right to publish secret military information.
• Laws restricting time, place, and manner must be neutral and applied to everyone. 👪
  • Again no certain organization should be targeted and barred from freedom of speech. This means that if people are not allowed to go to a kindergarten classroom to talk about the death penalty, everyone should be barred from doing so, not just a certain group.
• Laws restricting speech cannot be vague. 😵
  • Restrictions must be exact so people know what to do and not to do!

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Freedom to Assemble, Petition, and Associate ⚠️

This freedom protects individuals' right to associate with others and share opinions. This includes persuading government officials to correct wrongs and adopt policies that will benefit the interests of groups and/or the nation as a whole. 💯

Limitations the Government can Place 🔒

The Supreme Court emphasizes the right to assemble in a free society, but also sanctions certain restrictions in order to keep demonstrations peaceful and make sure public safety is not endangered.  

The government is permitted to put limitations only on two conditions:

• The limitation identifies government interests (preventing riots or keeping streets clean)
• Applied in a nondiscriminatory manner

Rights Protected 🛡️

There are some rights that the government is not allowed to impede on, which are usually on the basis of race, gender or ethnic background.

However, there is still a dilemma between eliminating unfair discrimination in American life and the right of each individual to live freely without government interference, which continues to exist as a contentious point of tension in the United States over time.

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...and That's a Wrap! 🌮

Yep, you just powered through a very brief description of the First Amendment, one of the cornerstone rights in the Bill of Rights. At its very core, it's something that protects our rights as individuals. It, therefore, makes sense that everyone regards the First Amendment as one of the most important elements of the Constitution. 🌟

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