Reflections on the First Amendment
HIS/301
June 15, 2014
Dick Eacott
Reflections on the First Amendment
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution 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 right of the people to petition the government for a redress of grievances” (Charters of freedom, 1791). This paper will discuss the rights of privacy the First Amendment protects, why so many cases need to be interpreted by the Supreme Court, and finally how those decisions have affected the rights of the American people.
Rights of Privacy
The Founding Fathers created the United States Constitution as a manual or instructional guild for which the American people would be governed. It was never written to be finalized and through Amendments change has occurred over the years. The first 10 Amendments, referred to as the Bill of the Rights, which reflected the concerns brought up during the ratification process of the Constitution, specifically reflected the rights and privileges of the American citizen. The Bill of Rights gives many liberties to the people; however, nowhere is the right to privacy clearly stated in the document.
Supreme Court Cases
The first provision of the First Amendment is the Establishment clause, which forbids the formation of a national religion or a preference of one religion over another. The current official rule, set forth in Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971), holds that government actions violate the establishment clause if they have a primarily religious purpose, have a primary effect either of advancing or of inhibiting religion, or excessively entangle the government in religious matters (Volok, 2012). The Supreme Courts has created a guideline of sorts to determine if the establishment clause allows or prohibits the First Amendment. The government may...