Saturday, November 20, 2010

The First Amendment

The First Amendment of the United States constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. This amendment states that there is freedom of speech, press, religion, and petition. The establishment of the First Amendment had been interpreted by the Supreme Court as a separation of church and state. Originally, the First Amendment was only applied to laws established by Congress but because of the Fourteenth amendment it applies to each state. The First Amendment was sent to the states for ratification on September 25, 1789 and it was adopted on December 15, 1791.

The first amendment exactly 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 peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances." This amendment is important to the people in the United States of America because in order to be able to speak your mind and be able to share ideas with other people. The first amendment gives the rights of free speech and discourse. If you did not have this right there would be no free discussions and with no discussion, there would be no exchange of new ideas.

The first amendment give us freedoms, without
those freedoms we wouldn't be able to protest, or express our religious views, or speak up against an injustice, or speak out against the government. In the United States of America, we have freedom but there has to be limitations because if there were no limitations to our freedom then there would be chaos. This is one of the many reasons why the First Amendment is vital to the constitution.

The First Amendment needs to be in play because it's vital to all the people who want a freedom of speech, press, religion, and petition. As a Christian, the First Amendment is important to me because it gives me the freedom to express my religion. In our world today though, these freedoms seem to be disappear when it comes to religion, and more specifically Christianity. The First Amendment is vital because we the people have no rights or freedoms to state our ideas or what we believe if this amendment was not in play.