Reflections on the First Amendment

Reflections on the First Amendment

Jessica Ruiz

HIS/301

April 11, 2013

Ryan Tarr

Reflections on the First Amendment

The First Amendment is the very first article to the Bill of Rights and along with the other nine amendments; they all were ratified on December 15, 1791 (Patterson, 2009).  The First Amendment prevents the United States Congress from being able to contravene of the freedom of religion, speech, press, assemble, and petition.  The First Amendment supplies a foundation for “freedom of expression,” which means that all American citizens have the right to communicate and discuss issues in a just manner.  However, according to Patterson (2009) no right is absolute this implies that there are some limitations to the freedom of expression and other rights (Patterson, 2009).  The limitations of the freedom of expression are if it jeopardizes national security, the defamation of character in an individual, or the basic rights of an individual is deprived.  However, free expression is protected by the court system, and the citizens of the United States can freely discuss their views on political issues in a just manner without punishment.

The Constitution and Rights of Privacy

The Constitution of the United States document was meant to create a sense of balance for the government and to protect the citizens of the United States.  However, the United States Constitution does not specifically declare the “right to privacy” although, the Bill of Rights does in fact imply an individual’s right to privacy, it does not actually state the word privacy.  The implied privacy protected in the First Amendment is the privacy of an American citizens’ belief.  The First Amendment states that congress shall not make a law interfering with a citizens’ belief of religion, cutting short a citizen’s freedom of speech or press beliefs, and citizens’ rights to assemble and petition on behalf of their beliefs.  The privacy that is implied in the Third Amendment is the privacy of a citizens’ home.  The Third Amendment states that either during peace time or during the time of war shall not demand that a citizen uses their home to house soldiers (Patterson, 2009).  The Fourth Amendments implication of privacy is the privacy of a person and what the person possesses.  The Fourth Amendment states that people have the right to be secure in their persons, homes, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures without a warrant (Patterson, 2009).  The Fifth Amendment gives citizens the protection to keep personal information private and the freedom against self-incrimination (Patterson, 2009).  Even though the First, Third, Fourth and Fifth Amendments do contain an implication of privacy, those amendments do not actually state the word “privacy.”