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Midterm Research Paper: The First Amendment

Jayla Parker

North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University

JOMC 393

Gary Guffey

10/7/19

The Bill of Rights is a document that protects basic civil rights under the law. It was

created by a group of politicians who met up in Philadelphia. Well known men who were apart
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of that group was James Madison and Alexander Hamilton. Within the Bill of Rights, the First

Amendment was created on December 15, 1791 in addition to the nine other amendments. The

First Amendment 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.”

The purpose of this amendment is to protect the freedom of speech, religion, and the

press. In addition to that, it also protects the right to peaceful protest and to petition the

government. (History, 2017) The definition of having freedom of speech is to have the legal right

to express one’s opinions freely. (Freedom Of Speech, 2019) Although this is the most basic

piece of freedom of expression, this is one of the biggest components that the U.S. Supreme

Court struggles with. It’s not easy for them to determine what types of speech is protected

because the law does have restrictions. An example of one of those restrictions is when speech

provoking actions offends or harm another person. The next component of the First Amendment

is freedom of the press. Freedom of the press expands the idea of freedom of speech. While

freedom of speech describes what people say or do in person, freedom of the press is how

people can express themselves through publication. Similar to freedom of speech, this part of the

First Amendment also has restrictions such as, publicizing false statements or accusations. Next

is freedom of religion, which is pretty self explanatory. Unlike most countries, in the United

States of America, none of the states are allowed to have a designated religion that all Americans

must follow. Americans are able to legally have any religion in which they choose to follow.

This part of the First Amendment separates the church and the state. Lastly the First Amendment

gives the right to assemble and to petition. The right to assemble means that is it completely legal
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for a group of people to peacefully get together for social, economic, political, or religious

purposes. The key word in that definition is peacefully. Once that peaceful gathering is changed

into a disturbance or violence, then it is automatically against the First Amendment. The right to

petition simply makes it legal to sign any petition or file a lawsuit against the government.

(History, 2017)

The rights given to Americans in the First Amendment seems simple, but a lot of other

countries aren’t allowed to have as many freedom. Other countries include North Korea, the

United Kingdom, Afghanistan, China, and India. North Korea is known for being one of the

most heavily censored countries in the world. All the media in North Korea is state-owned with

the official Central Korean News Agency, so everyone is constantly watched. When North

Koreans go against those restrictions they are punished harshly. (Journalists, 2017) So basically,

they don’t have freedom of speech or freedom of the press. In the United Kingdom, they do not

have a clear document like the Bill of Rights. Citizens in the United Kingdom somewhat have

the freedom of expression and speech, but when it comes to those freedoms, they are stricter than

the United States to protect public interest. (Lib, 2019)

Afghanistan is a country that has been through a lot go problems when it comes to human

rights. The reason for all of their turmoil is due to the Taliban destroying their way of life. To

define who exactly the Taliban were, britannica.com defines them as, “an ultraconservative

political and religious faction that emerged in Afghanistan in the mid-1990s following the

withdrawal of Soviet troops, the collapse of Afghanistan’s communist regime, and the

subsequent breakdown in civil order.” The Taliban stripped away citizens of Afghanistan’s rights

by their cruel social policies. A few of those social policies can include the exclusion of women

from all public life, the destruction of non-islamic artistic relics, and the extremely harsh
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criminal punishments. (Britannica, 2019) Fortunately, the Taliban were overthrown in December

2001 after America led an invasion in Afghanistan. (Taliban, 2019) Since then, they have been

trying to make things better by creating different organizations like the Afghan Independent

Human Rights Commission. This organization was specifically made to protect the human rights

that were once lost in the country. (Britannica, 2019) Although the AIHRC, Afghan Independent

Human Rights Commission, have made progress with trying to protect citizens of Afghanistan’s

rights, they still have a very long way to go. Currently Afghanistan still struggles with having

freedom of the press and freedom of religion. Same as North Korea, their media is primarily

government owned, so any media is monitored. Due to the media restriction, a lot of attention

that should be brought to rebuilding Afghanistan isn’t. Also the people of Afghanistan

technically aren’t required to practice Islam, all of the laws must align with the Islamic religion.

So in a way, they have a designated national religion. (Britannica, 2019)

Continuing on with examples of countries who aren’t as fortunate as the United States,

China has a government that lacks structure which explains why certain human rights are

censored. Important rights that are censored are the freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and

freedom of religion. The Chinese government is looked down upon so much that it has caught

the attention of organizations like the US State Department, Amnesty International, and the

Human Rights Watch. All of those organizations and more have accused China of human rights

violations. (Lib, 2019) In India, similar to America, there is actually a Constitution that lists the

fundament rights. The rights are freedom of religion, speech, and freedom of movement both

domestic and foreign. Out of all the countries named previously, India has the most in common

with the United States. The only real difference is that their constitution doesn’t say the word

“press.” They have it apart of freedom of speech. (Lib, 2019)

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It’s obvious that Americans are blessed with many freedoms compared to other countries,

but sometimes those freedoms can be tested within the Supreme Court. Hearing court cases that

the Supreme Court had to handle can give a better understanding about the first amendment.

Virginia v. Black was a controversial case in which the First Amendment was tried to be used as

defense. Virginia v. Black was a case in 2003 that convicted Barry Black, Richard Elliott, and

Johnathan O’Mara for burning a cross in the state of Virginia. (Oyez, 2019) Cross burning

originates from Medieval Europe. According to timeline.com, during that time period, Scottish

clansmen would set fire to hillsides as a statement of military defiance or call to action for

soldiers ahead of battle. The practice came back in the year of 1915 with the silent film by D.W.

Griffith, Birth of Nation. Birth of a Nation was based off a novel published in 1905 called The

Clansman: A Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan. In both the film and book, Ku Klux Klan,

KKK, members were burning crosses, but more specifically in the film, KKK members were

burning a cross before the lynching a black man accused of murder. (Dundon, R. , 2017)

The KKK were an American white supremacist group who hated any other race or

religion such as immigrants, Catholics, Jews, African Americans, and organized labor. They’re

main targeted race were African Americans. They began with former confederate veterans in

Pulaski, Tennessee in 1865 and expanded to almost every southern state by 1870. (History.com

Editors, 2009) Not only for burning crosses, but they are also known for their thousands of

lynchings, bombings of churches and schools, terrorizing minority neighborhoods, and ending

innocent lives with their white robes and masks hiding their true identities. The coincidence is

that their true identities are our white doctors, judges, teachers, and policemen.

Knowing the KKK’s violent history, anyone burning a cross will automatically trigger

fear in a minorities’ eyes because that is clear symbol of hatred for other races. That is why
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Barry Black, who tried to defend himself with the First Amendment, was found guilty. Oyez.org

says, “Ultimately, the Virginia Supreme Court held, among other things, that the cross-burning

statute is unconstitutional on its face and that the prima facie evidence provision renders the

statute overbroad because the probability of prosecution under the statute chills the expression of

protected speech.” (Oyez, 2019) In other words, the First Amendment strictly states that if

something was said or did to provoke any action that offends or harm another person then it is

illegal and against the constitution. Once an action is offensive, then your First Amendment

rights are stripped away, and it can not be defended by the freedom of speech in the First

Amendment. The case concluded with The Supreme Court of the United States banning the act

of cross burnin with the intent to intimidate as the First Amendment permits content-based

restriction of true threats. All three of the defendants were convicted. (Virginia v. Black., 2014)

In conclusion, the First Amendment was and still is a very important part taken from the

Bill of Rights and put as the first amendment listed in our United States Constitution. These

simple, yet necessary rights in the First Amendment, created in 1791, makes the United States

different from other countries around the world. Not saying that our government is perfect with

all of their decisions, but at least the First Amendment is there to add a little structure to our

system and way of life as Americans.

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References

(A) History.com Editors. (2017, December 4). First Amendment. Retrieved from

https://www.history.com/topics/united-states-constitution/first-amendment.

(B) Freedom Of Speech. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.merriam-

webster.com/dictionary/freedom of speech.

(C) Journalists, C. to P. (2017, April 25). North Korean censorship. Retrieved from

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/north-korean-censorship_b_58fe78afe4b086ce58981445.
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(D) Lib.dr.iastate.edu. (2019). [online] Available at:

https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1022&context=uhuru [Accessed 10 Oct.

2019].

(E) Britannica, T. E. of E. (2019, September 11). Taliban. Retrieved from

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Taliban.

(F) The Taliban in Afghanistan. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/taliban-afghanistan.

(G) {meta.pageTitle}}. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.oyez.org/cases/2002/01-1107.

(H) Dundon, R. (2017, September 20). Why does the Ku Klux Klan burn crosses? They got the

idea from a movie. Retrieved from https://timeline.com/why-does-the-ku-klux-klan-burn-

crosses-they-got-the-idea-from-a-movie-75a70f7ab135.

(I) History.com Editors. (2009, October 29). Ku Klux Klan. Retrieved from

https://www.history.com/topics/reconstruction/ku-klux-klan.

(J) Virginia v. Black. (2014, September 11). Retrieved from

https://globalfreedomofexpression.columbia.edu/cases/virginia-v-black/.