Social Media Boundaries 1

The First Amendment: What even is it?

Kennedy Maddox

North Carolina A&T State University

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The First Amendment: What even is it?

The first amendment of the United States prevents the government from making laws

that regulate an establishment of religion, prohibit the free exercise of religion, or abridge the

freedom of speech, the freedom of press, the right to peacefully assemble, or the right to petition

the government for redress of grievances. It was adopted December 15th, 1791 as one of the ten

amendments that constitute the Bill of Rights.

The Bill of Rights was originally proposed to assuage Anti Federalist opposition to

constitutional ratification. Initially, the first amendment applied only to laws enacted by

congress, and many of its provisions were interpreted more narrowly than they are today. The

first amendment was adopted with nine other amendments that make up the whole Bill. The first

amendment says, “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 First Amendment”, 2017).

The freedom of expression is something that is different all around the world depending

on place and region. Freedom of speech is one that supports the freedom of a person or group to

speak their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. Freedom

of religion gives the people the right to practice whichever religion they choose. Freedom of the

press is the right to circulate opinions on print without censorship by the government. The right

to peacefully assembly is the individual right of people to come together and collectively

express, promote, pursue, and defend their shared ideas. Redress of grievances is the right to

make a complaint or seek help from the government without fear of punishment or reprisals.
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Examples of freedom of speech include speaking against the government and the

promotion of ideas that other may find controversial. It was found that the ancient Greeks came

up with free speech as a principle of democracy and the Greek word, “parrhesia” means free

speech or to speak candidly (First Amendment, 2019). An example of a court case that

questioned this amendment was the case of Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969) where the supreme

decided that the first and fourteenth amendments protected speech advocating violence at a Ku

Klux Klan rally because the speech did not call for “imminent lawless action.” Brandenburg had

made a speech at a Klan rally and was later convicted under an Ohio criminal law that referred to

syndicalism. The law made illegal “advocating of crime, sabotage, violence, or unlawful

methods of terrorism as a means of accomplishing industrial or political reform. They also

included the assembling of persons formed to teach the doctrines of criminal syndicalism”

(Brandenburg v. Ohio, Oyez 2020). Having freedom of speech apart of the bill has evoked many

different arguments as to what should actually be considered a freedom of speech or a threat to

society.

Lee V. Weisman (1992) is a great example of freedom of religion in the works. In Lee v.

Weisman, the court studied whether approved clergy- led prayer at public school graduations in

Providence, Rhode Island violated the Establishment Clause of the first amendment. Then

establishment clause is the clause in the first amendment that prohibits the establishment of

religion by Congress. The court ended up applying the 3-pronged test (“The First Amendment

Encyclopedia”, 2020) from another case of 1971 which is the supreme courts way of determining

whether speech or expression can be named obscene in which case it would not be protected by

the first amendment. In a 5-4 decision, the court decided it to be a violation of the establishment

clause. The court decided that the practice of the clergy led graduation prayer was invasive “to
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the point of creating a state-sponsored and state- directed religious exercise in a public school”

(“Cornell Law School” 2020). Since graduation isn’t something students would skip, the court

ruled that “the government may not coerce anyone to support or participate in religion or its

exercise.” (“Lee v. Weisman”, 1992).

The news is a place full bias and outlets trying to push out information before the other

which causes a lot of issues at times. Freedom of the press is the right to circulate opinions in

print without censorship by the government. In Crown v. John Peter Zinger (1735), the colony of

New York tried publisher John Peter Zinger for seditious libel against the governor. Seditious

libel is when a person lies about or criticizes the government specifically when it is in writing or

other permanent forms which could include public broadcasting. Zenger’s case ultimately

established the influence of how people thought about these subjects which lead to the making of

the Bill of Rights.

The right to peacefully assemble gives the public the right to meet and form associations

wherever they please without interference from the government. Interestingly enough,

Pennsylvania was actually the first state to recognize this right in 1776 (“Learning to Give”,

2020). The case of Bates v. Little Rock of 1960 grew from conflict with the 1957 attempt to

integrate Central Highschool located in Little Rock, Arkansas. It was so violent, that the

president, Dwight D. Eisenhower, had to send in the U.S. Army. In the case, the members of the

local NAACP chapter were asked to disclose the names of its members because of an

amendment the Arkansas city council passed that required certain groups to disclose publicly the

names of its members and contributors. Bates refused to do this because of the risk it could bring

to the members because of the climate of the time. Justice Potter Stewart introduced the evidence

of many members of the NAACP organization of Little Rock, refusing to renew their
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memberships because of the public disclosure requirement and fear of community hostility.

Stewart held that the tax ordinance that caused for the disclosure of the names have no real

correlation with the purpose of the ordinance. In the end, Justice Hugo L. Black and William O.

Douglas joined in the opinion where they asserted that, “that the first amendment rights are

beyond abridgment either by legislation that directly restrains their exercise or by suppression or

impairment through harassment, humiliation, or exposure by government.” (John R. Rink, 2020)

The petition of the redress of grievances is the right to make a complaint or seek

assistance of one’s government. In the case of Edwards v. South Carolina, 187 black students

were convicted in a magistrate’s court for peacefully assembling at the South Carolina State

Government. The plan was to submit the grievances to the citizens of South Carolina and to the

legislative bodies of the state of South Carolina. During the peaceful assembly, the students were

arrested because they did not obey an order to disperse. The students were convicted for breach

of the peace, but the students went on to demand review because they were an absence of

evidence of the commission of the offense and were denied due process of law. In an 8-1

decision, the court decided to reverse the convictions because of the state’s mistake of infringing

the students connotationally protected rights to freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and

freedom to petition for redress of grievances (Oyez, 2020).

The right to dissent is the right of people to express their opinions out loud in public

without interference from the government, subject to the laws against libel, incitement to

violence or rebellion. An example of right to dissent could go back to the case of Dred Scott v.

Sanford of 1857. Dred Scott was a slave from Missouri but was brought to the north by his

master to Wisconsin where slavery was illegal. He claimed that from that moment on he would

be a free man. The court who was under Justice Roger Taney, in a 7-2 vote, ruled that he was not
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a free man. The court said that blacks had no right to sue because they aren’t considered citizens

of the United States. This had also gone against the Missouri Compromise that made it so the

federal government couldn’t outlaw slavery in territories. The two dissenting opinions from the

court was from Justice McLean who said basically that the law of the state in just, slavery is

illegal and unless the master of the slave invented the law of freedom, that man is free in the

territory. Justice Curtis exclaimed that when things like this happen, if the individual opinions of

the people had control, then we would have no constitution.

Journalism requires a person to be able to watch over s=certain parts of society and be

able to form your own opinions which may come with some criticism. To monitor and criticize

power is to have the ability to, in a way, watch over those who are higher up than us who have

the most power over the citizens. It gives a voice to those who may not be loud enough to hear

and it’s something that many journalists practice to essentially play superhero to the people.

Because of the consistent need for information, journalists get the privilege to do many things

such as subsidies for distribution and development postal rates for print, use of public spectrum

by broadcasters, development and management of the internet to laws protecting content and free

speech with copyright, libel, and shield laws. These privileges are in place because of the publics

constant need for information (The Elements of Journalism, 2020).

Without these freedoms of the first amendment, journalism and the rights of the people

would not be the same. Many would not get the opportunities they get everyday which would

lead to a lot of added chaos to our society. These freedoms saved America.
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Work Cited

Brandenburg v. Ohio (n.d). Oyez. Retrieved February 26, 2020,

From https://www. Oyez.org/cases/1968/492

Edwards v. South Carolina (n.d.) Oyez. Retrieved February 27, 2020,

From https://www.oyez.orgg/cases/1962/86

Jr, D.L.H. (n.d.). Miller test. Retrieved February 27, 2020,

From https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/1585/miller-test

The Elements of Journalism. (n.d.). Retrieved February 27, 2020,

From https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/journalism-essentials/what-is-
journalism/elements-journalism/

Freedom of Speech: General. (n.d.). Retrieved February 27, 2020,

From https://billofrightsinstitute.org/educate/educator-resources/landmark-cases/freedom-of-
speech-general/