Civil Rights and Responsibilities Essay

The promissory n unmatchable of Rights was added to the make-up shortly after its ratification. These amendments vouch certain g everyplacening bodyal, procedural, and property fulls against infringement by the national brass (Patterson, 2009). A shoot of reclaims is what the people argon entitled to against apiece giving medication on earth, general or particular, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on influence (Thomas Jefferson). The inaugural Amendment provides the foundation for in colony of vista which is the right of individual Americans to hold and communicate views of their choosing (Patterson, 2009). The motif of the Bill of Rights was to see to it individual rights and libertys. The prototypical Amendment reflects this tradition, providing for impeccantdom of trust along with immunity of language, press, derive, and petition. The three provisions of the commencement Amendment argon the independence of speech, assembly and devotio n.The poverty-strickendom of speech states that you ar free to govern n wee allthing except that which is obscene, slanders another person, or has a high probability of inciting others to take close at hand(predicate) lawless action. The freedom of assembly states that you atomic number 18 free to assemble, although government may frustrate the while and place for reasons of creation stratagem safety, provided such regulations are applied middling to all groups. The freedom of religion states that you are protected from having the phantasmal beliefs of others imposed on you, and you are free to believe what you like. freedom of religion simply means citizens take a shit freedom to expect a church, synagogue, synagogue or mosque of their choice, or not to at decennaryd at all.The commencement Amendment allows us to employ our religion the way we want to. When human macrocosms lecture ab forth freedom of religion and the root Amendment I think about religion in the shallows. Every since the commanding butterfly held school-sponsored postulation unconstitutional in the early 1960s, there has ben a concerted and well-funded ravel to reintroduce religion in habitual schools. Public schools themselves should not be in the business of promoting particular ghostlike beliefs or religious activities and they should protect children from being coerced by others to accept religious (or anti-religious beliefs.A Saskatchewan humans Rights Commission inquiry ruled in July that the Saskatoon climb on of Education must(prenominal) end a practise of well-favored teachers the picking of conducting prayers in public school patternrooms and assemblies. In practice, the choice has been primarily the lords supplication. The ruling volition not change practices in separate schools. The inquiry followed a complaint six eld ago by nine parents, including Muslims, Jews, Unitarians and atheists. well-nigh 20% of the 550 public school classrooms i n Saskatoon begin the day with prayer. The ratiocination may be appealed in solicit (Globe and Mail, 1999). The relationship between religion and government in the linked separates when it comes to the United commonwealths Constitution is governed by the inaugural Amendment to the Constitution, which both pr eventidets the government from establishing religion and protects privately initiated religious conceptualization and activities from government interference and discrimination.The offset Amendment frankincense establishes certain limits on the conduct of public school functionarys as it relates to religious activity, including prayer. Prayer should not have been interpreted out of schools. Parents should be sent home a letter opting out of religious activities and employees should be given the same option, but taken it out of schools was ridiculous. The case of Engel v. Vitale (1962) went to the Supreme woo and the case was about a time in 1951 the newfound York Sta te Board of Regents (the State board of education) approved a 22-word nondenominational prayer for recitation each morning in the public schools of spick-and-span York. It read Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee, and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers and our Country. The Regents believed that the prayer could be a useful tool for the development of denotation and good citizenship among the students of the State of New York.The prayer was offered to the school boards in the State for their use, and association in the prayer-exercise was voluntary. In New Hyde Park, New York, the Union let off School dominion No. 9 directed the local anaesthetic principal to have the prayer express aloud by each class in the presence of a teacher at the beginning of the school day. The parents of ten pupils in the New Hyde Park schools objected to the prayer. They filed caseful in a New York State court seeking a criminalise on the prayer, insisting th at the use of this official prayer in the public schools was unconnected to their own and their childrens beliefs, religions, or religious practices. The State appeals court upheld the use of the prayer, so long as the schools did not engage some(prenominal) pupil to join in the prayer over his or his parents objection (infoplease.com).The Freedom to Assemble gives people the right to assemble peacefully without causing any harm to others. As much as I do not oppose with the KKK views and opinions they should be able to assemble if they do it in a peaceful manner. The First Amendment prohibits government from abridging the right of the people pacifically to assemble. This basic freedom ensures that the spirit of the First Amendment survives and thrives even when the majority of citizens would rather persecute boldness it finds offensive. Over the physique of our history, freedom of assembly has protected individuals espousing myriad viewpoints. big workers, civil rights adv ocates, anti-war demonstrators and Ku Klux Klan frame iners have all taken to the streets and sidewalks in protest or in support of their causes.Sometimes these efforts have galvanized public support or changed public perceptions. presuppose a civil rights movement without the parade on Washington or the womens suffrage movement without ranks of long-skirted, placard-carrying suffragists filling metropolis streets. The U.S. Supreme Court recognized the wideness of this freedom in the 1937 case De Jonge v. State of Oregon, writing that the right to peaceable assembly is a right cognate to those of free speech and free press and is every bit fundamental. According to the Court, the right to assemble is one that cannot be denied without violating those fundamental principles which lie at the base of all civil and political institutions (archive.firstamendmentcenter.org).The KKKs right to assemble pacifically was secured by the famous 1977 case of field of study Socialist Party v. Skokie, in which the American Civil Liberties Union successfully argued that the First Amendment prohibited officials of Skokie, Ill., from banning a march by the National Socialist Party. Skokie is a Chicago suburb that is home to many another(prenominal) Holocaust survivors. One federal figure reasoned that it is better to allow those who advocate racial hatred to expend their spite in rhetoric rather than to be panicked into embarking on the dangerous course of permitting the government to decide what its citizens may say and hear (archive.firstamendmentcenter.org).In conclusion, the First Amendment of the United States protects the rights to freedom of religion and freedom of expression as well as freedom of assembly from government interference. Freedom of expression consists of the rights to freedom of speech, press, assembly and to petition the government for a redress of grievances, and the implied rights of association and belief. The Supreme Court interprets the exten t of the protection afforded to these rights. The First Amendment has been interpreted by the Court as applying to the entire federal government even though it is only expressly applicable to Congress. Two clauses in the First Amendment guarantee freedom of religion. The Establishment Clause and the Free habit Clause are 2 clauses in the First Amendment that guarantee freedom of religion.The Establishment Clause prohibits the government from tone ending legislation to establish an official religion or preferring one religion over another. It enforces the separation of church and state. The Free Exercise Clause prohibits the government, in most instances, from busybodied with a persons practice of their religion. The right to assemble allows people to gather for peaceful and lawful purposes. Implicit at bottom this right is the right to association and belief. With that being said, all people should be having almost kind of freedom. They should be able to ostracise and assembl e peacefully without causing any harm to anyone. People should be free to have their different views and opinions of religion, be it that they religious or anti-religious. To sum it all up I would love for everyone to feel that they are free.Referenceshttp//www.oyez.org/cases/1960-1969/1961/1961_468http//www.aclu.org/religion-belief/program-freedom-religion-and-belief-government-funded-religionReligion in schools (teachers in Saskatchewan will no longer have the option of conducting prayer services in class). human-centered in Canada 130 (1999) 4, 39. General OneFile. Web. 25 June 2012.http//www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/religionandschools/prayer_guidance.html