Defending Our American Constitution: Part Three

We shall now discuss the Bill of Rights. The constitution has a total of twenty-seven amendments. The first ten, known as the Bill of Rights, were ratified simultaneously. The rest were ratified separately. The following is a general interpretation:

“No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

The First Amendment concerns the rights of freedom of religion, prohibiting Congressional establishment of a religion over another religion through Law and protecting the right to free exercise of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, and freedom of petition.

Although there have been many a conflict over the establishment of one religion or another, I do not see any problems here. Let me know if you are aware of any such action. Freedom of speech has obviously gone awry. Take the simple example of a man in Texas who claims he saw a UFO and went to the media to report his occurrence. Now his phone has been wiretapped and he sees black-ops helicopters over his house quite frequently. While this may not be considered important to many, it is a small example of his rights being abused.

Consider the case of classroom profanity. While it is to morally be abhorred, Cecilia Lacks had her students write and videotape plays. Many dealt with issues such as gang violence and included words I will not repeat here, but were quite profane. The school board fired her; she sued, arguing that she was a facilitator for creative expression and that her rights had been violated. The verdict was that she was guilty because she did not “promote generally acceptable social standards”

Neo-Nazi parades were held in Mississippi. The head of the movement applied for a permit to have a parade in South Boston. They city denied his request, citing concerns of traffic congestion and public safety. The city approved marches by other groups, but later the mayor said he feared violence. While I in no way support Neo-Nazis, I mention this to inform you that their verdict was struck down in higher courts.

Anti-gay remarks were a concern in San Francisco in 1992. A pastor was appointed by the mayor to the city’s Human Rights Commission. The pastor told the press, “It’s sad that people have AIDS and what have you, but it says right here in the scripture that the homosexual lifestyle is an abomination against God.” A federal court said that the pastor had the right to express his views, but the First Amendment does not assure him job security when he preaches homophobia” while serving as an ambassador for human rights. He was fired from his job. While I have nothing against the gay lifestyle, in fact I have a few gay friends; this is just another example of free speech being abused