Tuesday, February 2, 2021

Six Clauses of The First Amendment

 The First Amendment guarantees citizens six freedoms. The first is known as the Establishment Clause, which guarantees freedom from government established religions. The next is known as the Free Exercise Clause, which guarantees the freedom to practice religion without governmental interference. The last four are pretty well know;  freedom of speech, petition, peaceful assembly, and press. These are a part of everyone's daily life here in America. They're even more common now, as these freedoms are argued in the news almost every day. 

Today's Example



A very prevalent example of this is the Trump impeachment trial currently happening. A good article to learn more about this is NPR's article on February 9. The big debate that the senate must decide first is whether they can legally impeach someone who is no longer in office. After they decide that, they must debate whether Trump's speech was incitement. The only way to prove that it was incitement would be to prove that his speech directly caused the violence that occurred on Capitol Hill. His speech is protected under the first amendment's freedom of speech unless it was likely to cause violence. If his speech is proven to have caused imminent lawless behavior, then his first amendment right will not apply. However, there is really no way to prove that that would happen. The same theory applies to every citizen in America, you can say what you want except for in a few specific situations. If the senate somehow manages to allow the impeachment trial to occur, the constitutionality of incitement will be heavily debated among every person in the country, most importantly the Supreme Court justices. If it does get to The Supreme Court, it could affect the freedom of speech for everyone, not just the President. 





















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