Free Penguin Guide to the United States Constitution: A Fully Annotated Declaration of Independence by Richard Beeman Page B
Authors: Richard Beeman
rights the first item of business when the new Congress convened after the ratification of the Constitution. On September 25, 1789, Congress presented to the states twelve amendments, ten of which received the necessary approval of three-quarters of the states on December 15, 1791. It is those ten amendments that are commonly referred to as the Bill of Rights. One of the two amendments not approved, dealing with congressional representation, has not proved of any significance in the operation of the Constitution. The other, dealing with congressional salaries, was eventually incorporated into the Twenty-seventh Amendment.
AMENDMENT I (1791)
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 is remarkably brief considering the breadth of protection that it has provided. The section of the amendment prohibiting Congress from making any law “respecting an establishment of religion” is a cornerstone of the American notion of separation of church and state, and the guarantee of “free exercise” of religion has proven a powerful means by which people have been allowed to express their religious beliefs without fear of government reprisal. Similarly, the guarantees of freedom of speech, of the press, and of the “right of the people peaceably to assemble,” as well as the right to petition their government (and by implication to protest the actions of that government) are at the heart of the American constitutional definition of liberty.
Those freedoms have, however, been subject to some restrictions. Until the early twentieth century, the First Amendment applied only to the actions of the federal government; state governments were free to pass their own laws contravening some of the provisions of the First Amendment. For example, the state of Massachusetts continued to accord the Congregational Church special privileges and did not move to explicitly separate church and state until 1833. Moreover, throughout the nineteenth century, and sometimes into the twentieth, state governments have enacted laws placing restrictions on speech, freedom of the press, and on certain forms of public assembly. It was only in the twentieth century, through application of the “incorporation doctrine,” that the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee that states must not “abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States,” nor deny citizens “equal protection of the laws,” began to obligate state governments to guarantee their residents the same freedoms as those articulated in the First Amendment.
The precise extent of the guarantees of the First Amendment continues to be a subject of contention. Oliver Wendell Holmes, in a Supreme Court opinion in Schenck v. United States (1919), made the commonsense argument that the guarantees of free speech do not extend to the right to shout “fire in a theatre and causing a panic” when no such danger actually exists. Governments have often asserted the right to regulate public assemblies and protests in order to ensure public safety.
Similarly, the “wall of separation” between church and state is not impenetrable. The United States Congress continues to employ a chaplain, and the word of God is frequently invoked at many official government gatherings. The federal courts are frequently presented with cases in which litigants claim that public displays of religious belief (e.g., the displaying of a Nativity scene in a public square at Christmastime) violate the principle of separation of church and state. Thus far there is no clear resolution of where the boundary between a religious and a civic display lies.
AMENDMENT II (1791)
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people
AMENDMENT I (1791)
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 is remarkably brief considering the breadth of protection that it has provided. The section of the amendment prohibiting Congress from making any law “respecting an establishment of religion” is a cornerstone of the American notion of separation of church and state, and the guarantee of “free exercise” of religion has proven a powerful means by which people have been allowed to express their religious beliefs without fear of government reprisal. Similarly, the guarantees of freedom of speech, of the press, and of the “right of the people peaceably to assemble,” as well as the right to petition their government (and by implication to protest the actions of that government) are at the heart of the American constitutional definition of liberty.
Those freedoms have, however, been subject to some restrictions. Until the early twentieth century, the First Amendment applied only to the actions of the federal government; state governments were free to pass their own laws contravening some of the provisions of the First Amendment. For example, the state of Massachusetts continued to accord the Congregational Church special privileges and did not move to explicitly separate church and state until 1833. Moreover, throughout the nineteenth century, and sometimes into the twentieth, state governments have enacted laws placing restrictions on speech, freedom of the press, and on certain forms of public assembly. It was only in the twentieth century, through application of the “incorporation doctrine,” that the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee that states must not “abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States,” nor deny citizens “equal protection of the laws,” began to obligate state governments to guarantee their residents the same freedoms as those articulated in the First Amendment.
The precise extent of the guarantees of the First Amendment continues to be a subject of contention. Oliver Wendell Holmes, in a Supreme Court opinion in Schenck v. United States (1919), made the commonsense argument that the guarantees of free speech do not extend to the right to shout “fire in a theatre and causing a panic” when no such danger actually exists. Governments have often asserted the right to regulate public assemblies and protests in order to ensure public safety.
Similarly, the “wall of separation” between church and state is not impenetrable. The United States Congress continues to employ a chaplain, and the word of God is frequently invoked at many official government gatherings. The federal courts are frequently presented with cases in which litigants claim that public displays of religious belief (e.g., the displaying of a Nativity scene in a public square at Christmastime) violate the principle of separation of church and state. Thus far there is no clear resolution of where the boundary between a religious and a civic display lies.
AMENDMENT II (1791)
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people
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