Lecture: The First Amendment

Transcription

1 Lecture: The First Amendment "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." - First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution During this lecture we will discuss the 1 st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, both its protections and limitations. I will outline the existing 1 st Amendment jurisprudence, and then go on to discuss the following questions. Please read over the following questions and fact scenarios, which will serve as a basis for the class discussion. I. Try this first Amendment Quiz: 1. When Congress proposed the Bill of Rights, it put the First Amendment at the top of the list because it considered the rights protected by it to be the foundation of all other rights listed in the first ten amendments. 1

2 2. Students at the University of Kentucky and Transylvania University (a private university in Lexington, KY) have identical First Amendment rights when it comes to distributing pamphlets on their campuses. 3. When the First Amendment became part of the Constitution, it applied equally to the federal government and the states. 4. An amendment can become part of the Constitution only after it has been proposed by two-thirds of each house of Congress and ratified by three-fourths of the states. 5. The President of the United States must sign an amendment before it becomes part of the Constitution. 6. The Supreme Court has ruled that under some circumstances, the government can require newspapers to publish material that their editors do not want to publish. 7. Commercial speech, such as advertisements on TV or in a magazine, enjoy no First Amendment protection. 2

3 8. The Supreme Court has ruled that Congress can force libraries that receive federal funding to put filters on all computers that provide access to the Internet. 9. Congress has provided immunity to Internet service providers (ISPs) such as America Online (AOL) so they cannot be sued successfully for anything they post on their Web sites that they did not create? 10. The Supreme Court has ruled that flag burning is protected by the First Amendment. 11. Broadcast journalists enjoy the same First Amendment rights that newspaper reporters have. 12. Freedom of speech and freedom of the press are absolute guarantees; the Supreme Court has said that nothing can trump the right of citizens to speak their minds. 3

4 II. Church and State: Over the years, the Supreme Court has attempted to build a wall of separation between the church and state, while at the same time protecting the free exercise of religion also guaranteed by the 1 st Amendment. This at times has proven to be quite difficult! The following fact scenarios are taken from actual Supreme Court cases, how do you think the court ruled? FREE EXERCISE OF RELIGION: 1. Could a state forbid a member of the Mormons from practicing polygamy, when the church taught that if a man did not take more than one wife, he would face eternal damnation? (Reynolds v. United States, 1878) 2. Could a state force a Jehovah s Witness to salute the American flag? (West Virginia State Board of Education v. Bar nette, 1943) 3. Could a Seventh Day Adventist be denied unemployment benefits because she was fired for not working on Saturdays, which would be a violation of her religion? (Sherbert v. Verner, 1963) 4. Could an Amish child be exempt from a state law requiring attendance for all 14 to 16 year olds, since their religion requires them to live apart from the world and worldly influence? ( Wisconsin v. Yoder, 1972) 5. Could the Amish claim exemption from compulsory participation in the Social Security system. The objection was that payment of taxes by Amish employers and employees and the receipt of public financial assistance were forbidden by their religious beliefs. (United States v. Lee, 1982 ) 6. Could a state pass a law banning animal sacrifice if those laws were targeted against a particular religion, in this case, the Santeria religion? (Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah, 1993) 4

5 SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE 1. Is the loaning of instructional material and equipment directly to qualifying non - public (religious) elementary and secondary schools an impermissible extension of assistance of religion? (Meek v. Pittenger 1975) 2. Is the public payment of a sign -language interpreter for a deaf student attending parochial school unconstitutional? (Zobrest v. Catalina Foothills School Dist., 1993). 3. The Adolescent Family Life Act permitted direct grants to religious organizations for provision of health care and for counselling of adolescents on matters of pregnancy prevention and abortion alternatives, and requires grantees to involve other community groups, including religious organizations, in delivery of services. Was it found to be constitutional? (Bowen v. Kendrick, ) 4. Is a statute mandating balanced treatment of ''creatio n -science'' and ''evolutionscience'' in the public schools constitutional? ( Edwards v. Aguillard, 1987) 5. Can students form a religious club and meet on school grounds? 6. Do Sunday closing laws violate the separation of church and state? (McGowan v. M a r yl an d, 1961) 7. Is the practice of opening legislative sessions with prayers by paid chaplains constitutional? (Marsh v. Chambers, 1983) 8. Can you display religious Christmas symbols on public property? 5