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By CJP | November 21, 2007
 Janes, have you ever watched an actor-playing-a-lunatic in a movie being taken into custody and yelling about his "rights"? Do we ever hear sane people in the movies yelling about their constitutional rights? Maybe we should.
CJP thinks the Constitution and its amendments are the most important and least read documents in American history, but unlike many historical things, they still apply today. To get all the Janes up to speed on the rights we can all fight for, CJP will be having an amendment-of-the-day to get acquainted with the laws of the land. We won't have an amendment every day because, like cardio, a little goes a long way.
Now let's say hello to the First Amendment....
Hello, 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."
This means you can meet in a church, get all your friends to show up, say anything you want, blog about it for a newspaper, and then call your Congressman to complain about it. OK, it's more complicated than that, but you get the idea. The First Amendment is part of the Bill of Rights (the first ten amendments to the Constitution), which protects individuals' rights and limits federal power.
Among the many protections it offers you, yes you, are the right to practice your religion without government interference, the right to speak against or in defense of the government, to protest or support a war, to raise or burn the American flag, to be obscene, to get out of a mental institution, to publish media without government restrictions, to call meetings of any people for any reason and to complain to the government about whatever is on your mind.
Some of these are unsavory and some are socially unacceptable, but they are all your rights to do with as you please, thanks to the Founding Fathers.
Of course there are limits to all of these that protect national security and the welfare of society as a whole, but all in all, that's a lot of rights- and we're only on the first one!
Many geniuses dedicate their lives to studying the First Amendment, so this is obviously a speck of ice on the tip of the iceberg. For more info, check out the National Archives or Vanderbilt University's First Amendment Law Center, or any one of the dozens of constitutional law texts out there.
Next up, the right to bear arms, which thankfully does not make it a universal right to wear sleeveless tops.
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Janes, have you ever watched an actor-playing-a-lunatic in a movie being taken into custody and yelling about his "rights"? Do we ever hear sane people in the movies yelling about their constitutional rights? Maybe we should.
CJP thinks the Constitution and its amendments are the most important and least read documents in American history, but unlike many historical things, they still apply today. To get all the Janes up to speed on the rights we can all fight for, CJP will be having an amendment-of-the-day to get acquainted with the laws of the land. We won't have an amendment every day because, like cardio, a little goes a long way.
Now let's say hello to the First Amendment....
Hello, 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."
This means you can meet in a church, get all your friends to show up, say anything you want, blog about it for a newspaper, and then call your Congressman to complain about it. OK, it's more complicated than that, but you get the idea. The First Amendment is part of the Bill of Rights (the first ten amendments to the Constitution), which protects individuals' rights and limits federal power.
Among the many protections it offers you, yes you, are the right to practice your religion without government interference, the right to speak against or in defense of the government, to protest or support a war, to raise or burn the American flag, to be obscene, to get out of a mental institution, to publish media without government restrictions, to call meetings of any people for any reason and to complain to the government about whatever is on your mind.
Some of these are unsavory and some are socially unacceptable, but they are all your rights to do with as you please, thanks to the Founding Fathers.
Of course there are limits to all of these that protect national security and the welfare of society as a whole, but all in all, that's a lot of rights- and we're only on the first one!
Many geniuses dedicate their lives to studying the First Amendment, so this is obviously a speck of ice on the tip of the iceberg. For more info, check out the National Archives or Vanderbilt University's First Amendment Law Center, or any one of the dozens of constitutional law texts out there.
Next up, the right to bear arms, which thankfully does not make it a universal right to wear sleeveless tops.