Amendment Number 1
No other democratic society in the world permits personal freedoms to
the
degree of the United States of America. Within the last sixty years,
American
courts, especially the Supreme Court, have developed a set of legal
doctrines
that thoroughly protect all forms of the freedom of expression.
When it comes to
evaluating the degree to which we take advantage of the
opportunity to express
our opinions, some members of society may be guilty of
violating the bounds of
the First Amendment by publicly offending others
through obscenity or racism.
Americans have developed a distinct
disposition toward the freedom of expression
throughout history. The First
Amendment clearly voices a great American respect
toward the freedom of
religion. It also prevents the government from
"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." Since the early
history of our country, the protection of
basic freedoms has been of the
utmost importance to Americans. In Langston
Hughes' poem, "Freedom," he
emphasizes the struggle to enjoy the
freedoms that he knows are rightfully
his. He reflects the American desire for
freedom now when he says, "I do not
need my freedom when I'm dead. I cannot
live on tomorrow's bread." He
recognizes the need for freedom in its
entirety without compromise or fear. I
think Langston Hughes captures the
essence of the American immigrants' quest
for freedom in his poem,
"Freedom's Plow." He accurately describes American's
as arriving with
nothing but dreams and building America with the hopes of
finding greater
freedom or freedom for the first time. He depicts how people
of all backgrounds
worked together for one cause: freedom. I selected Ray
Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451
as a fictitious example of the evils of censorship
in a world that is becoming
illiterate. In this book, the government
convinces the public that book reading
is evil because it spreads harmful
opinions and agitates people against the
government. The vast majority of
people accept this censorship of expression
without question and are content
to see and hear only the government's
propaganda. I found this disturbing yet
realistic. Bradbury's hidden opposition
to this form of censorship was
apparent throughout the book and finally
prevailed in the end when his main
character rebelled against the practice of
burning books. Among the many
forms of protests are pickets, strikes, public
speeches and rallies. Recently
in New Jersey, more than a thousand community
activists rallied to draft a
"human" budget that puts the needs of the
poor and handicapped as a top
priority. Rallies are an effective means for
people to use their freedoms
effectively to bring about change from the
government. Freedom of speech is
constantly being challenged as is evidenced in
a recent court case where a
Gloucester County school district censored reviews
of two R-rated movies from
a school newspaper. Superior Court Judge, Robert E.
Francis ruled that
the student's rights were violated under the state
Constitution. I feel
this is a major break through for students' rights because
it limits
editorial control of school newspapers by educators and allows
students to
print what they feel is important. A newly proposed bill (A-557)
would
prevent school officials from controlling the content of
student
publications. Critics of the bill feel that "student journalists may
be too
young to understand the responsibilities that come with free speech."
This
is a valid point; however, it would provide an excellent opportunity for
them to
learn about their First Amendment rights that guarantees free speech
and freedom
of the press. In his commencement address to Monmouth College
graduates,
Professor Alan Dershowitz of Harvard Law School defended the
broad right to free
speech. He stated, "My message to you graduates is to
assert your rights,
to use them responsibly and boldly, to oppose racism, to
oppose sexism, to
oppose homophobia and bigotry of all kinds and to do so
within the spirit of the
First Amendment, not by creating an exception to
it." I agree that one
should feel free to speak openly as long as it does not
directly or indirectly
lead to the harm of others. One of the more
controversial issues was the recent
2 Live Crew incident involving
obscenity in rap music. Their record, "As
Nasty as They Wanna Be," was
ruled obscene in federal court. They were
acquitted of the charges and
quickly became a free speech martyr. Although many
stores pulled the album,
over two million copies sold as a result of the
incident. I feel that in this
case the principles of free speech have been
abused because young children
can purchase and listen to this obscene music. The
American flag, symbol
of our country's history and patriotism, has also become a
topic of
controversy. The controversy was over the right to burn the flag
without
punishment. Supreme Court Justice William Brennan offered the response
that
"if there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is
that
the Government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply
because
society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable." Burning the
flag
is considered a form of symbolic speech and therefore is protected under
the
First Amendment. As in the 2 Live Crew case, I feel that we are
protecting the
wrong people in this case. The minority is given precedence at
the sacrifice of
the majority. The book, American Voices, is a collection of
essays on the
freedom of speech and censorship. I chose to put this
collection of essays into
my book because they represent the strong central
theme of freedom of expression
as the cornerstone of American government,
culture and life. Each essay strongly
defends a case for free commercial
speech. Each was generally in favor of fewer
limitations on freedom of
expression. The American voice on freedom has been
shaped throughout the
course of history by the initial democratic notions of the
immigrants to the
same desire for greater freedom that we have today. The
freedom of speech has
constantly been challenged and will continue to be
challenged in the future.
It is important that we learn from the precedented
cases of the past of our
constitutionally protected rights so that in the future
authority will not
violate our freedoms or oppress our liberty. Ever since
colonial times, the
protection of personal freedoms in the United States has
been significantly
important. Even in the early stages of American history there
was an urge to
put legally protected freedoms into written government documents.
The
result was the drafting of the first ten amendments to the Constitution,
the
Bill of Rights, by James Madison. The applications of the personal
freedoms
described in the Bill of Rights, particularly the freedom of speech,
have been
challenged repeatedly in American courts of law and elsewhere.
These incidents
and challenges of authority reflect the defensive American
attitude toward the
ever important freedom of expression and the growing
significance of personal
rights throughout American history. In Colonial
America, members of diverse
nationalities had opposing views on government,
religion, and other subjects of
interest. Serious confrontations were
prevented because of the vast lands that
separated groups of varying
opinions. A person could easily settle in with other
like believers and be
untouched by the prejudices and oppression of others. For
this reason,
Unitarians avoided Anglican or Puritan communities. Quakers
and
Anabaptists were confined to Pennsylvania and Rhode Island while
Catholics were
mainly concentrated in Maryland. As the United States grew
larger and larger,
these diverse groups were forced to live together. This
may have caused
individual liberties to be violated because of the distrust
and hostile feelings
between ethnic and religious groups. Most of the initial
assemblies among the
colonies considered themselves immune from criticism.
They actually issued
warrants of arrest, interrogated, fined, and imprisoned
anyone accused of
libeling the assembly as a whole or any of its members.
Many people were tracked
down for writing or speaking works of offense. The
first assembly to meet in
America, the Virginia House of Burgesses,
stripped Captain Henry Spellman of his
rank when he was found guilty of
"treasonable words." Even in the most
tolerant colonies, printing was
strictly regulated. The press of William
Bradford was seized by the
government when he printed up a copy of the colony's
charter. He was charged
with seditious libel and spent more than a year in
prison. A more famous
incident was the trial of John Peter Zenger which
established the principle
of a free press. In his newspaper he published
satirical ballads regarding
William Cosby, the unpopular governor, and his
council. His media was
described "as having in them many things tending to
raise seditions and
tumults among the people of this province, and to fill their
minds with a
contempt for his majesty's government." The grand jury did not
indict Zenger
and the General Assembly refused to take action. The defendant was
acquitted
on the basis that in cases of libel the jury should judge both law and
the
facts. James Alexander was the first colonial writer to develop a
philosophy
on the freedom of speech. He founded the American Philosophical
Society and
masterminded the Zenger defense. Alexander's chief conviction was
"Freedom
of speech is a principal pillar in a free government: when this
support is taken
away, the constitution is dissolved and tyranny is erected
on its ruins."
The original Constitution did not contain a bill of rights
because the
convention delegates felt that individual rights were in no
danger and would be
protected by the states. However, the lack of a bill of
rights was the strongest
objection to the ratification of the Constitution.
Less than a decade after the
Bill of Rights had been adopted it met its
first serious challenge. In 1798,
there was a threat of war with France and
thousands of French refugees were
living in the United States. Many radicals
supported the French cause and were
considered "incompatible with social
order." This hysteria led
Congress to enact several alien and sedition
laws. One law forbade the
publication of false, scandalous or malicious
writing against the government,
Congress or the President. The penalty
for this crime was a $2,000 fine and two
years in prison. The public was
enraged at these laws. Thomas Jefferson and
James Madison pleaded for
freedom of speech and the press. The alien and
sedition laws became a prime
issue in the presidential election of 1800. Soon
after Jefferson was elected,
the Sedition Act expired and those who had been
convicted under it were
immediately pardoned. The next attack on the First
Amendment occurred in
1835. President Andrew Jackson proposed a law that would
prohibit the use of
mail for "incendiary publications intended to instigate
the slaves to
insurrection." John C. Calhoun of South Carolina led a
special committee that
opposed the proposal on grounds that it conflicted with
the First Amendment.
The proposal was defeated because it was a form of
censorship. The next
violation of the principles contained in the First
Amendment came on
January 2, 1920. Under the direction of A. Mitchell Palmer,
Woodrow
Wilson's Attorney General, about 500 FBI agents and police raided
3,000
Russians and other European immigrants, looking for Communists to
deport. The
victims were arrested without warrants, homes were ransacked,
personal property
was seized, and they were hauled off to jail. An even more
vicious episode was
known as "McCarthyism," an incident in the 1950's when
Senator Joseph
R. McCarthy of Wisconsin proclaimed that the federal
government had been
thoroughly infiltrated by Communist agents. His attacks
on United States
information libraries abroad led to the burning of some
books accused of being
Communist propaganda. Reduced congressional
support caused many librarians to
resign and the closing of libraries. On the
morning of December 16, 1965,
thirteen year old Mary Beth Tinker went to
school in Des Moines, Iowa. She and
her fifteen year old brother, John, had
decided to wear black armbands as a
protest to the Vietnam War. In advance to
their arrival, the principal had
decided that any student wearing an arm-
band would be told to remove it,
stating that, "The schools are no place for
demonstrations." If the
student refused, he would be suspended until the
armband was permanently
removed. On December 16, the Tinkers refused to
remove their armbands. They were
suspended and did not return to school until
after January 1, when by a previous
decision the protest had ended. The
students brought suit in federal court to
confirm their First Amendment right
to wear the black armbands. They lost in The
Federal District Court on
grounds that this type of symbolic expression might
disturb school
discipline. The United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth
Circuit was
divided equally (4-4) so the decision remained unchanged. On
February 24,
1969, the United States Supreme Court decided in the students'
favor by a
vote of 7 to 2. The Tinker v. Des Moines Independent School District
decision
was a landmark case for students' rights and liberties. Speaking for
the
majority of the Court, Justice Abe Fortas wrote, "It can hardly be
argued
that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to
freedom
of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate." During the
sixties and
early seventies a new wave of court battles for First Amendment
freedoms
emerged. The freedom of speech was recognized as a vital element in
a
democratic society. Censorship and the infringement of First Amendment
rights,
especially among students and their newspapers, could not and would
not be
tolerated. American citizens took a firm stand against the government
and
authority at important times when they could have yielded to the
oppressive
violations of their
rights.
Bibliography
"Amendments
to the Constitution." Collier's
Encyclopedia. 1965 ed. American Voices. New
York: Phillip Morris, 1987.
Bollinger, Lee. C. The Tolerant Society. New York:
Oxford University
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Ballantine Books,
1973. Bugman, Cathy. "Monmouth Grads Hear Top Lawyer
Defend Broad Right
to Free Speech." The Star Ledger, 27 May 1991: A-9.
First Freedom Today,
The. Chicago: American Library Association, 1984. Gates,
David. "The
Importance of Being Nasty." Newsweek, 2 July 1990: 52.
Hentoff, Nat. The
First Freedom. New York: Dell Publishing Co., 1980. Hughes,
Langston. The
Panther and the Lash. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1967.
Hughes,
Langston. Selected Poems. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.,
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Isaacson, Walter. "O'er the Land of the Free." Time, 3 July
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14-15. Kalven, Harry, Jr. A Worthy Tradition. New York: Harper and
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Speech' Moves for School Newspapers." The Star Ledger, 4 May 1991:
A-3.
"Student Wins Freedom of Speech Case." Daily Record, 24 April 1991