Examining Our First Amendment

 Our Bill of Rights
Examining our First Amendment

On September 17, 1787, the day our Constitution was delivered to the States for ratification, one of the authors, George Mason, refused to sign it, saying that it needed a Bill of Rights.  His opinion was repeated during many of the ratification debates in the states, including in Madison’s home state of Virginia, prompting Madison to promise that he would draft amendments to be added when Congress met for the first time. 

The problem was that although the Constitution did not grant the government unwanted powers, it did not prevent the government from eventually acquiring them. In the United States’ first session of Congress, Representative James Madison wrote 12 proposals that contained few rights but several important restrictions on government power.  Ten were properly ratified by the States over the next two years, becoming what is known as our Bill of Rights.

Cornell Law School puts it succinctly: [it] “protects the right to freedom of religion and freedom of expression from government interference. It prohibits any laws that establish a national religion, impede the free exercise of religion, abridge the freedom of speech, infringe upon the freedom of the press, interfere with the right to peaceably assemble, or prohibit people from petitioning for a governmental redress of grievances.”

Although the wording imposes those limitations on the actions of Congress, it has been determined that those orders apply to every sector of our federal government.

Some people have used the phrase “freedom of religion,” but it has limitations.  You have your rights as long as they do not interfere with the rights of others, so you cannot have a religion that kills others without the government stopping and punishing it.  

Steven Maikoski constitutionist@outlook.com