The Bill of Rights Essay

What could be more important than the equality of rights for all American citizens? Women have tried without success for 80 years to be acknowledged as equals in our Constitution through an Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). Currently there is nothing in the United States Constitution that guarantees a woman the same rights as a man. The only equality women have with men is the right to vote. In order to protect women’s rights on the same level as men, I am in favor of an Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution today.

The Bill of Rights is one of the most important things in the American government .The Bill of Rights has 10 Amendments. The fifth one however is one of the important one. The fifth Amendment deals with police procedures. Along with basic Constitutional limits, or in other words guidelines that Congress has to follow. The Fifth Amendment is a one of the most important Amendments because it gives people the rights to speech and privacy, the fifth doesn’t let people be charged with the same felony twice, and it gives citizens the right to a fair trial.

What is the age that a person should be able to claim rights under the first amendment? The first thing would come to most people's mind is eighteen. However, upon examination, someone could easily justify that a sixteen year old who is in his or her second year of college would have the ability to form an opinion and should be allowed to express it. What makes this student different from another student who, at sixteen, drops out of school and gets a job, or a student who decides to wear a shirt that says "PRO-CHOICE" on it? While these students differ in many aspects such as education level, their opinion can equally be silenced under the first amendment. One of the most blatant abuses of the first amendment right to free speech is

"If the fires of freedom and civil liberties burn low in other lands, they must be made brighter in our own. If in other lands the press and books and literature of all kinds are censored, we must redouble our efforts here to keep them free. If in other lands the eternal truths of the past are threatened by intolerance, we must provide a safe place for their perpetuation." Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1938 (Isaacs 66)

President Ronald Reagan said “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it down to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.” As citizens of America, it is our responsibility to keep the freedoms we have thriving in our everyday lives. Among these are the initial rights given to Americans in the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights. Of these five freedoms, three are constant in our everyday lives. The freedom of religion, the freedom of press, and the freedom of speech.

Civil Liberties and Civil Rights are two terms that are often used interchangeably in America. Since the founding of our nation there has always been the debate of the limit of government and what rights were guaranteed to each individual. Many of the architects of our government feared that national government could one day become too powerful and begin to infringe on the individual rights of the citizens. As a result, a Bill of Rights was added to our constitution. The Bill of Rights serves as a guide of what the government cannot do. Civil Liberties simply establish precedent on what rights the United States government cannot abridge on. Civil Rights, on the other hand applies to the rights of individuals. Over the history of our nation the question of civil rights has found itself becoming a pillar of our legal system and has been very instrumental in our quest to become a “more perfect union”. In recent history one civil liberty that has caused a continual controversial debate is the second amendment, in addition to how it applies to gun control measures that are being proposed in order to decrease the level of mass shootings. The second amendment clearly defines the intention of individuals to have the right to bear arms. In order to understand why gun control advocates have failed to secure effective gun control legislation, we must explore the reasoning why the second amendment is interpreted the way it is and should Americans be allowed to own guns?

When the first ten amendments were added to the Constitution, they were planned to shield the public from the national government and not the states. States had their individual constitutions, and their laws only had to comply with their constitution. The founders of our country were very concerned about creating too powerful of a centralized government that might overstep on the given civil liberties of the public. As a protection of individual liberties, the Bill of Rights was formed. The Bill of Rights contains the first ten amendments of the Constitution and protect and preserve inalienable rights against abuse by the federal government.

The Bill of Rights is one of the most essential documents produced in the United States. It was written September 25, 1789 and was approved December 15, 1791 written by James Madison. The purpose of this document is to protect citizens from excessive government power.

Our Founding Founders established the federal government with three distinct branches, each with powers over the other in order to have a proper checks and balances to ensure fairness across the board. The U.S. Constitution outlines the powers and responsibilities of the three branches of government and is a critical document for the federal government. Important laws and documents such as The Bill of Rights, The US Civil Rights Act and The Freedom of Information Act (FoIA) are managed by our Constitution. Below we will discuss three subjects which set up a diverse broad range of viewpoints that are essential in our democracy.

After the Revolution, the States adopted their own constitutions, many of which contained a Bill of Rights. The Americans still faced the challenge of creating a central government for their new nation. In 1777 the Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation, which were ratified in 1781. Under the Articles, the states retained their “sovereignty, freedom and independence,” while the national government was kept weak and inferior. Over the next few years it became evident that the system of government that had been chosen was not strong enough to completely settle and defend the frontier, regulating trade, currency and commerce, and organizing thirteen states into one union.

The American population has been ruled by different documents over time. When a document did not work, the Americans moved on to a different one, such as the Articles of Confederation to the United States Constitution. The Bill of Rights was added for the benefit of Americans, it was a good compromise between the Federalists and Anti-Federalists, and that it is still relevant today.

1. Discuss when, why and how the Cold War began. Then cite at least one factor that perpetuated the Cold War in each decade from the 1950s-1980s and discuss how the item you selected affected America at home as well. Last, discuss when and why the Cold War ended.

For example, in 1990, just a few months after a democratic government took office in Chile after 17 years of dictatorship, the in-depth TV news show, Informe Especial, broadcasted a very detailed story about human rights violations that has been rather well-known within human rights organizations, locally and internationally. However, it was the very first time that public broadcasting showed, fairly, on prime-time, the faces of the repression’s victims, demonstrates the patterns of state brutality, and editorialized about crimes against humanities. The report was full of

Throughout the world, human rights are viewed in many different ways. While some individuals take their rights for granted or view them as privileges, others view them as nonexistent. The reason people view them as nonexistent is because often times their human rights are violated by unfair economic structures and corrupt government systems. In order to best understand human rights, one must focus on the base that forms all of them, and that base is freedom of expression. When citizens are given the freedom to express one’s opinions and thoughts as well as the freedom to listen and explore others opinions and thoughts, it is then when a democracy can be formed. However, many countries around the world seek to function as democracies but fail to do so because their governments deny their citizens the freedom to have a voice. Therefore, it is dictatorships and struggling democracies, such as the one present in Eretria, that demonstrate how the right to freedom of expression and information is essential for the promotion and preservation of democracy. Eretria’s government uses a combination of media monopoly, restriction from technology, the threat of journalist incarceration, and restriction of journalist’s movement in the country, to maintain power and create anything, but a democracy.

The government and the media must be able to publish uncensored information to the public about critical state issues, involving civil liberties and societal issues, for the collective well being and security. Despite the reputation of the society or a country, or having to violate one's civil liberties, it is not only justifiable but essential the public is provided with immediate, accurate and uncensored information.