The 1st Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America

The Constitution of the United States of America has gone through a number of amendments. Amendments are done to add certain provisions to the law that are necessary for the smooth operation of State organs. One of the amendments to the United States Constitution is the 1st amendment.

The 1st amendment is part of the Bill of Rights, which contains 10 amendments all together. The amendment ensures that, certain rights are adhered to and upheld in the United States of America. In this way, the amendment prohibits the making of any legal provisions that restrict rights and freedoms like religion, speech, press and peaceful assembly among others. The amendment in prohibiting the making of such laws upheld the recognition of these rights.

Originally, the 1st amendment only applied to laws made by Congress. In other words, the restriction as an enactment of the above stated laws only applied to Congress. However, the Supreme Court decision in the case of Gitlow V New York (1925) stated that, the law applied to each state and local government. Such that, all States and Local Governments were prohibited from making laws that restricted the above rights and freedoms.

Upon ratification of the Constitution of the United States, a lot of opposition rose up against it, because it had done little to ensure the protection of certain civil liberties. It is upon this background that, the 1st amendment was proposed to address the grievances pertaining to protection of civil liberties. It is essential, that we explore some of the freedoms guaranteed by this amendment.

One of these is the freedom of religion; where the state is prohibited from favoring one religion over another. In the case of Board of Education of Kiryas Joel Village School District V Grumet (1994), the Supreme Court held that “government should not prefer one religion over another”. This provision in the amendment ensured that, all religions in the United States have the same recognition and that people are free to join whichever religion they want to.

Another right recognized by the amendment is the right to freedom of speech. This provision entitles all people in the United States of America to speak their mind about the political environment and other general issues, provided their exercise of this freedom doesn’t violate the rights of other citizens and the laws of the State.  

Freedom of the press was also guaranteed by the amendment. It should be noted that, this freedom should be exercised in conformity with the law and has certain restriction like the law on defamation. Another freedom recognized by the amendment is the right to assembly and petition. Here, the United States citizens were given the right to petition the state in case of grievances and to put up peaceful demonstrations.

From the above discussion, it is noted that the purpose of the 1st amendment to the Constitution was to guarantee civil rights and liberties to the people of the United States of America.