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Limitations Of The First Amendment

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First Amendment The First Amendment is considered by many to be the most important amendment in the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights includes the first ten amendments of the Constitution of the United States of America. The First Amendment claims “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 is broken down into six elements: no official religion, free exercise of religion, free speech, free press, freedom of assembly, and redress of grievances. But with this said none of these elements to the First Amendment do not go without limitations. This essay will discuss and explore the limitations set upon the First Amendment by the Supreme Court. The first element of the First Amendment is that the government can not have an official religion. For example in the court case Lemon v. Kurtzman the court ruled that under the First Amendment that the state could not fund a non-secular non-public school because it would be equivalent to them sponsoring a religion. Other limitations for the government, set …show more content…

The right to petition government for redress of grievances is the right to make a complaint to, or seek the assistance of, one's government, without fear of punishment or reprisals. An example of a limitation for redress of grievances would be in the Supreme Court case McDonald v. Smith where Smith sued McDonald for producing and distributing libel that practically ruined his career and then McDonald claimed he was protected und the redress of grievances in the First Amendment. The court ruled that the redress of grievances gave McDonald partial but not absolute immunity. There are many other protections and limitations that fully define the sixth element of the First

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