Aside from voting, citizens have a variety of opportunities to participate in creating, eliminating, and changing laws. For example, citizens can participate in jury duty which means service as a juror in a legal proceeding in court. The citizens are fighting for the rights that they believe in and the laws that they want in jury duty. U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Sandra Day O’Connor stated, “In a country that was built on the premise that government and our system of justice should derive its structure and its power from the people, the jury system is our best and brightest example of democracy. It is the one forum that allows each of us a direct voice, regardless of whether we are rich or poor, powerful or weak.” Our nation is called a democracy
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A great example of civic participation shown in the past would be the supreme court case, Tinker vs. Des Moines Independent School District, argued in 1968. A group of students decided to publicly show their support of a truce in the Vietnam war by wearing black armbands, but were denied the right to wear them by the principles of Des Moines school.The students and their parents took this event to court arguing that it violated their right of expression guaranteed by the first amendment.(Oyez) Fortunately, the students won the case on Monday, February 24, 1969 and continued to express themselves freely. Just by doing a little thing like wearing an armband with a group of other citizens who share the same belief as you, can cause a huge impact. Many people may know about the Boston Tea Party of 1773. Many Americans were taxed unfairly in order to get rid of the government’s debt due to war costs from the French and Indian War. The citizens stroke against this catastrophe by dumping the tea off into the Boston Harbor.(eyewitnesstohistory.com) From this came the popular saying, “No Taxation without Representation.” The people did not like this unfair taxing and decided to act against it by reforming. This clearly caught political attention which caused Parliament to respond in a negative way by passing the Intolerable Acts. But sometimes you must act against the government now in order for your goals to be achieved in the future. During the time of the Vietnam war, people thought it was wrong to send the young troops out to war. So they protested and fought for the troops to come back. They started marches, protests, and tons more. (History.com) This relates to the topic that people come together to fight for the first amendment. The first amendment means to the United States Constitution guaranteeing the rights of free expression and action that are fundamental to
A great example of civic participation shown in the past would be the supreme court case, Tinker vs. Des Moines Independent School District, argued in 1968. A group of students decided to publicly show their support of a truce in the Vietnam war by wearing black armbands, but were denied the right to wear them by the principles of Des Moines school.The students and their parents took this event to court arguing that it violated their right of expression guaranteed by the first amendment.(Oyez) Fortunately, the students won the case on Monday, February 24, 1969 and continued to express themselves freely. Just by doing a little thing like wearing an armband with a group of other citizens who share the same belief as you, can cause a huge impact. Many people may know about the Boston Tea Party of 1773. Many Americans were taxed unfairly in order to get rid of the government’s debt due to war costs from the French and Indian War. The citizens stroke against this catastrophe by dumping the tea off into the Boston Harbor.(eyewitnesstohistory.com) From this came the popular saying, “No Taxation without Representation.” The people did not like this unfair taxing and decided to act against it by reforming. This clearly caught political attention which caused Parliament to respond in a negative way by passing the Intolerable Acts. But sometimes you must act against the government now in order for your goals to be achieved in the future. During the time of the Vietnam war, people thought it was wrong to send the young troops out to war. So they protested and fought for the troops to come back. They started marches, protests, and tons more. (History.com) This relates to the topic that people come together to fight for the first amendment. The first amendment means to the United States Constitution guaranteeing the rights of free expression and action that are fundamental to