Balanced Budget Amendment

This is written in our Constitution's First Amendment and states that everyone in the United States has the right to practice his or her own religion or no religion at all. There seems to be a widespread confusion today about what "separation of church and state" means. People think this concept is made to keep the religion out of politics when, in fact, it was put in place to ensure the government would not dictate the faith of the nation. Religious freedom, however, goes beyond constitutional…

Colleges always face a lot of scrutiny when it comes to how they are run. In recent years, the First Amendment has come into play on campuses across the nation. Many articles have been written defending both for and against restrictions, defending the use of trigger warnings in class, and explaining what this controversy is really about. While the colleges themselves have the power to choose what they do, they must consider what experience they want to provide for their students. What is Free…

In the court case The People of the State of Colorado v. Sandra L. Jacobson, Jacobson is convicted of homicide. The homicide resulted from her truck colliding with a taxi cab while she was driving under the influence. There were two passengers in the taxi at the time of the collision and both were killed. Jacobson appealed the court’s decision on the basis that the trial court did not allow her attorneys to gauge whether or not the jury had become biased due to mid-trial publicity that included…

Mark Twain once said “It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: the freedom of speech, the freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them.” Mark Twain was just one of many famous people to talk about freedom, but what exactly is freedom? The dictionary defines freedom as the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint. Now that we know what it means, lets talk about some of my…

One of the greatest threats to the liberty and freedom of any individual, society or nation is the idea that in order to coexist and progress as a whole we need to embrace extreme political correctness. The political correctness movement has taken the world by storm, yet few people are aware of the dangers it presents. There is no doubt in my mind that in recent years the political correctness movement has gone way too far and the negative impact thereof is beginning to surface. So what is the…

Censorship has followed the free expressions of men and women throughout history. The very first record of censorship was in China, 300 AD, when the first censorship law was introduced (Otite). Books should be free for anyone and everyone to read, although children and young adults may be naive and impressionable, books should not be exclusive to certain age groups or social classes. The challenging and banning of the books like Huckleberry Finn, Fahrenheit 451, and The Great Gatsby. These…

“Harmless Holes” Many books are banned or challenged every year. “What are some of these books?” you may ask. Well, the ever loved “Harry Potter” book series, the classic “Winnie the Pooh Bear”, and even “The Adventures of Huckleberry and Finn”. Many books are challenged or sent in for review due to certain content such as difficult ideas or course language. Some ideas even being absurd of irrelevant. Then, if the book is determined to be ban, it will no longer be available in some schools or…

violated. And later would write the 3rd amendment to ban this from happening again.…

The First Amendment covers a lot of material, and future posts will deal with freedom of speech, and freedom of association. This post will center on freedom of religion. Your first thought when reading a fact pattern on the MBE that implicates freedom of religion should be to determine whether your analysis should be guided by The Establishment Clause, or The Free Exercise Clause. I. The Establishment Clause: The Establishment Clause is implicated when a government program, or governmental…

A thermal scanner was used on the house of DLK without a warrant, in order to obtain evidence that DLK was illegally growing marijuana. DLK sued on the grounds that the scan was a search, and since there was no warrant, it violated his fourth amendment right.The government went too far by scanning DLK’s house because the scan indicated things about the house that would be unknown unless one entered the house, revealed things which DLK wished to keep private and took reasonable measures to…