First Amendment and Right to Privacy - 1586 Words

The First Amendment of the United States Constitution, and the first right guaranteed by the Bill of Rights, declares that there will be no law made 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 (First Amendment, n.d.). An individuals right to privacy is not guaranteed in the United States Constitution or the Bill of Rights, however, there have been amendments created that seek to protect specific and private rights individuals. Even so, there are limitations to what type of freedoms are protected under the First Amendment and to what extent an individuals privacy is protected. To begin with, there are three types of speech that are not protected by the First Amendment: obscenity, libel, and slander. Obscenity is anything which depraves or corrupts minds open to immoral influence (Freedom of Speech, 2003). Despite the fact that the definition of obscenity has changed throughout the years, Congress, in general, has reached a consensus in determining that obscenity covers anything that is directed towards or involves youths, including child pornography. For example, in 1949, the Supreme Court upheld, in Rosenberg v. Board of Education of City of New York, that the Board of Education did not have the right to ban schools from carrying books such as Oliver Twist and TheShow MoreRelatedEssay about First Amendment Rights, Privacy and the Paparazzi663 Words   |  3 PagesFirst Amendment Rights, Privacy and the Paparazzi The question of paparazzi threatening privacy and First Amendment rights is often to situational to argue in a conventional manner, but certainly there are many facets of the issue which can be addressed in a quite straightforward manner. Celebrities who feel they have the right to privacy in public places often muddy the waters of this issue. Oddly enough, those celebrities who have chosen to speak out against what they feel are violationsRead More Abortion and the Privacy Amendment Essay795 Words   |  4 Pages Abortion and the Privacy Amendment nbsp; A U.S. citizens right to privacy was first discussed in an 1890 Harvard Law Review article in which two Boston lawyers, Louis Brandeis and Samuel Warren, defined it as the right to be let alone. Since then, the right to privacy has provided the basis for a stream of revolutionary and controversial constitutional interpretations by courts across the United States, culminating in the U.S. Supreme Courts Roe v. Wade decision in 1973. Although decisionsRead MoreThe Rights Of The United States863 Words   |  4 Pagesthe â€Å"right to privacy† derived from certain privacy rights listed on the Bill of Rights. On the other hand, Justice Black disagreed with Justice Douglas by stating that the rights enumerated by Douglas were a mere implication of privacy and that the â€Å"right to privacy† didn’t reflect anything stated directly on the Constitution. On one side, Justice Douglas wrote the opinion of the Court which expressed that the Connecticut law was unconstitutional due to the violation of the â€Å"right to privacy† ofRead MoreThe Rights Of The United States1635 Words   |  7 Pagesminority rights, due process, the equal protection clause, and countless other problems that plague America today would have been unpredictable when Constitution was written. The Founding Fathers were brilliant in creating an ambiguous and imprecise Constitution, as that is what has helped the Supreme Court use their power and influence to interpret the law parallel to the time period. 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The United States of America is a free country, so we should have the option to be spied on by the government; however, as citizens we do have rights of privacy that are stated in the Bill of Rights that cannot be taken awayRead MoreThe Right Of Privacy Assignment1224 Words   |  5 PagesRight of Privacy Assignment Brian Taylor – GEICO BUS 220 Dictionary.com provides a definition of individual privacy which reads; â€Å"Freedom from damaging publicity, public scrutiny, secret surveillance, or unauthorized disclosure of one s personal data or information, as by a government, corporation, or individual†. On a basic level, the right of individual privacy simply means that one has the right to be left alone. This is a right many in our society claim to hold as inalienable, yet in ourRead MoreFourth Amendment Essay1041 Words   |  5 PagesThe Fourth Amendment in the Bill of Rights is the foundation for life of citizens in the United States: everyone needs it, and without it, they would crumble and fall subject to government tyranny. In the case of the Fourth Amendment, the framers needed to find a way to protect the people of their country, whether it was for citizens to be secure in their houses, their papers, or their person, the framers had to amend a law that would defend their country and its beliefs against gove rnment intrusionRead MoreCivil Liberties Of The United States909 Words   |  4 PagesRespond in writing - Looking at the following Constitutional amendments, describe in brief layman’s terms the civil liberties afforded to us as a result of the amendment. This part of the assignment may have been completed in class depending on the kinds of notes you took in class. You may simply copy over your notes if they are complete. a. 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 14, 15, 18, 21, 19, 26 2. Investigating the â€Å"right† to privacy in the Constitution – Using reliable Internet sources, look upRead MoreWhat is the Bill of Rights?1440 Words   |  6 PagesThe Bill of Rights Essay â€Å"Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others.I do not add ‘within the limits of the law because law is often but the tyrants’ will,and always so when it violates the rights of the individual† -Thomas Jefferson. The Constitution was created because of the ineffectiveness of the Articles of Confederation did not simply protecting the rights of the people which the Founding Fathers was concernedRead MoreThe Rights Of The United States Constitution1288 Words   |  6 Pagesspecifically reproductive rights, have therefore traditionally rested on a right to privacy the court has interpreted as being found in the first, fourth, fifth, and fourteenth amendments to the Constitution, rather than a right to freedom from sex-based discrimination found in the nineteenth amendment. The landmark supreme court cases Griswold v. Connecticut and Roe v. Wade were both won on these grounds, both sett ing a precedent for the expansion of the right to privacy. This protection has also