...First Amendment: Religion and Education Grand Canyon University: POS: 500 October 20, 2015 Religion and the First Amendment An examination of the First Amendment legal issues that arise when a student turns in an essay and the displaying of religious nature for an assignment will provide insight into how the First Amendment applies to classroom assignments. Each reason will provide important insight, information, and court cases to better help in giving a view of the first amendment in regards to religion and education. Legal Issues Regarding Grading of Assignment When grading a student essay, there are some legal issue that need to be considered. As a teacher, you cannot not accept a student’s work due to it containing anything related to religion. A school district has to abide by the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. In my school district, all students have a right to express themselves whether it is on a religious topic or something related to religion. A teacher should not grade a student’s essay on any religious topic based on their own beliefs, penalized, nor rewarded, but grade it by using regular academic standards and the content of the work (Saccopoulos, 2008). A school should never give the impression that they endorse any religious belief over another belief (Teaching Tolerance, 2014). While looking into the legal issues related to this scenario, the next step is to determine the proper displaying of student’s work. Appropriateness of Displaying...
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...prayer (Bill of Rights Institute, 2010). The following information will show both sides of the argument of if prayer should be allowed in schools. Background information will be given on the history of prayer in school and prayer in congress, and my personal thoughts on this important position. Argument There are many different viewpoints on the argument of prayer in schools. We will begin with the argument of allowing prayer in schools. The United States Constitution protects religious freedom under the First Amendment. The First Amendment states that Congress should not make any law respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise of religion (U.S. Constitution Online, 2010). The interpretation of the First Amendment has been the basis for many arguments of how to apply the information to laws on allowing or not allowing prayer in school. Being extremely general in their language, the first two clauses of the Amendment say nothing about how to apply their information. Advocates for including prayer in school have argued for a long time that banning the practice...
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...Constitutional Right or Religious Freedom How the Representation of God in the Pledge of Allegiance Affects the American People I. The phrase, “Under God” in the United States Pledge of Allegiance perpetuates the most significant form of discrimination in modern time. II. “Samantha you stand for the pledge right now!” Exclaimed Mrs. Cline. Samantha knew she was doing what was right in her eyes, and it didn’t matter what the consequence was going to be. “That’s it! I have had it with your disruptive behavior little girl! Yes, this is Mrs. Cline from room 319, yes, I have a little girl hear refusing to say the pledge, and I need her removed from my classroom immediately!” As the Sherriff snapped the handcuffs on tight, a trickle of tears began to stream down her face. The rude laughter and picking of the other children was nothing but a loud roar in the air. It was like a wait before a trial hearing, where you really didn’t know what to expect until the evidence was all laid out. When her mother appeared in Mr. Jones’s office, the air stood still and no one could seem to look away. The snickering and mutters of the adults in the office buzzed about as Mrs. Smith and Mr. Jones were at war with words. “Don’t you ever think you can just arrest my daughter for not standing and saying something she has no knowledge or belief in!! I swear you better have a damn good apology for my daughter!,” Yelled Mrs. Smith as she rushed her daughter from the building. 1.) The United...
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...Name: Course: Tutor: Date of Submission: Prayer in Public Schools For a long time now, there have been debates on the issue of prayer on public schools. Tracing back the issue of prayer in the public school as presented in various court cases and the issue of prayer from a personal perspective shows the correct argument towards prayers in public school prayers. The first court case on school prayer can be traced in the Engel V. Vitale case that happened way back in 1962, where there was the banning of praying in public school by the Federal Supreme Court. Weiler says that this happened after parents in a public school at New York protested that the voluntary prayer at the school was not in line with their religious belief (Weiler). To spice this up, other religious groups came forward to support the parents on the same issue, which they argued that it was against the amended constitution. After a long consultation with various concerned parties and religious group, a firm confirmation was made that this was unconstitutional. Therefore, the court issued an opinion stating that there were not supposed to be prayers written by the government for recitation in the public schools. To justify this, the court stated the existence of the separation between the state and the church, where it revisited the history of the matter. Besides this, the court argued that a school prayer is a religious activity since it has the nature of a prayer. Therefore, prescribing a prayer for children...
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...did not properly serve the defendant Wal-Mart. The plaintiff served the statue of limitation 9 days before the 3 years was up. He also served it to the manager that was physically available, but South Dakota has a law that the president, officer, director, or registered agent of a defendant corporation. The plaintiff as well did not properly give the service of process to the right person. Case 3.6 – Summary Judgment Should the court grant Pathmark’s motion for summary judgment? No I don’t think Pathmark established proper grounds for summary judgment. They are questioning the deposition of Toote, in the part where she stated she did not know how long the boxes were stacked there. How long the boxes being stacked is not the issue, it’s more an issue of negligence on Pathmark’s part because the boxes should not be laying around where people are walking. The court, due to not enough grounds of evidence, should not grant Pathmark requesting a summary judgment. Case 4.1 – Supremacy Clause Does the Massachusetts anti-Myanmar statue violate the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution? Under the Supremacy Clause, this anti-Myanmar act does violate the U.S., because it is going against the “supreme law of the land.” When Massachusetts set forward this, it went against the federal statute, making the state preempted by the federal statute. The states of the US don’t have to right to regulate commerce, only the federal government does. Case 4.2 – Establishment Clause Does the...
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...Is There A Right Way Of Interpretation Of The First Amendment? The interpretation of the First Amendment as well as the entire Constitution has been a controversial issue for debates for decades. The majority of Americans simply interprets the First Amendment the way they see for it to be convenient for a particular situation. Because of its vagueness, the First Amendment leaves a lot of room for various arguments and assumptions. When we look at the textual interpretation of the First Amendment, context plays a vital role. The context tells us not to concentrate on details and to give words an expansive rather than narrow interpretation. Although interpretation of the text can take on many forms and there is no the right one, words do have a limited range of meaning, and no interpretation that goes beyond that range should be permissible, especially when we are dealing with such an important document as the First Amendment. The article “On Racist Speech” by Charles R Lawrence serves as a great example of argumentative interpretation of the First Amendment. Charles Lawrence examines the power of words that can insult, assault and even exclude. He challenges the thought that all speech should be protected and urges his readers to examine their own beliefs and expectations of what their civil rights are. The author also presents a strong critique of the First Amendment that protect us from defamation, invasion of privacy while at the same time leaves the...
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...our civilian’s basic principle of freeness of speech, the Founders established the freedoms of speech and the press otherwise known as the First Amendment. Within the United States Constitution, the first amendment contains the right to freedom of speech. This idea has become the core basis and significance of the American society and democracy. Within this amendment, an individual has the right to express their opposing views compared to the popular majority regarding specific areas of speech, religion and expression. More specifically, the first amendment includes the right to freely express one’s religion as well as grant every citizen the right to express any religious belief without government involvement favoring any particular side of religion. This amendment allows and ensures that an individual is allowed to speak their mind and question their higher authorities when the opportunity arises. Moreover, free and open debate is highly favorable and viewed as an essential component for determining the genuineness of opposing and competing thoughts and ideas between two sides (Ginsberg, Lowi, Weir & Tolbert, 2013, p.122-123). Therefore, our democracy relies on individuals to speak and express their information and ideas in order to effectively operate a representative government. However, not all speech is protected by the first amendment. For example, unprotected speech can be considered an event in which a problem arises or is...
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...speech as speech that proposes nothing more than an economic transaction. At first this particular type of speech did not receive protection under the First Amendment, and many problems arose over the years from the narrow definition of commercial speech, which the U.S. Supreme Court found it necessary to address and change over time. Such issues that arose are: does the State have the authority to regulate commercial speech? A more fundamental issue, is the intention of profit alone what makes some speech, commercial speech? Lastly, should commercial speech be protected under the First Amendment, and if so, should the protection be conditional? The Supreme Court’s current view on the matter may be traced historically through the evolution of four key cases. Although prior to 1976 the U.S. Supreme Court’s view was that commercial speech was not protected under the First Amendment, nevertheless, the Supreme Court’s view was altered, after the Virginia State Board of Pharmacy v. Virginia Citizens Consumer Council in 1976, to hold that commercial speech does not sit completely outside of First Amendment protection. Mainly due to the evolution of the interpretation of commercial speech that is derived from the Supreme Court’s ruling over the cases: Valentine v. Chrestensen, New York Times v. Sullivan, Bigelow v. Virginia, and Virginia State Board of Pharmacy v. Virginia Citizens Consumer Council. The first case that will be examined will set the baseline that allowed for future deviation...
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...Mishkin Facts The First Amendment of the United States Constitution states, “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.” Numerous cases discuss whether corporations have First Amendment rights, however only few cases discuss whether the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment applies to corporations. In Central Hudson v. PSC (1980) and Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010) the Supreme Court ruled that the First Amendment protects corporations’ commercial speech and political speech, respectively. In Santa Clara Company v. Southern Pacific Railroad (1886) the court ruled that the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment applies to corporations. The issue of whether the Affordable Care Act violates individuals’ rights to Free Exercise of Religion has also been a hotly debated topic. The Supreme Court Case Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye v. Hialeah (1993) discussed whether the government can give ordinances that violate an individual’s right to Free Exercise. The Supreme Court Case Shervert v. Verner (1963) showed that a company cannot not provide an employee with compensation benefits if it interferes with the employee’s right to Free Exercise. Issue Should corporations receive the same First Amendment Rights as individuals...
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...practices in their overseas operations should be accorded First Amendment protection. The plaintiff, Kasky, claimed that these statements were “commercial speech,” which can be regulated (in California, where the case was brought, commercial speech can be found to be false advertising if it is deceptive). Do you think Nike’s statements fall into the category of commercial speech or unfettered (pure) political speech? What does the lack of a definitive answer from the Supreme Court tells businesses about future public statements or claims by them regarding their operations? Do you believe the Supreme Court’s remand, without a decision on the merits, will have any type of “chilling effect” on businesses? Should companies' public-relations campaigns be protected under the First Amendment? Discuss and debate! So first off, what exactly is commercial speech? According to Cornell’s University Legal Information Institute, the Supreme Court defines commercial speech as “speech where the speaker is more likely to be engaged in commerce, where the intended audience is commercial or actual or potential consumers, and where the content of the message is commercial in character.” Moreover, commercial speech such as advertisements is not entitled to full protection under the First Amendment, and is subject to regulation by the government. Unlike commercial speech, political speech—defined by the Supreme Court as speech that deals with issues of...
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...very important case in the history of the United States is the case of Tinker vs. Des Moines. The case decides the issues of symbolic speech and its limits. It displays the right of individuals, including children wherever they are, even school. In this case we see the limits of the first amendment and how far this right extends. What happened in this case? One day in 1969 brother and sister John and Mary Beth Tinker wore black armbands to school in protest over the United States’ involvement in the Vietnam War. The school issued a new policy stating that those who wore armbands would be asked to remove it right away. If that student failed to remove his armband, he would be suspended until agreeing to return to school without the armband. The Tinker children and their friend wore the armbands to school and were suspended because they did not remove their armbands. On January 1, 1966, their scheduled day for the end of their protest, the children returned to school. Their fathers filed suit to United States District Court. The U.S. District Court recognized their right to free speech but did not issue an injunction because the school’s actions were reasonable because of possible disruptions from the students’ protests. The fathers appealed to the Court of Appeals which ended with a...
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...forward. I = Issue (The Question) R = Rule of Law/Rationale A = Analysis/Discussion C = Conclusion/Court’s Decision Issue Should the government be able to suppress political speech on the basis of the speaker's corporate identity? Rule of Law The First Amendment states that 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. Analysis Kennedy was against the issue. -- Speech is an essential mechanism of democracy, for it is the means to hold officials accountable to the people. The right of citizens to inquire, to hear, to speak, and to use information to reach consensus is a precondition to enlightened self-government and a necessary means to protect it all. The first amendment "has its fullest and most urgent application to speech uttered during a campaign for political office. For these reasons, political speech must prevail against laws that would suppress it (Halbert, Ingulli p.32). Scalia was in favor of the issue. -- The dissent says that when the Framers "constitutionalized the right to free speech in the First Amendment, it was the free speech of individual Americans that they had in mind." The First Amendment is written in terms of "speech," not speakers (Halbert, Ingulli p.34). Stevens was in favor of the issue. – “The Framers”...
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...Throughout the years, American citizens have been holding their ground to defend their 1st Amendment rights, which to many people, consider it the most important right. It helps them take issue with current events and allows them to express themselves without immediately being incriminated against. This is important because it gives people a chance to change society for the better or highlight issues of morality that are not normally discussed. The “Shouting Fire” documentary provides good examples of 1st Amendment Court cases that shaped society for the better, directly addressing the issue with the suppression of speech. One of the relatively recent cases that involved the first Amendment was Morse v. Frederick (2007). In 2002, the Olympic Torch Relay went through Juneau, Alaska past Juneau-Douglas High School. The school decided to host an event to support the runners. Joseph Frederick, a senior at the school, decided to display a fourteen foot banner saying “BONG HiTS 4 JESUS.” The school’s principal, Deborah Morse, asked him to take it down because she was concerned that it would be associated with drugs but he refused to comply. The banner was taken down and Frederick was given a 10 day suspension for advocating the use of illicit drugs. In turn, he sued the school...
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...Freedom of speech is a civil liberty protected by the first amendment. Most people also refer to this liberty as freedom of expression, which was adopted on December 15, 1791 making part of the Bill of Rights. It allows you to express your opinion without any government restraints. Additionally, this liberty not only protects your expression verbally, but it protects all type of communication. However, the modern democracies also have limits on this freedom. Not all speech is protected by this liberty, especially if it is inciting illegal actions. Including, expressions that can cause direct harm are not protected by the freedom of speech either. Furthermore, this amendment is a liberty that the ACLU, American Civil Liberties Union, has worked...
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...schools have the right to violate first and fourth amendment rights by requesting access of students’ Facebook accounts? The position that is being taken is no, it is against the first and fourth amendment rights for schools to access students’ Facebook accounts. The different views of this argument include the schools system’s side and the students’ side. Students believe that they are entitled to first and fourth amendment rights within the school. The school is violating the first and fourth amendments by requiring a Facebook password from the student in many cases. For example, a student is in trouble when writing on their profile and their opinion doesn’t match what the school views as appropriate. The school would then then punish the student and also require that the student provides a facebook password to access their personal account. The school’s side, which includes the faculty, principal and school administration, believes that students do not have full first and fourth amendment rights when on school property. A student then loses the rights associated with freedom of speech, press, assembly, and search and seizure in many cases. An examination of recent court cases and articles that contribute to the argument will be mentioned, including surveys and interviews of a sample of the student population at Eastern Michigan University to provide arguments and counterarguments that indicate that schools violate the first and fourth amendment when schools request access of students’...
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