Bill of Rights

1
Bill of Rights

• Articles 1-7 ratified when New Hampshire, the 9th
  state, ratified 6/21/1788
• Bill of Rights proposed 9/1789 ratified
  12/15/1791
• Rights begin with Congress shall make no law
  ... meant that the Framers intended only to
  limit the power of the federal government.
  Rights did not apply to the States federal
  government could not restrict state laws that
  limit the Bill of Rights. (Baron v. Baltimore
  1833). States free to restrict liberties as saw
  fit.

2
1st Amendment

• 1st 10 amendments needed to protect us from abuse
  of federal government power.
• Congress shall make no law respecting
  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
  govt for redress of grievances.

3
1st Amendment

• Seems to protect against any law
• Can one justify murder in the name of religion?
• Ruin anothers reputation with lies?
• 1st Amendment Rights not absolute, but majestic
  generalities. We must make laws to protect
  innocent against great harms.

4
Preferred Position Doctrine

• 1st Amendment rights are higher rights than any
  others in the Constitution.
• When law that regulates non 1st Amendment rights
  (such as the 2nd) taken to court ... The court
  presumes the law is constitutional (legal).
• When any law that regulates 1st Amendment rights
  is taken to court ... it presumes the law
  unconstitutional ... illegal.

5
Incorporation by the 14th

• The 14th Amendment ratified 1868. Provided ...
  nor shall any State deprive any person of life,
  liberty, or property without due process of law.
• View liberty as constitutionally protected
  liberties.
• In 1925 U. S. Supreme Court, with the free speech
  press case Gitlow v. New York, 1st began to
  piece meal incorporate most of the Bill of
  Rights to apply to the States.

6
Gitlow v. New York

• Facts of the Case Gitlow, a socialist, was
  arrested for distributing copies of a manifesto"
  that called for socialism through strikes and
  class action of any form.
• Convicted under state criminal anarchy law,
  which punished advocating the overthrow of the
  government by force.
• Gitlow argued that since was no illegal action
  flowing from the manifesto's publication, the
  statute penalized utterances lacking such.
• New York courts decided anyone who advocated the
  doctrine of violent revolution violated the law.
• Threshold issue Does the First Amendment apply
  to the states?
• Yes. The Supreme Court stated that the rights of
  freedom of speech and freedom of the press were
  "among the fundamental personal rights and
  'liberties' protected by the due process clause
  of the Fourteenth Amendment from impairment by
  the states."