The Constitutional Amendments
All You Need to Now About these two amendments
Amendment 1
What is the 1st Amendment?
Freedom of Speech
Explanation
History
Court Case Example
A Marine facing dismissal for running a Facebook page criticizing the Obama administration is backed now by a team of lawyers and federal congressmen as he fights to stay in the military and test its age-old policy of limiting the free speech of service members.
The 26-year-old Marine has been rallying for support since he was notified last month that the military was moving to discharge him after determining he was in violation of the Pentagon's policy, which states that service members can not get evolved with political affairs. The Pentagon was trying to get rid of the marine's freedom of speech. Is this
Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/apr/5/marine-argue-free-speech-case-hearing/#ixzz2Hxap6Qz0
Opinion
Freedom of Religion
Explanation
History
Court Case Examples
Opinion
Park51
Freedom of the Press
Explanation
History
Court Case Example
A middle school student drew a picture of the Confederate flag in his math class. School officials learned of the drawing and suspended the student for violating its racial harassment and intimidation policy. That policy provided that "students shall not at school, on school property or at school activities wear or have in their possession any written material . . . that is racially divisive or creates ill-will or hatred." The student sued, claiming that the school officials violated his First Amendment rights.
Issue:
Whether school officials violated the student's First Amendment rights when they suspended him for violating a racial harassment policy for drawing a picture of the Confederate flag.
The court ruled that it was not a violation of the students First Amendment rights because the drawing of the Confederate Flag could cause a disruption in school activities and other students.
Opinion
Freedom of Assembly
Explanation
History
Court Case Examples
Rev. B. Elton Cox was arrested and convicted for breach of the peace in Baton Rouge, La., for leading a demonstation of 2,000 black college students from the state capitol to the courthouse to protest the jailing of 23 other students for attempting to integrate white lunch counters. The high court overturned his conviction, 7-to-2, and held the state's breach of the peace law overly broad.
opinion
Amendment 2
Explanation
History
Court Case Example
In Heller, the Supreme Court struck down the District of Columbia’s ban on handgun possession, concluding that the Second Amendment “guarantee[s] the individual right to possess and carry weapons in case of confrontation.” However, the Court stated that the Second Amendment only protects the right to own certain weapons, and that it “does not protect those weapons not typically possessed by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes, such as short-barreled shotguns.” The Court also concluded that the “historical tradition of prohibiting the carrying of ‘dangerous and unusual weapons’” limits the right to keep and carry arms.
Heller did not specify the types of weapons that qualify as “dangerous and unusual,” but the Court stated that it would be “startling” for the Second Amendment to protect machine guns. Since Heller was decided, every circuit court to address the issue has held that there is no Second Amendment right to possess a machine gun.
We agree with the reasoning of our sister circuits that machine guns are “dangerous and unusual weapons” that are not protected by the Second Amendment. An object is “dangerous” when it is “likely to cause serious bodily harm.” Congress defines “machine gun” as “any weapon which shoots, is designed to shoot, or can be readily restored to shoot, automatically more than one shot, without manual reloading, by a single function of the trigger.” The machine gun was first widely used during World War I, where it “demonstrated its murderously effective firepower over and over again.” A modern machine gun can fire more than 1,000 rounds per minute, allowing a shooter to kill dozens of people within a matter of seconds. Short of bombs, missiles, and biochemical agents, we can conceive of few weapons that are more dangerous than machine guns."
Mr. Heller is saying that there is no 2nd Amendment right that says that someone can have a machine gun. This is some information about the argument.