The Supreme Court ruled on June 14, 2004, to keep the phrase, "under God," intact in the Pledge of Allegiance. While the eight participating justices had dissenting opinions, all unanimously ruled against the case Matthew Newdow had presented to the court many months ago. The court state...

United States v. Butler ( 1933 )This Court case belongs in the Freedom of Speech category. This case is about a person named Butler who wanted to declare the Agricultural Adjustment Act unconstitutional. This is because of the fact that the government back in the 1920's did not do much for the fa...

Over the past 100 years rights of U.S citizens have evolved. In particular the rights of woman and men have changed a great deal, also freedom of expression has changed a lot. Each one of the above rights have foot holds in several different amendments, specifically the First, Fifth, and Fourteent...

The Hazelwood versus Kuhlmeir and Bethel School versus Fraser outcomes both prove that the rights of students have been limited by the Supreme court. Although the Tinker versus Des Moines case had established a certain protection to students rights, these two cases have also overridden the protectio...

Regardless of how people might promote the role of the judiciary in curbing racial discrimination, there will always be some people who would complain of lack of judicial assistance and some might even claim that justice system is designed to keep the racial order intact. Despite these claims, it is...

The Constitution Protects the Civil Rights of AmericansThe Constitution does protect the civil rights of Americans. Even though some laws are passed that violate the civil rights of people in the United States, the Supreme Court corrects these errors. The cases reviewed here ask if it is okay to c...

IS IT LEGAL TO PRAY IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS? \"Is it legal to pray in public schools?\"This is the question. The answer, of course is, \"It depends.\" Both on what kind of prayer we are talking about, and more importantly, who is doing the praying. Because people are usually talking about organized cl...

The Warren Court and the Pursuit for Justice The Warren Court and the Pursuit for Justice written by Morton J. Horwitz is a description of the many Supreme Court cases that Chief Justice Earl Warren, along with other Justices presided on during this critical time period in American Hist...

In the United States Constitution and its subsequent amendments, there is in no place a reference to the so called "Right to Privacy." But in several Supreme Court Cases, the judges have ruled in favor of a certain decision by stating that people of the United States have a "Right to Privacy." How ...

R. Freeman Butts makes the case that legal and historical scholarship points to the broader, separatist, and secular meaning of the First Amendment when it comes to answering the question of whether church and state should remain separated in the educational realm. He argues that current efforts t...

INTRODUCTIONEdwards v Aguillard was a 1987 Supreme Court case centering around the constitutionality of a Louisiana statue requiring that creation science be taught along side of evolution in the public schools.WHY CASE SO IMPORTANTEvolution remains so controversial primarily because it is part of a...

What is more important... absolute protection of the First Amendment, or the right to equality as guaranteed in the Fourteenth Amendment? Furthermore, what exactly IS guaranteed by the First Amendment, and what lies outside the boundaries? Virginia v Black 123 S.Ct. 1536 (2003) addresses the issue o...

Grusendorf v. Oklahoma City Facts of the Case: The defendant (Grusendorf), a city firefighter trainee, was fired for violating the terms of agreement (he signed) as a precondition of employment. This term of agreement stated that no trainee may smoke a cigarette, either on or off dut...

Discrimination Throughout the years of US history there have been countless acts of discrimination, of all sorts, and there have been an immense amount of cases filed in regards to these acts. Although it is commonly believed that discrimination is always illegal, the courts have repeatedly upheld...

The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America reads: " Congress shall make on law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." This amendment is commonly called the Establishment Clause. It forms the foundation of the ...

Imagine a time when one could be fined, imprisoned and even killed for just simply speaking one’s mind. Speech is the basic vehicle for communication of beliefs, thoughts and ideas. Without the right to speak one’s mind freely one would be forced to agree with everything society stat...

Freedom has been a privilege we sometimes take for granted. It is so woven into our everyday lives that we often forget that we have it. Freedom of speech and press was debated in a case between Hazelwood East High School and a Journalism II class. In this case, the principal of Hazelwood East Hi...

Conviction of protester for burning American flag as part of political demonstration held to violate Federal Constitution's First Amendment. While the 1984 Republican National Convention was taking place in Dallas, Texas, a group of people staged a political demonstration in Dallas to protest the p...

On June 11, 1993, the United State's Supreme Court upheld Wisconsin's penalty enhancement law, which imposes harsher sentences on criminals who intentionally select the person against whom the crime is committed, because of the race, religion, color, disability, sexual orientation, nationa...

Flag Desecration For many Americans the flag of the United States has been a symbol of freedom. However political turmoil and involvement in foreign wars has led to a new form of protest, protected under the first amendment of the Constitution-flag burning. Citizenship in America is not easy. A...

That's Why We Pray A bill has been presented by over one hundred members of the House of Representatives called the "Religious Freedom Amendment." This bill would permit prayer and other religious expression on public property. However, it will not become mandatory. The bill offic...

Throughout the history of mankind, a portion of the population have felt the need to remove or suppress material that they consider to be morally, politically, or otherwise objectionable, such as books, films, or other materials. Censorship can be dated back to ancient Greek and Roman times. Some of...

Gorgias Essay Imagine walking into the classroom just as your instructor is handing back grades on a major test you recently took. She hands you yours and you see you have a grade much higher than you expected, in fact, it is one of the highest grades in the class. You suddenly exclaim,Thank you...

The first amendment says it's all right to express one's opinions as long as that opinion doesn't do any harm to others. Flag Burning, as the Supreme Court declared it, is protected underneath the first amendment whether you or I like it or not. That is a fact. If the majority believes it's unjus...

Desecration of Stars and Stripes INTRODUCTION Is it more important to protect the icons of our country, or to ensure the right to extremely offensive expressions? The issue of flag burning asks America just that question: Should America tolerate, or condemn? Flag burning does seem to be the ...