Our Living Shield The First Amendment Essays - James Madison, Law

Our Living Shield: The First Amendment ? The authors of the Constitution of the United States created a magnificent list of liberties which were, at the time ascribed, to most people belonging to the United States. The main author, James Madison, transported the previous ideas of f undamental liberties from the great libertarians around the world, such as John Lilburne, John Locke, William Walwyn and John Milton. Madison and other previous libertarians of his time were transposed into seventeen different rights which were to be secured to all those in the United States. These seventeen civil liberties were compressed into ten different groupings which were designated as the "Bill of Rights." In this document lay the First Amendment which stated that the people of the Uni ted States had the "freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government..." The First Amendment was drafted by federalist Madison mainly as a political tactic to abolish anti-federalist resistance to the Constitution. After its passage in December of 1791, the First Amendment remained more idealistic than realistic. The First Amendment remained a set of ideals which were not to be carried out during its first century, then progressed to more realistic terms during its latter half of utilization. ? During the first century of the First Amendment, the First Amendment was paid a glance by all when it came to actually carrying out the freedoms guaranteed by this amendment. For example, in 1794, Pennsylvanian backcountry farmers protested a whiskey tax. The protesters were not violent such as those of the previous Shay's Rebellion. George Washington sent in a militia to crush the rebellion denying them of their First Amendment right to "peaceably assemble." Later, in 1836, anti sl avery newspaper editor James G. Birney had been warned that his newspaper "The Philanthropist" was not desirable in the city of Cincinatti. When Birney refused to cooperate, mob action took rule and, "scattered the type into the streets, tore down t he presses and completely dismantled the office." This contradicted the First Amendment which stated that, "freedom...of the press," is a constitutional right. The Supreme Court could do nothing about these situations when in Barron v. Baltimore, t he Court ruled that, "These amendments contain no expression indicating an intention to apply them to state governments. This court cannot so apply them." Thus, the Supreme Court could not interfere when First Amendments are being violated within a state. These acts were representative of the lack of recognition for our First Amendment rights during the first half of the Bill of Right's acceptance. ? The second half of the Bill of Rights was marked by a rebirth in which the Bill of Rights was no longer a set of ideals. The second half began when in 1925, the court ruled in Gitlow v. New York that the First Amendment supersedes state laws . This nullified the Court's ruling in Barron v. Baltimore, which took place 92 years earlier. Also, in 1931, the Court overturned Minnesota's conviction of Jay M. Near, whose anti Semitic "Saturday Press" violated Minnesota law which prohibited " malicious, scandalous and defamatory" remarks towards politicians and other public officials. The Court stamped Minnesota's law in violation of the First amendment. In 1937, Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes overturned the conviction of Oregon Com munist Dirk De Jonge. De Jonge had been detained for attending a meeting to protest the police shooting of striking longshoremen. The Court ruled that "Peaceable assembly for lawful discussion cannot be made a crime." More recently, in 1985, the S upreme Court ruled that burning the American flag is protected by the First Amendment when the Court reversed the conviction of Gregory Lee Johnson, who was arrested for violation of the Flag Protection Act of 1989. The Court then ruled the Flag Protection Act of 1989 unconstitutional. These instances clearly portray the rebounding of libertarian beliefs. ? The First Amendment of the Constitution started off as a set of beliefs meant to supply reason for one being patriotic rather than supply those inalienable rights discussed in the Declaration of Independence. It then developed into a powerfu l document which is the only living manuscript which specificly lists out the peoples rights. One cannot look back without looking ahead. The supreme court currently is overwhelmingly conservative. Without the balance of conservatism and liberalism, a deficiency evolves. And this deficiency is human rights. The Supreme Court ruled in 1990 that two American Indians were not protected by the First Amendment when they religiously smoked peyote. This is only a sample of the conservatism

Riots essays

Riots essays Americas college campuses are once again aflame. But, in the 1990s, the riots are not fueled by politics, as they were in the 1960s, but by beer, liquor and drugs. University of Arizona, University of Maryland and Temple University have all recently experienced these unfortunate riots on their campuses, but it is truly at home with us, the students of the Pennsylvania State University. The riots began in 1998 during The Arts Festival that caused more damage than ever. Students lit piles of furniture on fire, dropped beer kegs from high balconies and ripped down every street lamp on East Beaver Avenue. After a year off in 1999, a milder sequel riot returned at the 2000 Arts Festival. Then, last month, a post-basketball-loss encouraged police to deliver pepper spray on the crowd as they were showered with glass bottles from above. Storeowners have suffered due to the late-night activities on East Beaver Avenue. Police protection now consists of protecting themselves while battling the drunken mobs. Alumni are disappointed with their alma mater, and some residents fear that the quality of life in their town is being dishonored. The riots have created a demoralizing trend that has effected and disrupted not only the community that surrounds Happy Valley but also the students. Penn State students are feeling the heat no matter which way you view this appalling situation. Whether they were the ones throwing the beer bottles or just standing on the sidewalks, students are finding themselves affected by each event as the riots continue to arise. Penn State students reputations are no longer based on their exceptional scholarship, but rather for their ridiculous, outrageous riots. President Grahm Spanier stated, From my perspective as president, the downtown riots have been very damaging to Penn State's reputation and the confidence that citizens, elected officials, parents, and a ...

Haptic Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Haptic - Essay Example Haptic is used in supporting cognitive tasks performance e.g. in children with low attention, mental problems and brain injury, by enhancing mental imagery and verbalization systems. Furthermore, haptic can be used in communication as it gives feedback at the point of interaction by the user (Hatzfeld and Kern 21). It also enables conveying of information in demanding environments. Haptic can also be used in tactile interfaces to help in navigation by the visually impaired and blind people (Henderson ‎and Pehoski 77). For haptic devices to be effective, there are functional and data requirements. These include reliability and uniformity so that consistent perceptual effects are obtained. Haptic devices should have sensing requirements for easy and faster input (Siciliano and ‎ Khatib 726). The sensing requirement helps in determining the state of the device. Haptic devices should have high power to weight ratio for excellent performance and good feedback. Also, to sense the user’s action, the haptic device should have high force or torque. A vending machine applies touch on a user interface for payment to be made. After payment is made, customers are provided with what they require for example a drink. Vending machines support a variety of payment methods such as coins, debit and credit cards, pay phones and online accounts such as Payoneer and PayPal. ii. Credit and debit cards provide more convenient ways of making payments as a customer does not have to worry about carrying cash or having it in the right denominations accepted by the machine. A card can be tapped or inserted into the machine to make the payment. iii. The use of pay phones is a recent development. Mobile service providers have come up with different applications that allow business transactions to be conducted using phones. This is also a convenient way of making payments without physical cash. iv. Online payment methods are increasingly being adopted in the modern