The First Amendment of the Constitution has given the citizens of the United States the
rights that most of the people in this world could not even dream of. According to the
reports published by the U.S. Department of State and Freedom House, nearly 70% of the
world’s 6.8 billion people live in countries with great restrictions on religion and only less
than 14% of the world lives in countries with free press. The First Amendment not only
protects us as Americans our basic human rights and is also gradually becoming the
world’s indicator of all aspects of freedom. In this paper, I will be focusing on the Freedom
of Speech section of the First Amendment and provide examples of the growth of the
Amendment over the years as well as its limitations and provisions.
What is freedom? Most of the Americans think that this is a God given right because it was
written in our Constitution as one of the most important founding principles of this nation.
However, to the majority of the people on this planet, it is a privilege.
There are four main components of the First Amendment: freedom of the establishment of
religion, free exercise of religion, freedom of speech and of the press, and freedom of
assembly and petition. As the first amendment in the Bill of Rights was originally applied
to the law enacted by the United States Congress but after many years of interpretations
and various lawsuits such as Gitlow v. New York (Chicago-Kent College of Law), it is
now adopted by all levels of governments. Gitlow v. New York was a Supreme Court
decision on June 8, 1925. Gitlow was a member of the Socialist Party of American and
was convicted for violating the Espionage Act of 1917 following the Red Scare for
publishing a document called “Left Wing Manifesto”. Gitlow claimed that the manifesto
was a representation of historical analysis rather than advocacy, however he was ultimately
sentenced to ten years in prison. After spending two years in prison, he appealed the case
but the state court upheld his conviction on the ground of violation of the New York’s
Criminal Anarchy Law, a law that was passed in 1902 following the assassination of
President William McKinley. The Supreme Court at the time had to consider whether they
should hear a case challenging a state law on the basis that it violated the federal
constitution. After hearing the case, Gitlow’s conviction was still upheld. However, the
