Right to Expression

Right to Expression

Right to Expression

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Right to Expression

Americans live in a society where they are afforded many freedoms and many rights. One of these freedoms is guaranteed in the First Amendment. Citizens are guaranteed the right to free expression and free association in this amendment along with other important rights. What this means is that citizens cannot be forbidden by the government to express their opinions or to establish clubs or organizations that may oppose the opinion of the government. When citizens oppose things in American society they have the freedom to express this opposition by holding peaceful demonstrations or rallies.

While citizens have the right to express their ire or opposition they do not have the right to use violence. Americans do have the right to speak out and oppose the government but this must be done peacefully when the opposition by the public is violent it is not a free expression but an act of terrorism. According to the ACLU (2005) the Supreme Court has written that this freedom is "the matrix, the indispensable condition of nearly every other form of freedom." If the right to expression is taken away from the citizen many other important rights would be lost. The right to free expression was established by our forefathers to prevent the government from becoming oppressive.

The centralized (federal) government was established to protect citizens from outside threats. The role of the state at this time was to completely govern. When this did not work the Constitution was established in order to share the responsibility of governing between the federal government and the state. In order to ensure the federal government never became oppressive the rights of the state were established as well as the right of the individual. Since the federal government is tasked with keeping citizens safe the question over self expression and protecting citizens from harm has been a topic of debate for centuries.

After 9/11 the focus of the federal shifted to protecting citizens from further attacks over ensuring their individual rights being rigidly protected. Part of this protection was forbidding any acts of terrorism through legislation. Acts of terrorism included certain types of speech. When the government created legislation, such as the USA Patriot Act, political expression was forever limited. Since the enactment of the Patriot Act the citizens first and fourth management rights have been severely limited (Uhalova, 2006). When citizens have no freedom to express their political viewpoints American citizens no longer live in an actual democracy.

The right to expression ensures when a government official acts badly the citizen can complain or if the government is displaying acts of oppression the citizen can publically complain. The Patriot Act forbids expression against the government or any other group in society that is paired with threats of violence. While this legislation and other severely dampens the right to expression there are two differing opinions on this violation of the citizen. One opinion is any legislation preventing citizens freedom of expression is wrong and a violation of the constitution. The other opinion is in order to keep the public safe some expressions must be stopped.

Based on the first argument there are never any circumstances where it is okay for the government to insert their power and limit the citizens right to expression. This has been the case since the creation of the Constitution. Groups, such as the KKK have been free to express any sick, twisted, or evil ideal they deem appropriate. While many do agree with the expression of the KKK in a democratic society they have this right. When the government even limits self expression by the smallest amount it will erode the whole idea of freedom.

On the other hand the acts of terrorists caused the death of almost 3,000 innocent citizens. These actions were the result of people visiting America on work Visas to be free to express any ideal about America they wished without any fear of repercussions. The freedom afforded citizens to express any ideal or all types of opposition to the government can in fact threaten their safety and ability to live peacefully in a free society. The question becomes which of the two is more important, personal freedoms or safety of the citizens?

The truth is the Patriot Act violates freedom of speech in the way that people are losing the right to say what and how they truly feel (Uhalova, 2006). This is wrong no matter how safe it makes citizens feel or how badly the government wants to control the actions of the people. After 9/11 the government began running on far forgetting why this country was created to protect the rights of the citizen. Every time the rights of the citizen are intruded upon by the government and this behavior is allowed the countries becomes less and less of a democracy. Freedom of expression is a necessary part of preventing the government from every becoming oppressive and taking away the rights of the citizen.

America has faced many conflicts that have threatened the citizen’s right to freedom of expression in the past from the Civil Rights movement to the attacks on 9/11. The ability to peacefully protest in the Civil Rights movement led to equality for all while the attacks on 9/11 resulted in citizens being stripped of important First and Fourth Amendment rights. No matter the conflict or the threat to the nation there is never a good reason to intrude upon the citizens right to freedom of expression.

References

ACLU. (2005). Freedom of Expression. Retrieved August 19, 2014 from

https://www.aclu.org/free-speech/freedom-expression

Uhalova, K. (2006). The Patriot Act vs. the Constitution. Retrieved August 19, 2014 from

http://eslprog.kean.edu:8080/default.asp?PageID=201%20