First Amendment Essays (1494 words) - , Term Papers

First Amendment In the First Amendment, it is stated that: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people to peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. These aforementioned statements ratified by our forefathers are commonly referred to as the freedom of expression. The freedom of expression is not only limited to speech; it refers to all forms of exchanging ideas: religion, press, assembly, petition, etc. In Alan M. Dershowitz's essay, "Shouting Fire!", he boldly claims that Justice Holmes' analogy of "shouting 'Fire!' in a crowded theater" to circulating pamphlets to the public during wartime that contain political ideas against the draft is both "self-deceptive or self-serving" (Dershowitz, 328). However, shouting "Fire!" in a crowded theater does not only refer to the freedom of speech, but to freedom of expression implied by the First Amendment. By shouting "Fire!", an individual is implying alarm, and the indication of alarm will ultmately cause chaos. There is no way that a shout of "Fire!" in a crowded theater, a form of "decontextualized information" (Postman, 8), is the same as the circulation of waritme pamphlets. The idea of "speech" is not specifically defined in the First Amendment. Due to the absence of the authors' intention in using the word, "speech," we are then forced to speculate on the meaning of this nebulous word. In Webster's New World Dictionary, one will find the following: speech (spech) n. [* OE sprecan, speak] 1 the act of speaking 2 the power to speak 3 that which is spoken; utterance, remark, etc. 4 a talk given to an audience 5 the language of certain people Let us interpret "speech" according to the definition given by Webster's New World Dictionary, then "speech" should only constitute audible sound and not also the ideas that may result from the act of speaking. According to this theory, we are then allowed to freely say anything that please us, including the act of shouting "Fire!" in a crowded theater. However, we can clearly see that this is not the intention of the First Amendment from historical evidence. It does not seem that the Supreme Court and the public view only the act of "speaking" to be protected by the First Amendment, for it is the act of expressing ideas that concerns them. Even Justice Holmes announced that "[t]he most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theater, and causing a panic. It does not even protect a man from injunction against uttering words that may have all the effect of force" (Dershowitz, 325). Which then leads us to believe that it is the expression of ideas that leads "directly to serious harm" (Dershowitz, 328) to the public that acts as a violation of the First Amendment. However, each individual's interpretation of what may lead directly to serious harm may be different. Some individuals' interpretations of what cause serious harm are more liberal, while others are more conservative: I may find the circulation of pamphlets containing radical political views to be quite detrimental to wartime effort, while others may find that to be virtually harmless. In recognizing that the government does indeed have the right to censor "expressions [that] may lead directly to serious harm" (Dershowitz, 328), Dershowitz implies that there is a hidden status quo, or norm, that individuals within an interpretive community use as a guideline to determine what constitutes extreme disorder. It is then left up to the Supreme Court to act as the absolute authority to set these guidelines for the members of the interpretive community. In order for chaos to occur, there must be people to interpret and interact with ideas that are proposed. If one were to shout "Fire!" in an empty theater, then there would be no chaos resulting from that action; no one would be there to interpret the shout of "Fire!" as a potential alarm. As Justice Holmes pointed out in Schenck v. United States, "the character of every act depends upon the circumstances in which it is done" (Dershowitz, 325). However, it was most unfortunate for Schenck to be imprisoned for distributing his political pamphlets, for it was not the intention of these pamphlets to cause chaos: "nothing in the pamphlet suggested that the draftees should use unlawful or violent means to oppose conscription" (Dershowitz, 324). Although the Schenck pamphlets did not directly cause chaos, it was its potential

Original purpose Essays

Original purpose Essays Original purpose Essay Original purpose Essay In this article, the author highlights some of the major problems facing humanity today. Poverty according to him is among the very top followed by the struggle for human rights, the guarantee against arbitrary arrest and mutilation and murder. The author talks about the fact that politicians generally end up cutting expenditures which affect the poor because they have no regard for these people and have no concern for the hunger and the suffering they have to go through. The article also touches upon Marxism and reveals the authors Marxist upbringing. He is very vocal about the causes that need to be focused upon such as providing work for the jobless, raising the standard of the homeless, preventing the poisoning of the atmosphere and the degradation of the environment and to overall improve the circumstances people live in. He also talks about his opposition organizations and institutions taking on official positions on critical public issues. His reason for this opposition is that it imperils the organization or institution and impedes pursuit of its original purpose. Moreover, if members of the institution or organization have different opinion from the official positions it reduces their ability to promote the exercise of professional activities. This is all the more true for educational institutions since involvement in external issues becomes a threat to academic freedom. While the general opinion is that because educational institutions are repositories of wisdom, they should speak out in times of crisis and on issues which are important to the public. However, history does not support this conclusion. At the onset of the Nazi regime, German universities chose to speak out but the position that they took on wasnt what was expected of them. Overall, the author is opposed to all forms of political activities by universities and professional organizations. He is also of the opinion that educational institutions should be entitled to act on behalf of academic freedom whenever and wherever it is threatened as long as such action does not hamper its ability to function. The article also talks about modern approaches for economic analysis. According to the author there is sometimes no real need to come up with complicated economic models to explain old concepts merely for added realism. He believes that a well designed model ahs the ability to work effectively as long is the model is based on the trade-ff between accuracy of representation of reality and usability in analysis. If and when a new model is proposed, it should lead to oversimplification rather than end up being a painstaking attempt to complicate an already available model. The author has two key conclusions related to this aspect. First, increased realism is not necessarily a virtue. If it complicates an already existing model it is actually a moral sin. Second, a particular model can neither be judged good or bad in the abstract sense. A models effectiveness can only be judged at the time of analysis. A model may be suited for the analysis of one issue but may be ill-suited for another. Another important point highlighted in this article is the value of pure economic research. While additions to the state of knowledge is always valuable and should contribute to the improvement of the state of social welfare, research in its truest form is always useful because it helps reduce the degree of ignorance. In fact, it is sometimes the purest of research which ultimately makes the greatest contribution to social welfare. However, caution should be exercised when engaging in abstract research before hastening to apply its results to complex issues. Overall, this is an extremely interesting article and presents a different outlook to several issues such as economic research, modern economic models, the role of professional organizations and educational institutions with respect to critical public issues as well as the need to address some of the major problems facing humanity today. Bibliography 1. Baumol, William J. (1993) From the book Eminent Economists: Their Life Philosophies By Michael Szenberg. Published by Cambridge University Press