1st Amendment
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 peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Liberty
We believe in the freedom for Americans to live according to individual values, beliefs, and convictions. We believe in freedoms of religion, expression, assembly, petition, grievance, medical decision, and school choice. Where there is risk, there must be choice. We support military, law enforcement, and first responders that sacrifice their life and liberties to protect and safeguard ours.
The purpose of the 1st Amendment is to safeguard the rights and freedoms of the people.
History of the 1st Amendment
Within the Declaration of Independence from Britain, our founding fathers outlined 27 grievances against King George III’s overreach of power to silence the voice and will of the North American colonies, establish a national religion, tax the people without representation, and created ruling classes that infringed on the rights and freedoms of the people.
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution was proposed by founding father, James Madison, who deeply believed in religious liberty, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press. The purpose of the First Amendment was to safeguard the rights and freedoms of the people and protect the people from the national government from having too much power and coercion over them.
1st Amendment Protections
The 1st Amendment protects:
- Freedom of Religion
- Freedom of Speech
- Freedom of the Press
- Freedom of Assembly
- Freedom of Petition
Freedom of Religion
Efforts to subvert freedom of religion have been present since the founding of the United States of America. People in power who see freedom of religion as a threat to their exercise of power and realizing their personal political agendas over the American people have sought to marginalize or eradicate America’s constitutionally protected right to freedom of religion. In 2010, freedom of religion realized a new form of attack by Democrat President, Barak Obama, when he sought to redefine constitutionally protected freedom of religion as freedom of worship. President Obama’s attempt to redefine terms was a strategic effort to marginalize the freedoms each American given by Creator God and exchange those freedoms for government-given permissions.
Fast-forward to 2020 during the COVID-19 lockdowns in California and we see the freedom of religion under attack in a new way when Governor Gavin Newsom selectively closed indoor facilities. While churches and places of worship were determined to be non-essential, marijuana facilities, bars, and strip clubs were left open as essential services. Governor’s Newsom’s tyrannical overreach of power to infringe on the constitutionally-protected rights of Americans did not go unnoticed or unchecked. In 2020 and 2021 a series of lawsuits were filed against the State of California for these constitutional violations and the State of California’s draconian mandates and executive orders were overturned.
“Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.”
– Benjamin Franklin
Freedom of Speech
The purpose of free speech is for the American people to share ideas. Our founding fathers understood that a free people must be able to exercise their voice and express unpopular or unapproved speech without retribution. Free speech is not without restraint. For example, the First Amendment does not protect defamation, hate speech, pornography or obscenity, or incitements to crime or violence. However, for a people to be free they must be able to freely share ideas, even when those ideas dissent from popular culture.
Attacks on free speech have manifested over the last decade in several forms with an effort to elevate government- and big tech-approved speech, and silence dissenting voices. Efforts to silence dissenting voices have taken many forms, such social media censorship, banning, and blocking content. Our government created terms like “misinformation”, “disinformation”, and “malinformation” to redefine dissenting voices as hate speech or violence speech for the purpose of silence dissenting voices from being heard. In 2022, President Joseph Biden, leveled another attack on free speech by calling anyone who disagrees with his administration and the outcome of the 2020 Presidential General Election as semi-fascists and anti-American.
Freedom of the Press
America’s founding fathers understood that the free people who are self-governed as a Constitutional Republic must have freedom of the press to circulate facts that inform the American populous and hold government accountable to the people. Our founding fathers knew that without the free flow of facts and truth, government would easily enslave the people they have been bestowed the honor to represent.
Much like the propaganda press under Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime in the 1940s, we are seeing America’s government increase censorship of the press, contorting the press from a vibrant beacon of information and truth into a propaganda arm of the Democratic Party. Dissenting voices on COVID-19 research studies, results of the 2020 Presidential General Election, transgenderism, and so many other critical talking points are silenced. Credentialed and established authorities on these topics are marginalized and careers destroyed when they dissent from the approved propaganda of the Democratic Party.
Freedom of Assembly
People are created for community. Assembling and gathering together is vital for a community to thrive, express free ideas, and hold their government accountable. In 1670, founding father William Penn (who later founded Pennsylvania) was convicted in England for preaching in public and was found innocent by a jury. Our founding fathers understood that the right to peacefully assemble for both religious and civic purposes must be protected from overreaching government.
In 2020, our California Legislature condemned and tried to thwart Californians from assembling in the name of safety. Executive Orders mandated small businesses close their doors, families were prevented from spending holidays together, churches were fined and strongarmed to close, and open-air gatherings were stopped with force by law enforcement. The State of California abridged and violated the First Amendment rights of Californians in the same of peace and safety. Since 2020, scientific studies have shown that these draconian and tyrannical measures damaged the economy, destroyed families, increased domestic violence, and increased drug and alcohol additions.
Freedom of Petition
The Declaration of Independence from Britain outlined 27 grievances against King George III. Our founding fathers new that a free people required the freedom of petitioning government for redress of grievances. The Supreme Court of the United States has ruled that these rights include, but are not limited to, picketing, mailing letters, signing petitions, publishing materials and communications that exercise the voice of the American people. Our right to Freedom of Petition extends to federal, state, and local forms of government. Government does not hold authority to infringe or limit those rights.
