First Amendment and Graphic Designing Profession

The First Amendment

The First Amendment plays an important role in U.S. society, guaranteeing the rights of U.S. citizens and preserving democratic government. The framers of the Constitution believed that the right to express oneself without fear of government punishment was the foundation of effective citizen participation in, and control of, the government. Thomas Jefferson contended that the monitoring of public officials' activities by a free press kept government from becoming tyrannical. Other commentators followed Jefferson's line of thought, and some celebrated court cases in U.S. history have concerned the limits of free expression.

The First Amendment also contains two clauses that deal with religious freedom. The Establishment Clause forbids the government from interfering with individual religious beliefs. The government cannot enact laws aiding any religion or establishing an official state religion. The Free Exercise Clause guarantees a person the right to practice a religion and propagate it without government interference. Although the government cannot restrict a person's religious beliefs, it can limit the practice of faith when a substantial and compelling state interest exists. Numerous court decisions have defined the breadth of both of these clauses.

The First Amendment was originally directed only at the federal government, as the phrase “Congress shall make no law” indicates. This limitation on the federal government was crucial for proponents of states' rights. States were allowed to manage their own affairs, without concern for the Bill of Rights. Connecticut and Massachusetts, for example, continued state-supported Congregational churches until 1818 and 1833, respectively.

The fact that little judicial activity occurred regarding the First Amendment until the early 1900s does not mean that federal and state governments did nothing to curtail freedom of expression. Federal and state sedition, criminal anarchy, and criminalconspiracy laws were used to suppress expression by opponents of slavery, religious minorities, early feminists, labor organizers, pacifists, and members of left-wing political groups. Prior to the Civil War, all southern states had laws on the books that limited speech in an effort to stifle antislavery sentiment. In Virginia, anyone who “by speaking or writing maintains that owners have no right of property in slaves” was subject to a one year graphic designer sentence.

Fears about communism led to government repression after both World Wars I and II. The First Amendment became a potent weapon for those groups and individuals who questioned the right of government to limit freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of association, and freedom of assembly. Confrontations over these issues forced the U.S. Supreme Court to develop legal principles for interpreting the freedoms contained in the First Amendment.

The prosecution of political radicals for proclaiming their opposition to the war led to ground-breaking First Amendment cases. In Schenck v. United States, 249 U.S. 47, 39 S.Ct. 247, 63 L.Ed. 470 (1919), Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes articulated the famous “clear and present danger” test for determining whether speech may be suppressed by the government. The Supreme Court upheld Charles Schenck's conviction on the ground that speech intended to obstruct the war ...