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Mr Ellis's List: US History

    • Under Common Law existing at the time of the adoption of the U.S. Constitution, "natural personhood" was considered to begin at natural birth and end with the cessation of the heartbeat.
    • But technology has created a new situation, opening the way for statute or court decision to extend this definition and set the conditions under which personhood begins and ends.

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    • The Bill of Rights was understood, at its ratification, to be a bar on the actions of the federal government. Many people today find this to be an incredible fact. The fact is, prior to incorporation, discussed below, the Bill of Rights did not apply to the states.
    • This clause, seemingly innocuous to us today, was rejected by the Senate in its final draft of the Bill, and the concept that any part of the Bill of Rights would apply to the states was still 100 years away. Several cases that came before the Supreme Court in the 19th century attempted to have the Court establish that the Bill should apply to the states, to no avail:

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    • religion
    • It allows citizens to practice whatever religion they wish — or no religion at all.

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        Religious laws  

       

         The first amendment to the
       U.S. Constitution: Religious aspects   

         

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      What it says:

       

      The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is also the first section of the Bill of Rights. It is arguably the most important part of the U.S. Constitution, as it guarantees freedoms of religion, speech, writing and publishing, peaceful assembly, and the freedom to raise grievances with the Government. In addition, it requires that a wall of separation be maintained between church and state. It reads:

       
       

      "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."

       
         

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      Its origins in the Virginia bill on religious freedom:

       

      The roots of the First Amendment can be traced to a bill written by Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) in 1777 and proposed to the Virginia Legislature in 1779. 1It guaran

    • The roots of the First Amendment can be traced to a bill written by Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) in 1777 and proposed to the Virginia Legislature in 1779. 1It guaranteed freedom of (and from) religion. After an impassioned speech by James Madison, and after some amendments, it became  law in that state on 1786-JAN-16

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    • The First Amendment, indeed the whole Bill of Rights, talks only about protecting American rights from action by the federal government. While some states included freedom of religion in their state constitutions, state governments did not have to obey the First Amendment regarding freedom of religion. After the American Civil War (1861-1865), however, the states adopted the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1868. The Due Process Clause in the Fourteenth Amendment says, "No State shall ... deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law." Interpreting the "liberty" portion of the Due Process Clause, the U.S. Supreme Court has decided that state governments also must obey most of the Bill of Rights, including the First Amendment's guarantee of freedom of religion.
    • When the states ratified the Bill of Rights in 1791, almost every American practiced some form of Protestant Christianity. When these Americans thought of religious tolerance, they did not think of Roman Catholicism, Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, or any of the world's other religions. Only through centuries of immigration has religious diversity flourished in the United States. That has been the true test of the strength of the nation's commitment to freedom of religion.

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