Freedom of Speech, Press and Expression.
"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-(Amendment I of the constitution). In 1791 when this amendment of the constitution was ratified, it changed this country's history forever. When congress wrote it they had remembered the inequity of the Intolerable Acts and wanted to prevent that from happening again in the future of their new country. It was also very important to the colonists because England had censored and made their speech so restricted they were reduced to nearly nothing in society. Unfortunately today this amendment has been manipulated to an enormous level because people are censoring everything to an extreme level. The first amendment is not only one of the most important amendments in the Constitution, but also one that too many Americans exaggerate and take for granted today. .
England greatly impacted the development of this amendment. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in England speech was so strict Parliament couldn't even debate the issues that they were to vote on. When they asked Queen Elizabeth to allow debate she said "Privilege of speech is granted, but you must know what privilege you have; not to speak every one what he listeth, or what cometh in his brain to utter that; but your privilege is Aye or No."(Gelfand, 18) When she said this the Queen meant that the only free speech they had was to say yes or no in legislative issues. Over two hundred years later in England's thirteen colonies the Intolerable Acts, which restricted speech just as much as in the sixteenth century, were imposed.
In 1774 the intolerable Acts were imposed upon the Thirteen colonies. The British closed Boston Ports and forbade town meetings without British representation. If you violated these rules you would be tried under English rule and sent to a court with one English judge.
