“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or the press, or the right of the people to peaceably assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”

These three quotes brought a great sadness over me. I think of how this fundamental RIGHT and elemental freedom has been so maligned by both the distortion of valid debate into an attack on patrioticism, and the contortions of political rhetoric in which one can hardly decipher anyone's real opinion--in both cases to serve the narrow self interest of people obsessed in maintaining their hold on power. It's pretty depressing.

'Congress shall make no law...' Hmm -- what about the President? ;-)

Nor shall the President... but the King is exempt and can do what ever he can... well... get away with it seems... even after we the people have spoken...

To my understanding,there are no laws that Congress has made as such mentioned in the above quote BUT ALL of the above mentioned "liberties" have been attacked and abridged to some degree.Unlawfuly,I might add.

Interestnig to point out, "Congress shall make no law", not that "a free nation can in no way allow or tolerate"..Not that I feel any better.

There should be no wonder freedom of expression was made the first amendment to the Constitution. It is the most important.

It is not Congress but the judiciary that has established the default national establishment of religion. The judiciary's amalgamation of the legislature, executive, and press have served to limit all other competing religions and in so doing (among other maladies), abridged the freedom of speech. As for the freedom of the press, I recall a 20,000 + man march on the Federal Reserve in Chicago during a Libertarian Presidential campaign that got absolutely no ink while 2 homosexuals on the steps of another state's capitol that same day got multiple full page spreads. Both were passionate messages, but, how free is the press??? (-; hating to admit this, but for Jack) The ACLU, even after all the damage they have reeked, they have kept a 1st Amendment consciousness in the American psyche

Then owning and carrying arms is the second most important right.

In my opinion this site and the quotes didn't really help me with what i was looking for.
An ADVICE is:
this site should have more options to the bill of rigts, liberty and etc.

A problem arises with the "freedom" of speech is the dimension of privatization allows the private owner to control any speech or expressive display in their private holdings, therefore quashing any real free expression, and so the "owner" remains in their own private property prison, and therefore reinforcing their own personal mind prison.