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The First Amendment

The United States of America’s Bill of Rights may be one of the most important historical documents when it comes to all American citizens, despite their activeness or inactivity in politics. The Bill of Rights plays a central role in American law and government, and remains a fundamental symbol of the freedoms and culture of the nation.
To understand why the Bill of Rights is important to everyday citizens, Americans must first understand what the Bill of Rights is and what it sets as civil liberties for all. The Bill of Rights consists of the first ten amendments to the Constitution, a document that outlined how the new American government would be created and operated. The U.S.’s Bill of Rights was inspired by and based upon the Massachusetts Bay Colony’s Body of Liberties. The Massachusetts Body of Liberties was the first legal code to be established by European colonists in New England. It provided citizens of that colony with some of the same rights enjoyed by Americans today. In 1789, two years after the Constitution was accepted, the Bill of Rights went into effect. The Bill of Rights was designed to establish civil liberties and protect the rights of each individual citizen, to prevent the government from assuming total power over citizens, and to provide citizens with legal defenses.
The First Amendment is one of the most important amendments that still have sufficient relevance today. Without it, the government would have no restrictions as to what it could impress upon its citizens. Because of this amendment, citizens are granted freedoms and rights to act in manners that may be against the will of the government, but do not violate the Constitution.
The First Amendment is perhaps the most well-known and most often quoted of the amendments. It states, “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...