"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof" so I'm not seeing where the faith
When the government over-exercises its power in excess of commonsense, no matter what the supreme court says.
READ IT... this is what the next war will be fought over.
Safeguards of liberty (Amendments 1, 2, and 3)
The
First Amendment (1791) prohibits Congress from obstructing the exercise of certain individual freedoms:
freedom of religion,
freedom of speech,
freedom of the press,
freedom of assembly, and
right to petition. Its
Free Exercise Clause guarantees a person's right to hold whatever religious beliefs he or she wants, and to freely exercise that belief, and its
Establishment Clause prevents the federal government from creating an official national church or favoring one set of religious beliefs over another. The amendment guarantees an individual's right to express and to be exposed to a wide range of opinions and views. It was intended to ensure a free exchange of ideas, even unpopular ones. It also guarantees an individual's right to physically gather or associate with others in groups for economic, political or religious purposes. Additionally, it guarantees an individual's right to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
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The
Second Amendment (1791) protects the right of individuals
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keep and bear arms.
[65][66][67][68] Although the Supreme Court has ruled that this right applies to individuals, not merely to collective militias, it has also held that the government may regulate or place some limits on the manufacture, ownership and sale of
firearms or other
weapons.
[69][70] Requested by several states during the Constitutional ratification debates, the amendment reflected the lingering resentment over the widespread efforts of the British to confiscate the colonists' firearms at the outbreak of the Revolutionary War. Patrick Henry had rhetorically asked, shall we be stronger, "when we are totally disarmed, and when a British
Guard shall be stationed in every house?"
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The
Third Amendment (1791) prohibits the federal government from forcing individuals to provide lodging to soldiers in their homes during peacetime without their consent. Requested by several states during the Constitutional ratification debates, the amendment reflected the lingering resentment over the
Quartering Acts passed by the
British Parliament during the Revolutionary War, which had allowed British soldiers to take over private homes for their own use.
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Safeguards of justice (Amendments 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8)
The
Fourth Amendment (1791) protects people against unreasonable
searches and seizures of either self or
property by government officials. A search can mean everything from a frisking by a police officer or to a demand for a blood test to a search of an individual's home or car. A seizure occurs when the government takes control of an individual or something in his or her possession. Items that are seized often are used as evidence when the individual is charged with a crime. It also imposes certain limitations on police investigating a crime and prevents the use of illegally obtained evidence at trial.
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The
Fifth Amendment (1791) establishes the requirement that a
trial for a major
crime may commence only after an
indictment has been handed down by a
grand jury; protects individuals from
double jeopardy, being tried and put in danger of being punished more than once for the same criminal act; prohibits punishment without
due process of law, thus protecting individuals from being imprisoned without fair procedures; and provides that an accused person may not be compelled to reveal to the police, prosecutor, judge, or jury any information that might
incriminate or be used against him or her in a court of law. Additionally, the Fifth Amendment also prohibits government from taking private property for public use without "
just compensation", the basis of
eminent domain in the United States.
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The
Sixth Amendment (1791) provides several protections and rights to an individual accused of a crime. The accused has the right to a fair and speedy trial by a local and impartial
jury. Likewise, a person has the right to a public trial. This right protects defendants from secret proceedings that might encourage abuse of the justice system, and serves to keep the public informed. This amendment also guarantees a right to
legal counsel if accused of a crime, guarantees that the accused may require
witnesses to attend the trial and testify in the presence of the accused, and guarantees the accused a right to know the charges against them. In 1966, the Supreme Court ruled that, with the Fifth Amendment, this amendment requires what has become known as the
Miranda warning.
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The
Seventh Amendment (1791) extends the right to a
jury trial to federal
civil cases, and inhibits courts from overturning a jury's
findings of fact. Although the Seventh Amendment itself says that it is limited to "suits at common law", meaning cases that triggered the right to a jury under English law, the amendment has been found to apply in lawsuits that are similar to the old common law cases. For example, the right to a jury trial applies to cases brought under federal statutes that prohibit race or gender discrimination in housing or employment. Importantly, this amendment guarantees the right to a jury trial only in federal court, not in state court.
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The
Eighth Amendment (1791) protects people from having
bail or
fines set at an amount so high that it would be impossible for all but the richest defendants to pay and also protects people from being subjected to
cruel and unusual punishment. Although this phrase originally was intended to outlaw certain gruesome methods of punishment, it has been broadened over the years to protect against punishments that are grossly disproportionate to or too harsh for the particular crime. This provision has also been used to challenge prison conditions such as extremely unsanitary cells, overcrowding, insufficient medical care and deliberate failure by officials to protect inmates from one another.
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