The Bill of Rights: Examining Freedoms, Amendments, and Their Impact

This assignment delves into the Bill of Rights, focusing on three specific freedoms: freedom of religion, the right to bear arms, and the right to equal justice. The student analyzes each freedom by outlining its advantages and disadvantages, providing a comprehensive overview of its impact on American society. The analysis includes a discussion of potential amendments to each freedom, offering the student's perspective on how to refine the wording to make it more inclusive and relevant. The student suggests redefining "freedom of religion" to "freedom to worship", "the right to bear arms" to "the right to bear explicitly licensed arms", and the "right to equal justice" to "the right to a free and fair trial", providing rationale for each proposed change. The assignment demonstrates an understanding of the historical context, the current interpretations, and the potential future of these critical components of the U.S. Constitution.

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Student’s Name
Professors Name
Course
Date
Introduction
To protect the rights of the Americans, the founding fathers believed that the written
constitution that contained a section of human rights and freedom would help in the future for
safeguarding human interest and safety. When the drafted bills were sent to the states for
verification and scrutinization, averagely almost half the congress members opposed the
proposals in 1787 and conducted an open protest non-specificity of the bills. Whereas the other
individuals from different states demanded the inclusion of a bill of rights in the operating
constitution and that they will cooperate and accept the law if and only if it contained the bill of
rights in it. When the next government was formed two years later, the bill of rights got a space,

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and for the first time, ten amendments took place in the constitution. In two hundred bill
proposals discussed by the Congress members, only ten got approved that and were later
presented to the state for further approval (Saeed, p42). The country without much ado gave the
ten proposed bills the formal consent, and then the laws became part of the U.S constitution in
1791.
Examples of the bills of rights that were passed were, freedom of religion, freedom of
speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, freedom of petition, the right to bear arms,
the right to equal justice, the protection against cruel and unusual punishment among others.
Three of them will be discussed with mentioning the drawbacks, advantages, and the possible
amendments that can be done to the bills to make it sound with inclusivity and sensical to every
citizen.
Freedom of religion
Starting with the freedom of religion, as it is stipulated in the constitution, it was the first
among the ten bills to be amended, and it states that all Americans are guaranteed the right to
practice any religion of their choice or choose not to practice any religion at all. The state was
forbidden to make any attempt of officiating any denomination for the nation and that no faith
was to be favored than the other in the
country.
The advantages of this freedom, religion describes the norms of society by scheming its
believer to a particular judgment of the wrongs and rights in the community (Hall, p31).
Spirituality provides a sense and purpose of identity since many people live their lives supported
by the foundations and principles of the religion they choose to serve. Religion offers its
believers with guidelines, morals, comfort which its followers follow to attain a promise in the
days to come which they perceive to be useful to them. Secondly, religious institutions are tax-

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free and are not affected by the government. The citizens can choose any religion of their choice
without the influence of the government. The third pro is, faith ensures the prevalence of
different religious practices.
The disadvantages of the freedom of religion can as well be captured in the following
perspectives; there are some religions that justify some wrong-doings which are against the law.
Its followers who have the staunch belief will not hesitate to commit the wrong-doing, which is
supported by the religion and interns underestimate the forces of the law of the state (Babie,
p91). The other con is that belief creates division among members of the country. The freedom
of free choice to religion based on individuals preference brings division in society. Individuals
will value their faith and regard it to be superior to the others existing beliefs, and finally,
religion promotes discrimination in the sense that members will identify with people they share
the same view with mostly seen in job places, politics and community services.
To neutralize and make this freedom of religion sound inclusive, then it would make
sense when the term worship is used instead of faith. Worship is an act of submitting to a given
supernatural being that is believed to more powerful and is responsible for well being of people
in a community (Lund, pp13-15). Some religions are extravagant and to some extent, disarrange
the healthy coexistence of people in the society. Freedom to worship a little bit specific and
people will be serving the already established religion. This can foster discipline in the sprouting
of beliefs that might be against the well-being of society.
The right to bear arms
The second bill of right discussed is, the right to bear arms. It was the second bill of the
reason that was included in the American constitution after freedom of religion. It gave the
American people the right to own arms for self-protection. During those days, the American

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soldiers needed weapons to serve in the military to defend the state. These weapons protected
war emergencies. This fostered a belief that without firearms, the citizens will be powerless
should the government decide to employ the dictatorial governance and over-use power to rule
its citizens.
The benefits of the freedom to own the arms are, ownership of guns helps in reducing a
variety of crime in the society (Bocking, pp151-164). A gun is simply a tool just like an ax,
machetes, or sword that people own in their homes, which can be used to take away life. A gun
can be used to control a situation when thieves break into premises. Primarily, guns can be used
to curb homicide issues, aggravated and sexual assault by around 5%. The second advantage is,
the weapons offer people opportunities for self-defense. When we have self-protection options,
we can help to regulate how bad people dominate against us in society. Thirdly, the bearing of
arms enforces the constitutional laws due to its caption in the bill of rights. Again, the firearms
acquisition engages the average men into defending the country, and it allows for the proper
regulation of militia as part of the U.S. norm to mention but a few.
In the bill, the acquisition and use of the firearms have not been specified in the society.
The is no any condition provided for in the constitution that describes how people should use the
guns. Thus, some bad people may be tempted to use them in the wrong way, joining robbery,
organizing violent crews. Secondly, it cannot be guaranteed that those owning the guns are good
people as it has been noted that gun violence in the United States are rampant and this problem is
caused by the Americans themselves who seemed to be good people when applying for the gun.
Thirdly, gun ownership comes with a lot of risks in the family with arrogant kids or quarrelsome
parents (Chemerinsky, p74). During fights and unnecessary fights, anybody can be tempted to

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use the gun to square the conflict leading to fatal injuries or some extent, death. It has created a
domestic arms race among families among other drawbacks.
Considering the listed advantages and disadvantages, it clear that the expression of the
bill, “the right to bear arms.” This sounds too general in the sense that there is no range of arms
specified so whichever the weapon is, it can be owned so long the licensing conditions are met.
In suggesting the right expression for this freedom, it would sound better if it is reframed as, the
right to bear explicitly licensed arm. This will be more definite and clearer since the citizens will
develop a restricted want for the weapons.
The right to equal justice.
When a person is accused of committing a crime in the court of law, he is not considered
guilty until proven by the court of law. In the process of determining the guilt in suspect, the
suspect is taken through trials which are expected to be free and fair by the juries. In the bill of
rights, there are many rights and freedoms an American citizen is granted should they be accused
of any crime (Tribe, p16). To offer a fair trial to the suspect, the following factors need to be
taken into account; a person must be formally charged with wrongdoing by the grand jury before
he being brought to court for trial, the person accused has the right to be informed of the law he
is accused of breaking. Again, he has a right to a quick public trial by his citizen's jury, and the
accuse should not be held up in prison for weeks or months before trial. He is entitled to bail
himself out and wait to appear for hearing during the stipulated date. The accused has the right to
acquire a lawyer who will represent him in court during the trial. Besides, he has a right to call in
a witness whosoever person who will wish to testify on his behalf in the court. The evidence
against the accused should be publicized in the court (Waldron, pp3-36). Last but not least, the
accused cannot be compelled to testify or give evidence against himself and finally, should the

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accused be found guilty, he cannot be given unusual or cruel punishment and however grave the
crime is, he can not be tried twice over the same crime.
To begin with, the right to equal justice in the court of law provides for benefits of safety
measures and directives on how to handle the accused in the court of law. In as much as the
accused can be a suspect of committing a crime, they still regarded to have rights to be heard and
be protected from the brutal and unfair application of the law. No person can be tried without
being indicted first in the court of law (Noe, p51). This protects the ordinary citizens from
harassment by the "big men" in the society as every resolution must be made in court following
all the standard procedures. Secondly, it creates confidence and some hopes to the accused as
they cannot be referred to as criminals even when the proceeding is ongoing until proven guilty
in the court. This provides protection of the accused and controls victimization by the society,
and the court arrives at a decision.
The right to be bailed out is an advantage since it protects the accused from suffering,
waiting for judgment to be made. Since the accused can not testify or provide evidence against
himself in the court, in the event of crime without witness, the accused can win the trial even
when he is guilty and many more advantages (Neubauer, p19). The disadvantages take the vice
versa of the benefits. In my own words, I would term this right, the right to free and fair trial.
Conclusion
The power and authority that helps people to man their daily affairs are what we call the
environment. It helps to serve and fulfill the citizens' purposes, and wishes to create and
establishes peace, love, and harmony in the societies under it. Other activities and services that
can not by a community be performed by the government he the rule of law that is established in
the constitution containing the bill of rights. Since the formation the government is based on the

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consent of the constitution and people choice through an election, the powers of the federal states
are distributed among different countries and in a balanced manner. Respect to the authorities in
the constitution by the government and the people.

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References
Cogan, Neil H. The complete Bill of Rights: The drafts, debates, sources, and origins.
Oxford University Press, 2015.
Saeed, Abdullah. Freedom of religion, apostasy and Islam. Routledge, 2017.
Hall, Kermit L. The Oxford Companion to the. 2018.
Babie, Paul, and Vanja-Ivan Savić, eds. Law, religion and love: seeking ecumenical
justice for the other. Routledge, 2017.
Bocking, Brian. "Study of Religions: the New Queen of the Sciences?." Religion:
Empirical Studies. Routledge, 2017. 151-164.
Lund, Nelson, and Adam Winkler. "The Second Amendment." National Constitution
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Chemerinsky, Erwin. Constitutional law. Wolters Kluwer Law & Business, 2016.
Ruben, Eric, and Joseph Blocher. "From theory to doctrine: An empirical analysis of the
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Tribe, Laurence H. "Equal dignity: speaking its name." Harv. L. Rev. F. 129 (2015): 16.
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Waldron, Jeremy. "A right-based critique of constitutional rights." Bills of Rights.
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