The Right to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness

Posted by Nick Niesen on October 27th, 2010

The Bill of Rights exist in many different countries today to protect the people who are within the territorial boundary of the countries' government from unlawful actions that may deprive a person's right to live, security, and other necessities needed to survive. Originating from the British's Bill of Rights, which was literally a bill that was proposed and passed by Parliament in 1689 to protect the basic rights of the people. To effectively have the Bill of Rights into play it must be constantly be enforced by the government that it is trying to restrict.

The concept of the Bill of Rights is very popular with the population of countries that hold such a law in their constitution. Such one country is the United States of America in which the United States Bill of Rights protects the residents of the country from its own government from Federal to the local. The United States Bill of Rights was originally a series of amendments brought before the Congress in which ten of the amendments were put into effect in 1791.

The First Amendment which states the freedom of religion, speech, press, peaceful assembly and the right to petition the government is the most popular amendment that is in effect today. Though it may have some restrictions like as long as it does not create an imminent threat to the subject and those within the proximity or unless under warfare, the first amendment is in effect. An example is like shouting the word "fire" as a joke in a crowded area as it can create a widespread panic causing casualties or maybe during wartime some things just should be said or written.

The Second Amendment is in which gives the resident of the United States of America the right to bear arms. An amendment which is criticized today by those who promote gun safety as those who just promote the right to own a firearm have been known to legally abuse this law. As the law was originally in state for the protection of a resident and his or her family from outside forces that would cause harm to them or for hunting, groups such as the NRA use the amendment to be able to own automatic weapons which are mainly used for warfare and not for such measures as it was originally put into use for.

The Third Amendment protects the residents of United States of being forced to quarter troops in their own property in peacetime or even in wartime unless done in a process which is acceptable under the given circumstances.

The Fourth Amendment protects the resident from unlawful search and seizures in which they cannot be searched without just cause and or without a warrant, and if there is a warrant, the warrant only allows the items stated within the warrant to be seized within the location the warrant gives permission to search and nothing else unless the item in question is in plain sight and unlawful in other words illegal under the current law.

The Fifth Amendment gives the resident due process in which it prevents self-incrimination, double jeopardy, and eminent domain by the government. Where a person cannot convict themselves, be tried for more than once for the same crime, and have the government unlawfully take away property owned by an individual.