{"id":700,"date":"2023-06-04T17:29:35","date_gmt":"2023-06-04T17:29:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/theconstitution\/kieran-constitution-project\/"},"modified":"2023-06-04T17:30:30","modified_gmt":"2023-06-04T17:30:30","slug":"kieran-constitution-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/theconstitution\/kieran-constitution-project\/","title":{"rendered":"Kieran Constitution Project"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Video<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"entry-content-asset\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Kieran First Amendment Project\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qyL6Z9RPHf4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Written Component<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p> <p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The First Amendment of the United States Constitution guarantees the fundamental right to free speech: a key to American democracy. The First Amendment was primarily created to protect American citizens from a totalitarian government. As disagreements heightened between Great Britain and the colonies, Jefferson became one of the key American revolutionaries fighting for the representation of those being silenced in governmental decisions. Even before the formation of the United States Constitution, Jefferson was no stranger to directly advocating for free speech.. Free speech was a huge priority to Jefferson as he began to design the framework for the United States, thus, leading to the First Amendment.\u00a0<\/span><\/p> <p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">However, in a modern democracy, there are incidents where the First Amendment can come into question. The events of January 6th, 2021, at the United States Capitol have ignited a heated debate about whether former President Donald Trump can be held accountable for his role in inciting the storm on Capitol Hall. Essentially, the First Amendment&#8217;s Freedom of Speech Clause protects people&#8217;s rights to express their opinions, ideas, and beliefs without fear of government censorship. It covers various forms of expression, such as speech, press, assembly, and petition. This timeless right ensures that citizens can engage in public discourse, challenge authority, and freely express differing opinions. However, there are instances where the first amendment&#8217;s protection can be taken away. For example, there&#8217;s an Incitement exception which states\u00a0 that if speech is used to incite violence it would no longer be protected by the first amendment. This clause plays heavily into the ongoing debate of the accountability of Donald Trump. His actions leading up to the January 6th incident have been a subject of intense debate. There are two main perspectives each utilizing the first amendment to aid their argument, here are the two sides:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p> <p><b>Incitement and Responsibility:<\/b><\/p> <p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">One viewpoint states that Trump&#8217;s accusation of election fraud, his\u00a0 &#8220;Stop the Steal&#8221; rally before the storming of capital hall, and his refusal to accept the election results created the atmosphere that led to five people being killed during the violence and many more being injured. People that believe Trump should be held accountable argue that his words and actions broke the incitement exception and therefore were no longer protected by the first amendment, as he\u00a0 encouraged his followers to engage in unlawful behavior. They argue that Trump, as a public figure and the President at the time, had a responsibility to use his platform responsibly and promote peaceful resolutions.<\/span><\/p> <p><b>Protected Political Speech:<\/b><\/p> <p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Others argue that Trump&#8217;s claims, although controversial and provocative, could be classified under protected political speech. They strongly emphasize that the First Amendment holds the right to express strong opinions and engage in heated political discourse. Supporters of this perspective claim that holding Trump accountable would set a dangerous model for restricting free speech. They strongly emphasize the importance of protecting political discourse, even if it includes statements that some may find objectionable. On top of this they argue that no direct statements asking for his supporters to storm capitol hill, were made by Trump. I believe that Trump should be held accountable for his actions because although he did not directly state that his supporters should attack, he did imply it by saying that this was a \u201ctest of strength.\u201d <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In conclusion, the debate surrounding the accountability of Donald Trump for the events of January 6th reflects the complexities of applying the First Amendment&#8217;s Freedom of Speech Clause.<\/span><\/p> <p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The First Amendment of the United States Constitution guarantees the fundamental right to free speech: a key to American democracy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4591,"featured_media":699,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[25,26,151,829,828,827,270],"class_list":["post-700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bill-of-rights","tag-constitution","tag-first-amendment","tag-free-speech","tag-kieran","tag-kieran-constitution-project","tag-project"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/theconstitution\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/theconstitution\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/theconstitution\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/theconstitution\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4591"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/theconstitution\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/theconstitution\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/theconstitution\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/theconstitution\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/theconstitution\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/theconstitution\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}