Articles of Incorporation New Hampshire

							    Bill of Rights
   Articles 1-7 ratified when New Hampshire,
    the 9th state, ratified 6/21/1788
   Bill of Rights proposed 9/1789 & ratified
    12/15/1791
        Rights begin with “Congress shall make no law ...”
             meant that the Framers intended only to limit the
             power of the federal government. Rights did not
             apply to the States & federal government could not
             restrict state laws that limit the Bill of Rights.
             (Baron v. Baltimore 1833). States free to restrict
             liberties as saw fit.


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  1st Amendment
     1st 10 amendments needed to protect us from abuse
       of federal government power.
          “Congress shall make no law respecting
             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 peaceably to
             assemble, and to petition the gov’t for redress of
             grievances.”




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  1st Amendment
     Seems to protect against any law
        Can one justify murder in the name of religion?
        Ruin another’s reputation with lies?
     1st Amendment Rights not absolute, but majestic
       generalities. We must make laws to protect
       innocent against great harms.




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  Preferred Position Doctrine
     1st Amendment rights are higher rights
       than any others in the Constitution.
     When law that regulates non 1st
      Amendment rights (such as the 2nd)
      taken to court ... The court presumes
      the law is constitutional (legal).
     When any law that regulates 1st
      Amendment rights is taken to court ...
      it presumes the law unconstitutional ...
      illegal.
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  Incorporation by the 14th
   The 14th Amendment ratified 1868. Provided “... nor
     shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or
     property without due process of law.”
        View “liberty” as constitutionally protected liberties.
   In 1925 U. S. Supreme Court, with the free speech &
     press case Gitlow v. New York, 1st began to piece meal
     “incorporate” most of the Bill of Rights to apply to the
     States.




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Gitlow v. New York
  Facts of the Case: Gitlow, a socialist, was arrested for distributing
    copies of a “manifesto" that called for socialism through strikes and
    class action of any form.
       Convicted under state “criminal anarchy” law, which punished
        advocating the overthrow of the government by force.
       Gitlow argued that since was no illegal action flowing from the
        manifesto's publication, the statute penalized utterances lacking such.
       New York courts decided anyone who advocated the doctrine of violent
        revolution violated the law.
     Threshold issue: Does the First Amendment apply to the states?
             Yes. The Supreme Court stated that “the rights of freedom of speech
             and freedom of the press were "among the fundamental personal
             rights and 'liberties' protected by the due process clause of the
             Fourteenth Amendment from impairment by the states."



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