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FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS

OUr First AMENDMENT RIGHTS

Our founders were very concerned about preserving our precious individual freedoms and limiting government interference with our individual liberties. Therefore, they added the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution, known as the Bill of Rights. The very First Amendment to the Constitution states that, “Congress shall make no law respecting an 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 government for a redress of grievances.”

The words of the First Amendment are simple, plain and can be understood by anyone with an average intelligence. Over the years, however, the courts, politicians and clever attorneys have distorted the meaning so that now, in many cases, the alleged meaning is almost the opposite of what the framers of the Constitutuon intended!

For example the myth of “Separation Of Church And State” has crept into our national lexicon and is almost universally accepted, even though it is never mentioned in the Constitution. Where did the myth start? The phrase, “wall of separation between church and state,” comes from a private letter written in 1802 by Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptist Association in Connecticut. Jefferson intended to reassure the church in Danbury that the government would never interfere with the church, i.e. the First Amendment is a one-directional wall protecting the church from the government. It was never meant to keep God out of our government. This unfortunate phrase was “discovered” in 1947 by activist judges and has been used ever since as a tool to remove God from the public square.

First Amendment rights cases in the areas of freedom of speech and freedom of religion are often high profile cases charged with emotion. Areas such as the sanctity of human life versus abortion, traditional marriage versus same sex marriage and references to God in the public schools bring great media attention and the case results are of enormous importance. A first class legal team is needed for cases such as these. The following organizations are non profit legal organizations that have an excellent track record in defending First Amendment Rights on a pro-bono basis.

• Alliance Defense Fund (ADF)
• Life Legal Defense Foundation (LLDF)
• Pacific Justice Institute (PJI)

Mr. Thompson has worked with these organizations on such landmark cases as Williams v. Vidmar (the Declaration of Independence case), Prop. 22 v. City and County of San Francisco (the same sex marriage cases), People’s Advocate v. Independent Citizens’ Oversight Committee (challenging California’s $3 billion embryonic stem cell research initiative) as well as lesser known cases defending the rights of pro life sidewalk counselors, pastors and others.