The Bill of Rights is a collection of the first ten amendments of the United States Constitution. The rights protect the liberty, natural rights and the property of American citizens (Vile, 2010). The following is an analysis of three of the amendments and a reviewing of one of the amendments.
Amendment 1: Freedoms, Petitions and Assembly
Overview
This amendment states that congress shall make no laws that undermine the right of the people to exercise the freedoms to assemble, speech, press and petition the government (ushistory.org). It outlaws the establishment of a state or federal religion and gives people the freedom to assemble and belong to religions of their choices as long as they do so in a peaceful manner that respects other religions.
Purpose of the Amendment
The purpose of this amendment is to give people the right to associate with people with whom they wish. It also accords people the right to express themselves through speech, the press among other avenues of expression. By according citizens of the United States the right to belong to religions of their choice, this amendment fundamentally fulfils a basic human requirement-emotional and spiritual identity.
People affected by this Amendment
This amendment affects all the citizens of the United States. The US being a multicultural society, this amendment accommodates and appreciates the unique aspects of religion, assembly and expression regardless of the race, culture or the socio-economic background from which one comes from.
Importance on this Amendment
This amendment is important as it appreciates and equalizes all the US citizens. By giving people the right to petition the government and seek redress of grievances, this amendment gives power to the people to keep the government on check. The freedoms of expression and assembly also give the people power to ensure that the government responds to the needs of the US citizens.
Impact of this Amendment on the average citizen
This amendment gives the average citizen daily life by giving him/her the freedom to associate with people whom they wish. It for instance gives people the right to religion and worship whether they belong to dominant religions such as Christian denominations or minority religions such as Buddhism.
Amendment 4: Search and Arrest
Overview
This amendment protects the US citizens against unwarranted, unreasonable or inappropriate search of houses, effects, papers among other personal aspects. It gives the people the right to demand for an oath or an affirmation specifying the place, persons or items to be searched or seized (ushistory.org). In addition this amendment protects people from being arrested without the arresting officer producing a legal warrant of arrest issued by a court of law.
Purpose of the Amendment
The purpose of this amendment is to protect citizens’ right to privacy. People need to live in a society that outlaws intrusion into private property, searches and seizure of private property. Moreover the law protects citizens from wanton arrests. When police officers find someone in a scene of crime they do not have time to get a warrant of arrest for that person and in such cases they are supposed to convince the judge that they had a “probable cause” to arrest that person.
People affected by this Amendment
This amendment affects all US citizens. Searches range from frisking by police officers to blood tests and searches in cars or houses. This amendment also protects unwarranted search of documents and information of private companies. In addition, this law protects people who are suspected of wrongdoing from being arrested until some evidence is availed regarding their wrongdoing and the issuance of a warrant of arrest.
Impact of this Amendment on the average citizen
This amendment is very vital as it protects intrusion of people into private property. The average citizen is concerned about his/her security, privacy and the privacy all that entails their lives on a daily basis. As an impact of this law people can go about their daily businesses without fear of being arrested for crimes they never committed.
Importance of this Amendment
This amendment is important in safeguarding private property from theft, alteration of documents conferring ownership maybe to change property ownership in an unauthorized manner. It is also important in preventing theft through seizure of private property through illegal search warrants. This law is important as it protects innocent people from being arrested in a wanton manner devoid of evidence.
Amendment 6: Rights to a fair trial
Overview
This amendment states that in all criminal prosecutions, the accused person/s shall enjoy a right to a speedy public trial. The trial must be presided upon by an impartial jury and in the state or district in which the crime was committed. The accused person/s must be adequately informed of the nature and cause of crime/s for which they stand accused. The witness/es to the crime/s must be produced in court and the accused person/s must given the right to present witnesses in their favor (ushistory.org). In addition the accused person has a right to defense by a lawyer.
Purpose of the Amendment
The purpose of this amendment is to ensure that accused persons are tried fairly and that the judgement to be passed is just and fair to the accused person/s.
People affected by this Amendment
This amendment affects person/s accused of criminal offenses to a very great extent. It also affects personalities implicated in criminal offenses. These people include the presiding judge or magistrate, the defense lawyer and the witnesses to criminal cases. These people are mandated to ensure that they act within the confines of the law and that they act justly to oversee a fair trial regardless of the crimes for which an accused person is alleged to have committed.
Impact of this Amendment on the average citizen
This law does not affect the life of the average citizen’s daily life to a significant extent. On gets affected when they are accused of criminal offenses or when they are called upon as witnesses to accused persons.
Importance of this Amendment
This amendment is important in ensuring that innocent people are never jailed for crimes they never committed. It is also important in ascertaining the accuracy of accused persons to committing crimes for which they stand accused. Moreover, it is also important in ensuring that in cases where adequate evidence is availed, that the convicted persons get a fair sentencing.
Reviewing Amendment 4: Search and Arrest
In regard to the 4th Amendment on Search and arrest, I would like to propose accurate setting of timelines and deadlines within which searches and arrests can be executed by authorized persons. The amendment should stipulate specific timelines within which a search or arrest warrant should be executed after which it is either declared as expired and a new one issued. Timelines exist within which search warrants should be executed and they range from 10 to 15 days (Brant, 1965). In California and Ohio search warrants have a 10-day expiry limit similar in several other states.
The aspect that the 4th amendment should address is the timelines within which actual searches should be conducted. This issue should consider the type of items or property being searched. For instance it would be unreasonable and seemingly in violation of the right to privacy if policemen camped in someone’s house for a week searching for something as big as a car! The law should set reasonable and specific timelines within which searches can be conducted.
There is a very justifiable reason to ask for an amendment on the time searches should be conducted. This can be proven by referring to the example above of policemen searching for a car inside someone’s car for a week. It is almost impossible for someone to practically hide a car inside a house in such a way that it becomes for anyone else to find it. In regard to the size of the item to be searched there should be specific timeframes within which a search team should complete its work. The search team should be accorded more time to search for small times such as jewellery items, documents and other small items that can be practically hidden without the possibility of finding them.
There should also be specific timelines within which other types of searches such as blood and urine tests should be conducted. This is an elaborate procedure and it is hard to set the timelines for conducting searches and executing warrants.
References
Bill of Rights and Later Amendments. (n.d.). ushistory.org. Retrieved June 14, 2013, from http://www.ushistory.org/documents/amendments.html
Brant, I. (1965). The Bill of Rights: Its Origin and Meaning Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill. 567 pp.
Vile, J. R. (2010). A companion to the United States Constitution and its amendments. Santa Barbara, Calif: Praeger.
