Civil Liberties

I chose the civil liberties because I think that it is important for someone to choose their own religion and beliefs without causing any trouble. Having the freedom to speak, choose your own religion and to vote for whomever you want to vote for is important to the American people. I chose the subcategory “The Free Exercise Clause”, because it upholds the rights of the American people to decide on any religious belief and to be able to exercise their beliefs without getting in trouble with the law. One example of a public policy that is designed to protect the civil liberty is the “moment of silence” in schools. The moment of silence is done in all the schools in the morning during the announcements and there is silence for 60 seconds with no sounds or interruptions. This gives everyone the opportunity to pray, meditate or even just sit and think without being disturbed. I support this policy because everyone has their own right to pray without disturbing the rights of others and those who don’t chose to pray also have the right to sit without disturbing the ones who are praying. The article that I chose to write about was originally written in the American School Board Journal paper and was written by Edwin Darden in 2008. The title of the article is “Is Silence in the Classroom Really Golden”? He explains that having silence in the classroom is great to have but are we having it in our classroom just for religious purposes? He asks if a mandatory “moment of silence” in public schools is for students to relax and get focused for the day ahead, or is it an invitation to pray. One could argue the opposite could be true, is it an opportunity to relax or an excuse to encourage students not to pray? This is the type of issue that the courts struggle with when it comes to these types of topics.
The First Amendment to the U.S. forbids government entities, such as the public schools, from favoring religion or prohibiting it unnecessarily. There is a thin line