When freedoms and protections collide, changes are sought out by the country. These protections restore man's freedoms after a violation. People are given countless freedoms, but at times, these freedoms are abused. When they are abused, people need protections that can help them in court. Common protections that are activated most often are freedom of speech, search and seizure, self incrimination, and rights in the court of law. All of these being touchy subjects, when present, receive a lot of press, like all the cases we researched in class. The amendments to the constitution provide our country with more organization and prevent citizens from being unfairly treated. However, these freedoms with surely collide with protections and cause problems in and out of the court room.
Freedom of speech is often misunderstood. There are some light guidelines to what people can and cannot say. For example, this first amendment was evident in the Bethel v. Fraser case, where a school found a student guilty of violating his freedom of speech rights by inappropriately nominating a fellow classmate. He was found guilty because the school had the right to prohibit vulgar and offensive language, and the student was suspended. This clearly shows a conflict between freedoms and protections, because the student thought that he had the right to say whatever he wanted to, but was obviously not protected by the first amendment. The case went to court where the school was found innocent of violating the first. Slight problems like this are bound to happen, and in the long run will better our nation.
The fourth amendment of the constitution is the indirection of unreasonable search and seizures, and that a search warrant is needed to search for belongings. The New Jersey v. T.L.O. case had a strong relation to this fourth amendment. A fourteen year old girl was accused of smoking in the school bathroom, so the school administration searched her purse, but found marijuana and other drug paraphernaria as well. Now, did the search violate the fourth amendment? The answer is no, because reasonable suspicion and probable cause exist in schools. The school had enough backing them up to go in and search the girls purse. The fact that they found the marijuana and other drug items, falls under the plain view clause where if something dangerous is seen, an action must take place to rid of the illegal substance. Another case where search and seizure was prominent is the Mapp v. Ohio case. Dolree Mapp was convicted of possessing inappropriate materials after an admittedly illegal police search of her home. She appealed her conviction, but was not successful because all evidence obtained by search and seizures in violation of the constitution is inadmissable in a state court. Even though they did not enter her house expecting to find obscene materials, once they were in plain view, they had the right to confiscate the items and arrest her. Both of these cases show the problem between search and seizures, and what people think they have as their freedoms. Many times, people think that they have more freedoms than they do, and this leads to conflicts between freedoms and protections.
The sixth amendment is the right to a fair and speedy trial. Everyone has the right to an equal chance in the court of law, criminal or not. This amendment was violated in the Miranda v. Arizona case. In this case, a man was questioned by police for rape and kidnapping, but was never given his right to an attorney or told that anything he said could be held against him in the court of law. The police violated everyones right to a fair trial, because without an attorney, Miranda did not stand a chance in court. Because of this, Miranda did not go to jail, because he self incriminated himself. This collision between freedoms and protections is very important, because this criminal, who kidnapped and raped a young girl, got away with it because of the police officer's mistake. Freedoms and protections coexist, but in cases like this the two collided and caused a bad outcome.
No comments:
Post a Comment