Paper Topic:

Political Science

The Changing Nature of Our Freedoms

The freedoms of religion , speech , assembly and of the press that were set down

by the founding fathers of change in the history of our country in their scope and in the

limitations imposed upon them . The freedom of religion has had limits put on it in the

case of separation of church and state . In to allow all to have their own beliefs

the government has put restrictions on school prayer and by not giving federal funding

to religiously-based institutions . The once

close relationship between church and state

have now been established as separate (Clark , 139

Freedom of speech and assembly has been through many battles since it was first

outlined in the Constitution . Battle lines have been drawn in past decades over such

issues as the right to burn the flag , protest and where people are allowed to exercise their

freedom of speech . During the time of the McCarthy hearings in Congress people were

often afraid to speak out against the government for fear of being targeted as a

communist . Today , free speech has also been threatened by the Patriot Act . People 's

private information is targeted by government mandate for screening for certain phrases

that may belie terrorist intent (Konvitz , 2003

Freedom of the press was established so that the government would not control

local newss . This has been greatly challenged many times over the past century

as the technology of the press has seen the advent of the Internet...

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