Submitted by Aclu of Oregon on December 15, 2011 - 8:15am
The first 10 amendments to the United States Constitution, which became known as the Bill of Rights, were ratified on December 15, 1791. These amendments were designed to limit the government’s ability to infringe on individual liberty. Today’s celebration will mark their 220th anniversary.
Collectively, the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights trumpet our aspirations for the kind of society that we want to be. For much of our history, our nation failed to fulfill the promise of liberty for all people living in the U.S. We have learned that the Bill of Rights is not self-fulfilling. As a result, the American Civil Liberties Union was founded to work to ensure the promise of the Bill of Rights is made real.
In a sense, every day at the ACLU is a tribute to the Bill of Rights. For over ninety years, the ACLU has worked daily in courts, legislatures, and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties that the Bill of Rights guarantees. Here in Oregon, our work in 2011 included standing up for free speech and free exercise of religion; privacy; fair treatment whenever the loss of liberty is at stake; and protection against discrimination.
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Reciting the Pledge of Allegiance during morning announcements is just part of the school-day routine for many students. Yet, for other students, the choice to remain seated and silent during the Pledge is an important exercise of their rights to freedom of speech and religion. Jeff Mason, a fifth grade teacher at Highland Elementary School in Reedsport, Oregon, battled for his students’ right to remain respectfully seated during the Pledge for twelve long years before he called the ACLU of Oregon. Although federal law, Oregon law, and Reedsport School District policy all prohibit compelling public school students to participate in the Pledge of Allegiance, faculty and staff members at Highland Elementary School routinely forced their students to stand during the daily recitation of the Pledge, singling out students for public embarrassment if they attempted to invoke their right to remain seated.
January 11, 2012, marked a somber anniversary – the arrival of the first prisoners to Guantánamo Bay prison 10 years ago. It is shocking to realize that there are men who have endured 10 long years incarcerated in our very own American gulag. It is especially shocking when you consider that only four of 779 men held there have received even the semblance of a trial. Now we wait to see how long the remaining 171 men still held there will remain in legal limbo. Will it be another 10 years? 20?
In Oregon, people not only enjoy the freedom of speech, assembly, and religion under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, but also a more broadly interpreted “freedom of expression” in the state constitution. Oregonians have repeatedly said they do not want government deciding what they can read, see or hear - so naturally, we love Banned Books Week! It is the perfect opportunity to exercise two of our most fundamental rights: the freedom of speech, and the right to assemble.
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