First Amendment / Fundamental Freedoms Initiative

What is the "First Amendment / Fundamental Freedoms Initiative?"

Documents

• Description and Guidelines
• Doing Good Through JRCLS "First Amendment Project"
• Committee & Assignments

Original Materials

Links

• ConSource (organization founded by LDS legal scholars to compile original documents related to the Constitution; very user-friendly)
• Founder's Constitution (Univ. of Chicago Press and the Liberty Fund primary source aid collecting original sources and interpretations by the Founder's on the Constitution)

Other General Background Materials

Documents

• First Amendment Research Summary (summary of First Amendment research and teaching sources, prepared by Scott Paul, May 2010)
• State of the First Amendment 2009 (13th annual survey of American attitudes commissioned by the First Amendment Center)
• Future of the First Amendment (study by John S. and James L. Knight Foundation's High School Initiative re First Amendment attitudes)
• A Call to Civility and Community (Utah, March 2009)
• Background on the Call for Civility and Community Ground Rules (Utah, March 2009)

Links

• The Becket Fund (public interest law firm page listing some of the legal scholarship on religion)
• The Heritage Foundation (See also bibliography in the Heritage Foundation's "Reading the Right Books" which contains a good section of books on religion and society.)
• The Federalist Society (thorough bibliography with section on constitutional law, listing other organizations that support first principles in constitutional interpretation)
• The James Madison Program at Princeton University (program run by Professor Robert George)
• First Amendment Center (FAC) (with, among other things, annual "State of the First Amendment" reports)
• Constitutional Rights Foundation (CRF) (Non-profit focused on educating youth about the Bill of Rights)
• First Amendment Schools (Non-profit focused on reforming the manner in which schools teach students about the First Amendment, and building a network of schools committed to a strong First Amendment curriculum)
• FreedomForum (Pro-First Amendment non-profit founded by members of the journalism industry)
• Bill of Rights Institute (Non-profit focused on education young people about the Bill of Rights)
• Exploring Constitutional Law (scroll to the bottom of the page) (Constitutional Law website created and maintained by University of Missouri-Kansas City Law School faculty member Doug Linder, containing a sizeable section on the First Amendment)

Potential Lesson Plans

Documents

• Living Up to the First Amendment (11 lesson plans, handouts and supporting materials prepared by the Newsweek-endorsed First Amendment Schools Project)

Links

• Freedom Forum lesson plans (12 First Amendment lesson plans)
• Constitutional Rights Foundation lesson plans (numerous specific lessons on historical topics, some of which must be purchased)
  • Lesson on Mormon Persecution
  • Establishment of Religion Lessons
  • Religion and Society
  • Religious Tolerance
  • Communication of Ideas
  • Separating Church and State
  • Right to an Impartial Jury and Free Press
  • When Rights Conflict (Press, Religion)
  • First Amendment Lessons
  • Current Issues Lessons (includes free expression and religion)
• First Amendment Schools lesson plans (particularly focused on the "five freedoms")
• Bill of Rights Institute lesson plans (focused on the First Amendment in history)
  • First Amendment in History Lessons
  • Bill of Rights in the News (lengthy list of lessons including First Amendment lessons)

Religion in the Public Square

Documents

• Religious Expression in American Public Life (summary of current law re religious expression and practice in public life, produced by a panel of scholars, and published by the Wake Forest University Divinity School and Center for Religion and Public Affairs, January 2010)

Links

• Meridian Magazine, "Senator Lieberman at BYU: Faith and the Public Square"
• Seamus, "The Right to Be Wrong" (book re history of religious culture wars in the United States)
• Religious Freedom Resources (website maintained by the Anti-Defamation League providing extensive legal analyses of the many issues involved in the question of the rights of religion in public forums like schools, work-places, courthouses and the like)
• "The Case of Religious Freedom"

Statements of Religious Leaders

• LDS Newsroom: Religious Freedom
  speeches about The LDS Church's position on Religious Freedom


• Religious Freedom (talk given by Elder Dallin H. Oaks, member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, to an audience at BYU-Idaho, October 13, 2009) (see also link to the talk at LDS Newsroom, http://beta-newsroom.lds.org/article/oaks-religious-freedom)


• From Plaza to Postage Stamp: The Threatened Demise of Religion in the Public Square (talk given by Elder Lance B. Wickman, member of the First Quorum of the Seventy, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, to the JRCLS Annual Conference, February 11, 2010) (see also link to the talk at LDS Newsroom, http://beta-newsroom.lds.org/article/the-threatened-demise-of-religion-in-the-public-square---talk-given-by-elder-lance-b.-wickman-at-j.-reuben-clark-law-society)


• Catholics and Latter-day Saints: Partners in the Defense of Religious Freedom (talk given by Cardinal Francis George, Archbishop of Chicago and President, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, to an audience at BYU, February 23, 2010) (also available from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishop's website at http://www.usccb.org/seia/catholics-latter-day-saints.pdf)


• Fundamentals of our Constitutions (talk given by Elder Dallin H. Oaks, member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, at Utah’s Constitution Day Celebration, September 17, 2010) (see also link to the talk at LDS Newsroom, http://beta-newsroom.lds.org/article/fundamentals-of-our-constitutions-elder-dallin-h-oaks)

---

Law Society Login

Access to this section of the page is restricted.

Password:

Login