The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is a part of the Bill of Rights. It was conceived to prevent Congress and the federal government from infringing on five rights. These guarantees were that the government would not endorse any religion or establish a state religion, prohibit the free exercise of religion, infringe upon freedom of speech, infringe the freedom of the press, limit the right to assemble peaceably, or limit the right to petition the government for a redress of grievances. The First Amendment, along with the rest of the Bill of Rights, was proposed by Congress in 1789, to be ratified by the requisite number of states in 1791. It was passed in order to answer protestations that the newly created Constitution did not include sufficient guarantees of civil liberties. The First Amendment only explicitly disallows any of the rights from being abridged by Congress. Over time, however, the courts held that this extends to the executive and judicial branches. The Fourteenth Amendment went further, making abridging First Amendment rights unconstitutional for state, county, and local governments.

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Today's selected anniversaries:

680 Battle of Karbala: Imam Husayn bin Ali, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, was decapitated by forces under Caliph Yazid I. This is commemorated by Shi'a Muslims as 'Aashurah'. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Karbala)

732 Battle of Tours: Charles Martel and the Franks defeated a large army of Moors near Poitiers, France, stopping the northward spread of Islam from Spain to the rest of Western Europe. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tours)

1911 The Xinhai Revolution began with the Wuchang Uprising, marking the beginning of the collapse of the Qing Dynasty in China. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuchang_Uprising)

Wikiquote of the day:

"Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies." ~ Groucho Marx (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Groucho_Marx)