Equal Means Equal

I had what I would consider to be a very unique high school experience. The past four years of my life have been spent at an all girl high school. I fully credit Immaculate Heart Academy for making me the woman I am today. As corny as it many sound I believe in girl power; I believe that I am strong and can do any job an man could do if not even better. I want to be a woman in a position of power. Men once made all the decisions; for the family, and for the country but not anymore.

This country has struggled since the beginning with treating all persons equal. Besides race, a persons sex has always caused an unbalance between genders. If you read the original constitution women were excluded completely; "all men" nothing that included women. Our opinion and speech was unimportant and didn't deserve a right to vote. So many women fought so hard to gain our rights in this country . We now have the same rights as everyone else but there is still a power imbalance. So few women hold positions of power in government, in the business world, and even with athletics. We've made progress but the United States is still male dominated in many aspects. Equal means equal and the strive for equality will not stop until achieve it.



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/former-first-lady-rosalynn-carter/international-womens-day_b_9405192.html?utm_hp_ref=politics&ir=Politics

We May Need To Add To The First Amendment

Today anything can be captured in a picture or recorded. This generation is so tech savvy with all of our devices that people can easily capture any moment they desire. Lately, its been the new trend to film those in a position of power to expose them for what they are truly doing. Police officers have been at the height of this issue . Every time I'm watching the news or even scrolling on Facebook I come across at least five new videos of Police Officers being taped while on the job. A lot of the time if the Police Officers are aware they are being recorded they will confiscate the device or erase the footage. 

There was a recent ruling in a first amendment case that does not protect the "filming" of police officers under the first amendment . Those who would film the police and then have their film confiscated or deleted claim that the police were violating their first amendment right. The judge in this instance had ruled that the filming was not protected under the fist amendment. The judge had said "we find no basis to craft a new First Amendment right based solely on 'observing and recording.'"

I agree with the judge that under the first amendment observing and recording isn't protected. It's not technically expressive action so there is a gap in this situation. Maybe our constitution needs another change, it has been done before many times as we evolve as a nation. Today's generation is very different from the time the Constitution was written; there were no cameras, no cell phones, no technology. We are a very technologically advanced society and sometimes changes need to be made or new rights need to be added in order to continue to protect the rights of Americans. 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/filming-police-isnt-a-first-amendment-right-federal-judge-rules_us_56d5d57ce4b03260bf783785

Apple Having Their Rights Violated By The Government?

Recently I've been following the news and story of Apple refusing to unlock the one of the shooters phone in the San Bernardo case. Apple is lining up their case as unconstitutional under the first and fifth amendments. I find this case to be very interesting because due to my First Year Seminar class I fully understand how Apple is bringing this up as unconstitutional and how it works. Apple is claiming under the first amendment that the code they need to provide is speech and that they can not be forced to do this under the protection of the first amendment. The FBI is a federal run institution so I agree that under the First amendment apple is and should be fully protected.

In class we discussed a very similar situation to the Apple one. In North Carolina, non-union workers were being forced to pay union dues although they were not apart of it nor supported it. These workers sued under the first amendment by saying them paying the union was action as speech. This action was actually speech because it was non-verbally giving support to the union. Apple is claiming the same argument here; the code they have to provide is expressive speech.

Apple is also claiming under the fifth amendment that the government is violating the right "to be free from arbitrary deprivation of its liberty by government" ( Goldman, Pagliery, Segall). I couldn’t agree more with the argument apple is making under the constitution. 

Apple is having their rights violated directly by the government and they can not be forced to do what the FBI is asking them unless we are planning on rewriting the constitution.

http://money.cnn.com/2016/02/25/technology/apple-fbi-response/