Conception Of Liberty And Equality Before The Law

Liberty and equality are two central values in American politics but what do those two words mean? Liberty can be defined as “the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one's way of life, behavior, or political views” (Liberty 2016). Defining equality is tougher because there are two different conceptions of equality. Equality before the law is the first conception which basically means that we are all equal before the law. People are equal before the law if the law takes no notice to what kind of person anyone is. If someone commits a crime, it doesn't matter who committed it, the action is still wrong. Another conception of equality is that people are equal in a matter of material respects for instance wealth. This is called substantial equality. For this blog I'm going to be referring to equality as equality before the law.
The First Amendment of the Bill of Rights states “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; of abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances” (Amendments 2016). This Amendment promotes liberty because our government is not telling it's citizens to pray to a certain God or a God at all. Our government allows us to say what we want to say, feel how we want to feel, and view reality however we please. This is what liberty is. It's the ability to choose and through the First Amendment, our government is not restricting our liberties to religion, free speech, peaceable assembly, petition, or press. This Amendment also promotes equality because it's giving these freedoms to every citizen. It doesn't matter who you are or where you come from as long as you're a citizen of the United States, you have a right to these