Intellectual origins of the First Amendment and Supreme Court First Amendment applications to education

This historical study describes and analyzes the historical, philosophical, political, legal, and educational perspectives of the First Amendment and its interpretations by the United States Supreme Court as well as its impact on education. The root of First Amendment thought pertinent to the framers' motives when they wrote the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights of the United States Constitution was examined. The rationale by which the United States Supreme Court tends to interpret the Establishment and freedom of speech clauses of the First Amendment was also examined in the context of education. Historical and legal documentation was directed at the description and identification of the philosophies which engulfed the thought and dictated the practices of the entire Western European world. This pre-colonial Western European thought spawned the educational, political, and legal foundations in the development of America. Early libertarians and United States Supreme Court Justices, past and present, shed light on their own motivations through historical and legal records and these were assessed largely in the scope of legal and educational theorists. Findings revealed the First Amendment framers' intent was the progeny of their past experiences. The United States Supreme Court relies largely on the past, or precedents. Overall, the findings revealed that early ideologies still influence the legal and political communities which impact education and Supreme Court First Amendment opinions.