10. US History - Bill of Rights is Ratified (1791) — Transcript

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1. 0:00When we're talking constitution, the
2. 0:02most important part of the constitution
3. 0:04is called the
4. 0:07bill of rights. Um that's simply a name
5. 0:11for the first 10 amendments. So the
6. 0:13first 10 laws in the constitution. Um
7. 0:17why are these 10 laws grouped together?
8. 0:20Because they all um discuss individual
9. 0:24liberties.
10. 0:25Uh so freedom basically. Um, the
11. 0:28pictures you can see here all have to do
12. 0:30with the Second Amendment,
13. 0:33which as you may know is the amendment
14. 0:36that allows Americans to uh own guns.
15. 0:41Um,
16. 0:44this one is pretty self-explanatory.
17. 0:46This is a belt buckle that says, "I will
18. 0:48give up my gun when they pry it for my
19. 0:50cold dead fingers." Uh this man is
20. 0:53carrying one, two, three, four,
21. 0:59five, six maybe even uh guns with a
22. 1:03bunch of ammunition in an ammunition
23. 1:05belt. And you may not be able to read
24. 1:06it, but it says, "Please tell me why
25. 1:08someone would need this many guns in uh
26. 1:10a town called Marlo, Iowa. It's a really
27. 1:13small town. Why would you want to go
28. 1:15grocery shopping with this many guns in
29. 1:18a really small town in Iowa? What do you
30. 1:20think will happen there exactly? Uh this
31. 1:23was a fun one too. Well, fun tragic. Who
32. 1:26can tell? Um it is a warning um that was
33. 1:30issued by the Florida Weather Service.
34. 1:33Uh and it explains why Florida residents
35. 1:36should not fire on a hurricane. So, as
36. 1:40you can see here, it's a person shooting
37. 1:41at a hurricane. And then it explains
38. 1:43that hurricanes have tremendous force.
39. 1:45So it will get sucked up into the eye
40. 1:49and then re-released into air with great
41. 1:52force. So uh bullets might come back to
42. 1:55haunt you. Don't shoot. Apparently that
43. 1:57has to be specified to Florida
44. 1:59residents. This one is probably the most
45. 2:01tragic one. This is a very very real gun
46. 2:04that could definitely kill someone. Uh
47. 2:07however, it looks very nice with all the
48. 2:08pink flowers on it.
49. 2:22focusing on the second amendment.
50. 2:24However, the bill of rights has 10
51. 2:26amendments. So, I would like to walk you
52. 2:28through these. Um,
53. 2:32sorry. Uh this would be a good time to
54. 2:35remind you of the fact that back in 1620
55. 2:38I hope you remember from my previous
56. 2:39class uh the country was founded by
57. 2:42people looking for freedom. Okay, in
58. 2:44their case it was the freedom to be as
59. 2:47weirdly religious as you want to be. But
60. 2:50um their quest for freedom
61. 2:53uh is inherent to American society and
62. 2:55is also very well represented in their
63. 2:57bill of rights. Um, their first, so even
64. 3:01more important than their guns, their
65. 3:03first amendment has to do with what
66. 3:05types of freedom Americans should have.
67. 3:08Um, first and foremost, freedom of
68. 3:12religion. Uh, that should be no surprise
69. 3:15given how the country started. Um,
70. 3:19America does have freedom of religion.
71. 3:21You can, um, be in whatever weirdass
72. 3:25religion you want. uh and people should
73. 3:27always respect that. So there is freedom
74. 3:29of religion. The second thing that is
75. 3:32specified in this first amendment is
76. 3:34freedom of speech. Um I always asked my
77. 3:37students, do you feel that Americans
78. 3:39have freedom of speech? And their almost
79. 3:42instinctive answer is no. However, um
80. 3:46that's not true. Americans really do
81. 3:48have a lot of freedom of speech.
82. 3:49Sometimes even a little too much. Um you
83. 3:53can tell that they have a lot of freedom
84. 3:54of speech um because everybody is free
85. 3:57to ridicule for example their president
86. 4:00as much as they want as publicly as they
87. 4:02want. Uh there's lots of celebrities who
88. 4:04ridicule him on their social media for
89. 4:06example. Um
90. 4:09sorry um talk show hosts do not hold
91. 4:12back in the ridicule of him. Um that's
92. 4:15freedom of speech. Can you imagine
93. 4:18people doing the same thing? [ __ ]
94. 4:21Sorry. people doing the same thing in
95. 4:22for example North Korea with the um with
96. 4:26Kim Jong-un. Uh I think not not only
97. 4:29would they die but also like 10
98. 4:31generations after them would be stuck in
99. 4:33a North Korean concentration camp
100. 4:36easily. Uh Americans do have a lot of
101. 4:38freedom of speech. Normally that's a
102. 4:40good thing. However, in America, they
103. 4:42took it maybe a little too far uh in as
104. 4:44far as that's possible because um
105. 4:48you can say whatever you want and
106. 4:50there's no restrictions to that. In our
107. 4:52society, there is one restriction. Uh
108. 4:55it's called in Dutch.
109. 4:58As soon as you incite hatred with your
110. 5:00opinion, your opinion becomes illegal.
111. 5:03So if your opinion is that I don't know,
112. 5:06black people are bad for example, that's
113. 5:08inciting hatred. So you are now um
114. 5:11punishable by law. In the US there's no
115. 5:14such extra clause. Your opinion is your
116. 5:16opinion and you can tell whoever you
117. 5:17want in whichever way you want. So
118. 5:22um inciting hatred is not that much of a
119. 5:25problem in the United States. Uh then
120. 5:29their third type of freedom that they
121. 5:31enjoy under the first amendment is
122. 5:32freedom of press. Um that's obviously a
123. 5:35very important thing that your press can
124. 5:37um
125. 5:40report on whatever they want the way
126. 5:41they want to do it. Uh then there's
127. 5:44freedom of assembly. Assembly means that
128. 5:47um whatever group you want to belong to,
129. 5:50you're allowed to belong to that group
130. 5:52and that group is free to assemble. So
131. 5:55to get together whichever way they want.
132. 5:58Uh the founding fathers meant this kind
133. 5:59of um first and foremost for unions. um
134. 6:04they wanted people to be able to form a
135. 6:05union and to have meetings with that
136. 6:07union. But again, it's been abused a
137. 6:10little bit. Um and again, it has to do
138. 6:12with hatred. This is for example the
139. 6:15reason why um the KKK is allowed to
140. 6:18exist. Uh being a member of the KKK is
141. 6:21absolutely not illegal at all. Um I
142. 6:25forgot to mention this as an example for
143. 6:26freedom of speech and um one of the
144. 6:30reasons why this freedom of speech was
145. 6:31maybe taken too far. Um here it would be
146. 6:35very illegal to for example paint your
147. 6:38house full of swastikas. In the US
148. 6:40that's not legal because that's your
149. 6:42opinion and your first amendment
150. 6:44guarantees you freedom of speech. Uh,
151. 6:47and then because of the freedom of
152. 6:49assembly, like I just explained, you can
153. 6:51also join a KKK meeting and meet with
154. 6:54your KKK brothers in weird robes, in
155. 6:57weird places like forests and burn down
156. 6:59some crosses apparently. Um, the last
157. 7:02thing that is guaranteed under the first
158. 7:05amendment is freedom of petition. Um,
159. 7:07this means that if something's wrong,
160. 7:09you have the freedom to petition or uh
161. 7:12to sorry to petition uh a member of your
162. 7:17government, which means that you can
163. 7:19write them a letter, you can talk to
164. 7:20them in the street, they should listen
165. 7:21to your grievances. All right, that
166. 7:25would be the first amendment. Sorry if
167. 7:28my explanation was maybe not super
168. 7:31structured. I've been doing this for an
169. 7:34hour now and I am losing concentration
170. 7:37at this point. Okay, let's barrel on
171. 7:40though. Uh the second amendment, that's
172. 7:42the one I just showed you some uh
173. 7:44pictures for. It is probably the most
174. 7:46famous one. Um and it gives Americans
175. 7:48the right to bear arms. Uh that doesn't
176. 7:51have anything to do with bears or arms.
177. 7:53Uh it simply means that you have a right
178. 7:55to own and carry guns. Um,
179. 8:02back when the Bill of Rights was drawn
180. 8:03up in 1789,
181. 8:07uh, this kind of made sense. The country
182. 8:09hadn't, uh, been at peace for that long,
183. 8:15and it's also just the 1700s, so there's
184. 8:18danger around every corner. Um, not
185. 8:22every town has a police force. You
186. 8:23should be able to defend yourself.
187. 8:24there's still some British in the
188. 8:26country who don't have any good
189. 8:27intentions. Blah blah blah. Either way,
190. 8:30back then it kind of made sense and they
191. 8:33should probably or they very much should
192. 8:36have adapted it by then, but it was
193. 8:38never adapted because
194. 8:41uh it's an amendment. It's in the Bill
195. 8:43of Rights. The Bill of Rights should
196. 8:44never be adapted and so on and so on and
197. 8:46so on. This is the argument that proun
198. 8:50lobbies always use and it's a very
199. 8:52powerful one because all Americans
200. 8:54respect the Bill of Rights. It's what
201. 8:55gives them their freedom. It is the
202. 8:57foundation of our country. Blah blah. Um
203. 9:01either way, they use the Second
204. 9:02Amendment as a reason to never um adapt
205. 9:05gun laws too much. Uh, however, it
206. 9:08doesn't really have anything to do
207. 9:11anymore with the second amendment that
208. 9:12you can, for example, own uh 10
209. 9:15silencers for your gun or something like
210. 9:17that. That is not specified in the 10th
211. 9:19amendment in the second amendment,
212. 9:20sorry, at all. So, that's something that
213. 9:22they made up along the way and nobody
214. 9:24seems to mind very much. Uh, the third
215. 9:27amendment is about the quartering of
216. 9:29soldiers. Um,
217. 9:32like it says here, it has never been
218. 9:34tested in the Supreme Court. And that
219. 9:36kind of says said it all. Nobody still
220. 9:38uses the third amendment really. Uh the
221. 9:41third amendment is pretty much just in
222. 9:44simple terms that if uh a soldier wants
223. 9:47to uh come to your house and for example
224. 9:53um use your bike or steal your bike so
225. 9:56that he can bike away or something like
226. 9:57that. They are not allowed to do that
227. 9:59without your permission. That's kind of
228. 10:02it. Uh it makes equally as much sense in
229. 10:04this bill of rights as the second
230. 10:05amendment. However, the third amendment,
231. 10:07everybody's always like, "Yeah, okay.
232. 10:08We're not doing that anymore." And
233. 10:10somehow the second amendment, we are
234. 10:12still doing that even though it is
235. 10:14equally as outdated as the fourth one.
236. 10:17Okay, moving on to the fourth amendment.
237. 10:21It um is the amendment that protects you
238. 10:23from unreasonable searches and seizures.
239. 10:26A search is like a frisk. So, if you if
240. 10:29you don't know what that is, uh that's
241. 10:31what happens if you go to the airport
242. 10:32and you've beeped in the metal detector,
243. 10:34then you're searched by a police
244. 10:36officer. Uh a seizure would be um when
245. 10:40they come to your house and they want to
246. 10:43search the premises. Um this amendment
247. 10:46ensures that you are not um subjected to
248. 10:50unreasonable searches and seizures. And
249. 10:53it's a bit ironic that this is the
250. 10:55fourth amendment because over the years,
251. 10:58for example, in New York City, they've
252. 11:00implemented a um procedure called stop
253. 11:03and frisk. To frisk means to search. Um
254. 11:08and it allows police officers to in the
255. 11:12street or wherever stop anyone that they
256. 11:14think looks suspicious without any good
257. 11:17reason, without having to give a good
258. 11:19reason even and search them. Um,
259. 11:23as you can kind of assume already, this
260. 11:26has led to a lot of very very racist
261. 11:30um,
262. 11:32law enforcement incidents because
263. 11:34apparently to not all, but most
264. 11:37apparently uh, New York police officers,
265. 11:40a good reason to stop and frisk someone
266. 11:42is simply because they are black or
267. 11:44Latino. um which is really really unfair
268. 11:48and it's unconstitutional because it
269. 11:51goes directly against this fourth
270. 11:52amendment.
271. 11:54Uh the fifth amendment is called due
272. 11:56process of law blah blah. Um the only
273. 11:59thing that's important about this is the
274. 12:01phrase to plead the fifth. Um if you
275. 12:04watch a lot of uh court shows you might
276. 12:07have heard this. If a character in a
277. 12:09court show, for example, is arrested and
278. 12:12questioned by the police, they can say,
279. 12:14"I plead the fifth." And that means that
280. 12:16they don't have to talk anymore. Same
281. 12:18thing goes for witnesses in court cases.
282. 12:21Pretty much anyone that's involved in
283. 12:23something,
284. 12:25some crime, can plead the fifth, meaning
285. 12:27that they have the right to not speak.
286. 12:30Um, you've heard the uh like the little
287. 12:34standard speech that cops give on TV
288. 12:36shows to uh people that they arrest. Uh,
289. 12:39the one that's like
290. 12:42um, God damn it. I'm totally blanking on
291. 12:43it right now.
292. 12:46[ __ ] me.
293. 12:49I'm so tired. I'm sorry. This is so
294. 12:51weird for you guys. Um, what was I
295. 12:54saying even? I should probably pause,
296. 12:56but
297. 12:59Oh, yeah. All right. Okay. So, in in cop
298. 13:02shows where they say anything you say
299. 13:03can and will be used against you in the
300. 13:05court of law. Um, no, wait. [ __ ] So,
301. 13:08again,
302. 13:10yeah, I should I should p
303. 13:13Yeah. No, [ __ ] it. I'm up to 10 minutes.
304. 13:15I'm not doing all of this again. So,
305. 13:16from this from the top. So, um, in cop
306. 13:21shows, you must have seen someone
307. 13:22getting arrested. Uh, and the cop
308. 13:26usually uses the the whole standard
309. 13:28phrase, you have the right to remain
310. 13:29silent. Anything you say can and will be
311. 13:31used against you in the court of law.
312. 13:33The whole you have the right to remain
313. 13:35silent bit. That's the fifth amendment.
314. 13:37You literally have the right to not
315. 13:39speak. If you do that, you say [ __ ] it.
316. 13:42I'm pleading the fifth. I'm not telling
317. 13:44you [ __ ] cop. Okay. Sorry about that
318. 13:49interesting intermetso there. Uh the
319. 13:51sixth one is the right to a fair trial.
320. 13:54So apparently they don't really do that,
321. 13:57but everybody does have the right to a
322. 13:59fair trial according to the
323. 14:00constitution. Um then the seventh
324. 14:04amendment um guarantees that in civil
325. 14:08cases, civil cases simply means cases
326. 14:11about civilians, so civilians killing
327. 14:13one another, whatever, um you have the
328. 14:15right to a trial by jury. So, it's not
329. 14:18just a judge deciding you're guilty or
330. 14:20you're not guilty. It's an entire jury
331. 14:22of usually 12 to 13 people. Um, an
332. 14:26important thing that they've added to
333. 14:28this amendment uh afterwards is a jury
334. 14:31of your peers. A peer is an equal of
335. 14:34yours. So, for example, um your peers
336. 14:37are your classmates because they are uh
337. 14:40from the same town, they are the same
338. 14:42age, they probably they're probably
339. 14:45interested in the same things, etc.,
340. 14:46etc. they are your peers. Why is it
341. 14:48important that they added this later on?
342. 14:50Uh again, once again, it always has to
343. 14:53do with racism in the United States. Um
344. 14:56up until the late '7s, um lots of black
345. 14:59people were convicted by an all-white
346. 15:01jury, which seems truly very, really
347. 15:04unfair. Uh especially in the South where
348. 15:07white people tend to be quite racist.
349. 15:10So, a lot of people were convicted
350. 15:11innocently by a jury because the jury
351. 15:14did not consist of their peers.
352. 15:17Nowadays, when you are, for example, a
353. 15:19black person and you have to go to
354. 15:21trial, your lawyer should, if they're
355. 15:24smart, uh, make sure that there are at
356. 15:25least a few fellow uh, black people in
357. 15:28the jury because that is your
358. 15:30constitutional right. You have a right
359. 15:32to trial by jury of your peers. Then
360. 15:37almost there. Uh the eth amendment um
361. 15:42protects you from cruel and unusual
362. 15:44punishments. Uh which sounds great.
363. 15:46However, this is pretty vague. Uh it's
364. 15:49not really specified what they mean by
365. 15:52cruel and unusual punishments. Um and
366. 15:54that's not good. If a law is vague, that
367. 15:57means people are going to uh abuse it
368. 16:00because they've interpreted it wrong.
369. 16:01Either way, technically you are
370. 16:04protected by the eth amendment of the
371. 16:05bill of rights. Then some technical
372. 16:09ones. The ninth amendment amen
373. 16:12amendment. There you go. Uh the ninth
374. 16:14amendment is called non-enumerated
375. 16:16rights. And it simply means like it says
376. 16:19right here that people possess more
377. 16:22rights than those that are listed in the
378. 16:24constitution. Meaning that if you want
379. 16:26to interpret the law very very
380. 16:28literally, it's not just these 10
381. 16:30rights. you have more rights.
382. 16:33And then finally,
383. 16:37um there's a 10th amendment that
384. 16:40guarantees the states rights. Uh at this
385. 16:43point, the country still consists of the
386. 16:4513 uh original colonies, so the 13 first
387. 16:48states. Um they've been making laws
388. 16:52since I don't know the the early 1700s,
389. 16:56the late 1600s. So they already have
390. 16:58laws and they're like, "Yeah, okay. you
391. 17:00guys with your federal constitution,
392. 17:02blah blah. That's all that's all great,
393. 17:03but uh we put some work into this. So,
394. 17:05we don't just want to give up our laws
395. 17:08uh and our rights.
396. 17:10And this 10th amendment guarantees them
397. 17:13that they uh can also decide on what
398. 17:16rights and um what rights a person has
399. 17:20and uh what laws they should follow. Um
400. 17:24that's good for our entertainment really
401. 17:26and nothing much else. uh because a lot
402. 17:29of these older states rights are really
403. 17:32weird. If you have a free moment and
404. 17:35you're really really bored sometime, you
405. 17:37should definitely Google uh odd state
406. 17:39laws uh because that's worth um that's
407. 17:43worth a little bit of your time. I'm
408. 17:44going to give you a few examples uh off
409. 17:46the top of my head. For example, in um
410. 17:49Alabama, I think it's illegal to dine in
411. 17:52a restaurant that's on fire. You cannot
412. 17:54do that. Um, in Tennessee, uh, it's
413. 17:58illegal to ask money for a piano
414. 18:01performance if you only have one arm.
415. 18:05Um, in Florida, it's illegal to bathe
416. 18:09with your alligator. You can take him
417. 18:11into your swimming pool, but not your
418. 18:13bathtub. Um, I don't know how you were
419. 18:17going to make that work in the first
420. 18:18place, but hey, it's Florida. You never
421. 18:20know. Um, in Texas it's illegal to dust
422. 18:23a public building with a feather duster.
423. 18:26Um, still in Texas it's also illegal to
424. 18:29paint your cow yellow. You can paint it
425. 18:31whatever other color. Uh, you can paint
426. 18:34other animals yellow but not your cow
427. 18:36and not yellow. And then one of the
428. 18:38weirder ones, it is illegal still Texas.
429. 18:40It is illegal to shoot a buffalo from
430. 18:44the second story of a hotel. So
431. 18:47apparently it is legal to shoot any
432. 18:50other animal from the second story of a
433. 18:51hotel. Uh you can also shoot a buffalo
434. 18:54from the first uh and the third, fourth,
435. 18:57fifth, whatever story of your hotel. You
436. 18:59can also shoot a buffalo from the second
437. 19:00story of your house, but not a buffalo,
438. 19:02not the second story and not a hotel. Um
439. 19:05there's many more like these. There's a
440. 19:07lot in Alaska that involve moosees in
441. 19:09weird ways. Uh apparently you cannot eat
442. 19:12your moose when it's still alive. That
443. 19:14seems, you know, the nice thing to do.
444. 19:16Uh, Florida mainly has stuff about
445. 19:18alligators. Um, there's a thousand more
446. 19:21like these. So, again, if you want to
447. 19:23have some fun, definitely look those up.
448. 19:26Um, here, that's the last thing I want
449. 19:28to say. It states again that this Bill
450. 19:31of Rights um only goes for landowning
451. 19:34white males. So, everybody else does not
452. 19:37have these same rights um and won't for
453. 19:41quite a long time to come.
454. 19:45Okay. That's the Bill of Rights.