Worked examples
Two examples
Example 1
A group of nurses at a city hospital in Queens is worried about short staffing. They write a letter, all of them sign it, and they send it to the City Council, asking it to pay for more nurses.Which of the five First Amendment freedoms protects this most directly?
- Picture the five freedoms in the order the amendment gives them: religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition.
- Ask what the people are doing. They are not practicing a faith, and they are not publishing a newspaper. They are not gathering in one place, either; they are signing a letter.
- Ask to whom the letter goes, and what it asks for. It goes to the City Council, which is part of the government, and it asks the government to fix a problem.
- A formal request to the government to fix a wrong is a petition. The amendment protects the right “to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” (A redress of grievances means the correcting of complaints.)
- Speech is close, because the letter expresses the nurses’ ideas. But this letter does more than express ideas. It is a formal request, sent to the government, asking it to fix a problem.
- So the freedom is petition. If the nurses later gathered together outside City Hall, that gathering would be assembly. But signing and sending the request is petition.
Answer: Petition
Example 2
An online news site based in the Bronx reports that a city agency ignored hundreds of complaints about lead paint. The agency asks a judge to order the site to take the story down.Which of the five First Amendment freedoms protects the news site?
- Ask who is being protected. It is a news site, an organization that publishes news.
- Ask what the government is trying to do. It is trying to stop a story from being published.
- Chapter 7 says freedom of the press protects newspapers, magazines, books, and today news websites, and that the government generally may not stop a story from being published.
- Speech is close, because a story expresses ideas. But the one being protected here is a news site, which publishes news. The First Amendment names that freedom separately, as the freedom of the press.
- So the freedom is press.
Answer: Press
Where this is taught: Civics, Chapter 7: The First Amendment
In your Kaplan book: Unit 3, Chapter 3, Lesson 2: Constitutional Government · Map of the Terrain, topic 21: The First Amendment
The drill
Ten questions
How many:
Read each question, and any reading or table in its box. Then tap your answer; a few questions ask you to choose words from a drop-down instead, the way the GED test does. Press Check my answers at the bottom.Read each question, and any reading or table in its box. Circle your answer; where there are brackets, circle the choice that fits. The answer key, with the reasoning, is on the last page.