• LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Ask 20 people on the street who advocated for for free press to be added to the constitution. I’d take a guess that maybe 2 of them will get it right, maybe. The other 18 will say either the founding fathers, the states being asked to join, or they don’t know.

        It isnt a religion or people would know that Moses did A, Jesus did B, etc. It’s just a lack of knowing or remembering details so people just say “founding fathers” as a blanket term to cover the legislatures of the time.

        That doesn’t mean people don’t believe in freedom of the press, they just believe it was wise of James Madison to ensure it was included in the first amendment. Also I’m sure others can argue he wasn’t the only one advocating for it, so a blanket plural works for many.

        I understand how it will come across as “we’ve always done it that way” which in Judicial branch they call precedent. Should precedent always hold, not at all. For the most part though, we’ve only had to stray from the core of that writing 17 times since the “completed” constitution was ratified. (Because the first 10 were in the Bill of Rights which were required by the States to ratify it)