1. The First Amendment holds the words of the “Establishment Clause”, which protects the government from enforcing an official religion or favoring one religion against another. It asserts the separation of church and state into religious freedom for individuals. The test famously known as “Lemon Test” is determined through the supreme court case of 1971 Lemon V. Kurtzman for judging if government action violates Establishment Clause. The test contains three last points: “first, the action must have a secular purpose (non-religious reason for the law or policy).” Second, neither advance nor inhibit religion as the primary effect. Lastly, the excessively entangled government with religious matters. Violation of any of these criteria amounts to unconstitutional action based on the Establishment clause.
2. Yes, burning the U.S. flag is covered under the First Amendment as symbolic speech, according to the 1989 Supreme Court ruling. In the case, Gregory Lee Johnson burned an American flag during a political protest, and he was charged under Texas law for desecration of a venerated object. The Supreme Court decided, in a 5-4 decision, that flag burning constituted expressive conduct that, therefore, fell under the protection of the First Amendment regarding free speech. The Court went on to say that while flag burning may be offensive to many, political expression of such an act would be protected from the category of ‘fighting words’ or ‘incitement to violence,’ which are exceptions to the free speech protections
3. “I’m taking the Fifth” invokes the right for someone to refuse to testify as a witness in a legal proceeding in most cases with respect to their self-incrimination, as protected by the Fifth Amendment. The Amendment implies that a man cannot be forced to testify against himself and will avail many protections. One popular usage is before police interrogations, or more formally, before a court under conditions where the person’s answer to the question might inculpate him into a crime. By “taking the Fifth,” persons will not furnish information against themselves. This has been a fundamental safeguard of imparting justice in the United States legal system to prevent coercing testimonies
