How the First Amendment Protects Freedom of Religion and Speech?

How the First Amendment Protects Freedom of Religion and Speech?
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The first amendment's key idea protects the people from the government in preventing the practice of religion and expression. It prevents lawmakers to make laws that can deny the people the establishment of religion, the free exercise of religion, the right to criticize the government, press freedom, and the right to assembly and petition (U.S. Const. amend. I).
Freedom of Religion
The first amendment emphasizes two clauses concerning the freedom of religion, the establishment clause, and the free exercise clause. Under the establishment clause, “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion (U.S. Const. amend. I).” This clause can be interpreted in many ways. The first interpretation is that the US government cannot establish a national religion in the United States (Edwards & Wattenberg, 2016). The second interpretation is that the US government cannot favor one religion over another, but the US government can provide assistance as long as there is no favoritism (Edwards & Wattenberg, 2016). The third interpretation is that there is a “wall of separation” between the church and the state, which the government cannot break (Edwards & Wattenberg, 2016). In other countries, there are recognized religions that are considered as national institutions that can allow religious persecution in the citizens, such as the Sharia law, thus the first amendment separates the powers of the state and the church.
Under the free exercise clause, the first amendment protects the people to believe any religion of their choosing or hold no religious belief at all (Edwards & Wattenberg, 2016). It doesn’t matter whether a person may want to believe non-...