'If the freedom of speech is taken away,' said America's first president George Washington, 'then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.' His view was shared by Thomas Jefferson, a fellow Founding Father and America's third president, who declared: 'Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.' These two men helped create the initial United States Constitution and subsequent Bill of Rights that included the First Amendment which was specifically designed to protect the very freedoms they were referring to. That Amendment states: 'Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.'