Kaplan Admission Test Reading
Read the passage below and answer the questions that follow Individual Rights Versus Community Needs 1Because civil liberties and rights are fundamental to democracy, it is often assumed that personal freedoms cannot be limited in such a system. When individuals exercise their freedoms in ways that are harmful to other individuals or to the society as a whole, however, a conflict arises between individual rights and the needs of the community. The freedom of individuals, like the power of government, must have limits 2The First Amendment to the US Constitution, for example, guarantees the rights of all citizens to the freedoms of speech, press, and assembly. People can organize to achieve common purposes and can express personal opinions without these rights being abridged; however, freedom of assembly does not extend to people who meet for the purpose of conspiring to bomb a department store or for other purposes that would threaten others. Freedom of the press does not prevent a newspaper from being sued when it prints libelous statements. As Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes declare, "The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man falsely shouting Fire!' in a theatre and causing a panic. Thus, individual freedoms, although guaranteed by the Constitution, must be somewhat limited if public order and the rights of others are to be preserved. 3There are times, however, when the boundaries between First Amendment rights and community rights are not clear-cut. This is particularly true when the exercise of free speech and press conflict with the taste and standards of the community. A novel hat is considered a masterpiece in literary circles may be considered "obscene literature by the general community. What is the meaning of "obscenity? What are community standards? How can the effects of such literature on the community be measured? Obviously, questions like these are not easily answered by the courts. 4The procedural rights of suspected or accused criminals can also conflict with the welfare of the community. For example, the Constitution protects people against unreasonable searches and seizures, against self-incrimination, and against being detained without a writ of habeas corpus an order issued by a court to show cause for such a detention. 5Decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court led by Chief Justice Earl Warren supported stringent adherence to these procedural rights. In opposition, many law enforcement officials and others maintained that such protection of suspected criminals inhibited control of crime and threatened community safety. 6The Supreme Court led by Chief Justice Warren E. Burger, subsequently, made a series of rulings that granted the e police more discretion than the Warren Court was willing to allow. The Burger Court gave prosecutors the right to rely on evidence obtained without search warrants in questioning witnesses before grand juries. Moreover, it watered down the Fourth Amendment's protection against unreasonable searches and seizures by permitting police to search a driver arrested for a traffic violation and to use the evidence to convict the driver of an entirely unrelated offense. Which of the following statement best expresses the main idea of paragraph 2?
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