Freedom of Speech Congress shall make no law… abridging the freedom of speech”.

Freedom of Speech is NOT absolute Free speech is intended to allow for both popular but also unpopular ideas.

Obscenity Obscenity- Problem?-

Obscenity con’t Miller v. California(1973) gives court a three part test to try and define obscenity: 1.Would the average person applying contemporary community standards find the material, taken as a whole, appeals to prurient interest (That is, an unwholesome, or unusual interest in sex)? 2.Does the work depict, 3.Does the work

Miller v. California (1973) What happened in this case? Who are the parties? What are the important facts?

Defamation Defamation- When spoken  When written  Example: A patient said that her doctor was careless and had caused the death of patients. If other heard these remarks, the doctor could sue for slander if the statement is false

Commercial Speech Commercial Speech- In general, the courts allow the government to ban commercial speech that is false or misleading or that provides information about illegal products. Alcohol companies “strength wars”.

Commercial Speech Examples Advertising Contraceptives 

Bates v. State Bar of Arizona (1977) What happened in this case? Who are the parties? What are the important facts?

Fighting Words, Offensive Speakers, and Hostile Audiences The 1 st amendment does not protect you if you use words that are so abusive or threatening that they amount to what the U.S. Supreme court Words spoken face to face  Clear and Present Danger- (Unlawful action doesn’t have to occur right after the speech).

Fighting Words, Offensive Speakers, and Hostile Audiences In recent years there has been an effort to punish those who express views—called hate speech—motivated by bigotry and racism. Some argue that hate speech leads to fighting words and therefore not protected under the 1 st amendment. Others argue that the gov’t cannot decide what is allowable and what is not.

Feiner v. New York (1951) What happened in this case? Who are the parties? What are the important facts?

Time, Place and Manner Restrictions Gov’t can make reasonable regulation based on the time, place, and manner of the speech. Courts analyze such regulations by first determining whether the site affected is a public forum. Ex: Street or a park.

Symbolic Speech To convince a court that symbolic speech should be punished and not protected, the gov’t must show it has an important reason and not that it does not agree with the message.

Symbolic Speech Examples Flag Burning  Picketing  Burning draft cards  Student wearing Black Armbands 

Texas v. Johnson (1989) What happened in this case? Who are the parties? What are the important facts?

Vagueness

The First Amendment in Prisons and the Military Penological: Individual rights are often very limited when related to the military and prisons.