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 1st 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
1st 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
• 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.