First Amendment Time Machine
The First Amendment begins with these four words, emphasizing the restriction placed upon the federal legislature.
What is “Congress shall make no law”?
This 1919 case involving antidraft leaflets gave birth to the famous “clear and present danger” test.
What is Schenck v. United States?
Freedom of speech allows people to express different ideas and opinions in an effort to discover this.
What is the truth?
First Amendment protection extends beyond speakers to receivers of messages, creating this complementary constitutional freedom.
What is the right to hear (or read)?
In Tinker, students wore these to school to peacefully express opposition to the Vietnam War.
What are black armbands?
This colonial publisher was acquitted of seditious libel after his attorney urged the jury not to punish him for publishing substantially truthful criticism of New York’s governor.
Who was John Peter Zenger?
Holmes and Brandeis’s dissent in this case helped give birth to the “marketplace of ideas” metaphor.
What is Abrams v. United States?
Freedom of speech helps citizens participate in democracy by discussing political issues and making informed decisions.
What is the self-governing function?
The Supreme Court has held that public school students cannot be forced to recite this patriotic statement.
What is the Pledge of Allegiance?
The student banner reading these four words led the Supreme Court to uphold discipline for speech interpreted as advocating illegal drug use.
What is “Bong Hits for Jesus”?
Passed during the Adams administration, these laws increased federal power over noncitizens and criminalized certain criticisms of the government.
What were the Alien and Sedition Acts?
Justice Brandeis’s opinion in this case gave us the idea that the proper remedy for bad or dangerous speech is “more speech, not enforced silence.”
What is Whitney v. California?
A free press performs this function by watching government officials and reporting their successes, failures, and abuses.
What is the checking function?
Burning a flag, marching, dancing, sitting, and even operating a tattoo parlor can fall into this First Amendment category when the conduct communicates a message.
What is symbolic conduct?
Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), media employees who do not fall within a professional exemption are generally entitled to this additional compensation after working more than 40 hours per week.
What is overtime pay?
In this 1925 case, the Supreme Court used what became known as the doctrine of incorporation to apply freedom of speech to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment.
What is Gitlow v. New York?
Under this 1969 case, advocacy of force or lawbreaking remains protected unless it is directed toward producing imminent lawless action and is likely to produce that action.
What is Brandenburg v. Ohio?
Allowing people to express frustration and advocate for change peacefully may help prevent their anger from turning into violence.
What is the safety valve function?
Under the three-part test for these restrictions, a regulation must be content neutral, narrowly tailored to further an important government interest, and leave ample alternative means of communication.
What are time, place, and manner restrictions?
Under the chapter's summary of public-employee doctrine, speech is most likely to receive protection when it concerns this type of issue rather than ordinary workplace politics.
What is a matter of public concern?
Contrary to what its name might suggest, the First Amendment originally appeared in this numerical position among the amendments submitted as the Bill of Rights.
What is third?
This famous dispute involving classified documents established that the government carries a “heavy burden” when attempting to stop publication through prior restraint.
What is the Pentagon Papers case? (New York Times Co. v. United States is also acceptable.)
This function of free speech focuses on the personal value people receive from expressing their own thoughts, ideas, and identity.
What is the self-fulfillment function?
Auditoriums and government meeting rooms may fall into this forum category: the government need not open them to outsiders, but once it does, it must administer access evenhandedly.
What is a limited public forum?
In Parker v. Levy, the Supreme Court explained that this famous incitement standard applicable to civilians does not govern political speech within the military.
What is the Brandenburg test?