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| United States Case Law on Freedom of Expression |
Speech that is not protected under the First
Amendment
- Obscenity: "If a state obscenity law is [appropriately] limited,
First Amendment values are adequately protected by ultimate independent
appellate review of constitutional claims when necessary." Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15 (1973).
- Defamation: "[I]t is recognized that punishment for the abuse of
the liberty accorded to the press is essential to the protection of the
public, and that the common-law rules that subject the libeler to
responsibility for the public offense, as well as for the private injury, are
not abolished by the protection extended in our Constitutions." Near v. State of Minnesota Ex Rel. Olson, 283
U.S. 697 (1931).
- Causing panic: "The most stringent protection of free speech would
not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic."
Schenck v. United States, 249 U.S. 47 (1919).
- Fighting words: The U.S. Supreme Court held that the First
Amendment does not protect "fighting words -- those which by their very
utterance inflict injury or tend to incite an immediate breach of the peace."
Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire, 315 U.S.
568 (1942).
- Sedition: "We reject any principle of governmental helplessness in
the face of preparation for revolution, which principle, carried to its
logical conclusion, must lead to anarchy. No one could conceive that it is not
within the power of Congress to prohibit acts intended to overthrow the
Government by force and violence." Dennis v.
United States, 341 U.S. 494 (1951), where one of the "acts" which the
Court found the government could prohibit was to knowingly and willfully
"advocate and teach the duty and necessity of overthrowing and destroying the
Government of the United States by force and violence."
Other
Cases
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