MMC4200 Exam 1

Although the trial court ruled in favor of the plaintiff, the Appellate and Supreme Court ruled in favor of the defendant, stating that the law prohibited the freedom of the press in airing a name they obtained legally.

Proponent of attainment of truth

“a citizen who seeks truth must hear all sides of the question, especially as presented by those who feel strongly and argue militantly for a different view. He must consider all alternatives, test his judgment by exposing it to opposition, make full use of different minds to sift the true from the false. Conversely, suppression of information, discussion, or the clash of opinion prevents one from reaching the most rational judgment, blocks the generation of new ideas, and tends to perpetuate error.”

Propopent of attainment of truth


valued free speech as much as Milton, not because truth would always prevail but because truth has no chance to prevail without freedom of expression. Silencing the opinion of even one person robs the human race. If a correct statement is suppressed, people are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth. If a false statement is suppressed, people lose what is almost a great benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.

Critic of attainment of truth

argued that the marketplace of ideas is an abstraction of little value to women because women are often too poor to buy speech. Women are victimized in the marketplace by the avalanche of pornography depicting them as sexual objects. Well financed and often violent pornography constitutes the “free speech of men” that “silences the free speech of women.”

Critic of attainment of truth


argued that the marketplace of ideas means little to minorities, dissidents, and fringe groups if they cannot gain access for their ideas in the monopoly daily newspapers found in most American cities

Proponent of governance


The First Amendment is not primarily a device for the winning of new truth. It is a device for the sharing of whatever truth has been won. Its purpose is to give every voting member of the body of politic the fullest possible participation in the understanding of those problems with which the citizens of a self-governing man’s judgement on issues of public policy. The primary purpose of the First Amendment is to aid citizens’ understand of the issues which bear upon our common life. No idea, no opinion, no doubt, no belief no counter belief, no relevant information may be kept from the people. Under the compact upon which the constitution rest, it is agreed that men shall not be governed by others, that they shall govern themselves.

Proponent of check on government power


freedom of expression is to be valued as a check on abuses of governmental authority. Media is an institutional counterweight to government. The press can expose political corruption if it scrutinizes government operations in a system that recognizes the First Amendment checking function of the present.

Proponent of change with stability

free expression can act as a safety valve, allowing critics to participate in change rather than seek influence through antisocial acts. Suppression drives the opposition underground leaving those suppressed either apathetic or desperate. It thus saps the vitality of the society or makes resort to force more likely. If freedom of expression promotes change with stability, dissident may work their ideas into the social fabric without resorting to a violent underground cell. Where freedom prevails, consensus may support orderly change.

Proponent of fulfillment


Freedom of expression is valued not only because of the social values it promotes but also because speaking and publishing enrich one’s life. Freedom of expression is a fundamental good, an end in itself, an expression of the sort of society we wish to become and the sort of persons we wish to be.

First Amendment rights of students at public high schools are weak. The first amendment protects expression by high school students as along as it’s not disruptive, obscene, or violative of the rights of other students. HS students have no First Amendment right to deliver “offensive” sexually oriented expression at a school-sponsored event. Principals can censor nondisruptive stories containing no offensive innuendo in a school-sponsored newspaper is the censorship served the educational mission of the school. Schools can impose virtually any reasonable regulation on school-sponsored expression, expression that includes student publications, plays, speech at assemblies, and any other expression that the public might associate with school. Principals may constitutionally restrict student speech at approved school events when the speech is reasonably viewed as promoting illegal drug use.

Students at state universities and colleges enjoy more First Amendment freedoms than high school students do. Courts ruled that state university officials lack the authority to ban offensive student expression “in the name alone of the ‘conventions of decency.’”

the First Amendment guarantees a variety of civil liberties and restricts the government from interfering with freedom of speech, the free exercise of religion, the freedom to assemble, the right of privacy, and the separation of church and state.

1. Political and social expression- Protected subject matter includes debate about elections, referenda, labor, race, health, agriculture, religion, education, and other political and social issues

2. Commercial and sexual expression- Because of the hardiness and verifiability of commercial speech, the Supreme Court says there is less reason to tolerate inaccurate or misleading commercial speech than to tolerate false political speech. Nude dancing/nonobscene sexual expression enjoys less First Amendment protection because it is expressive conduct within the outer perimeters of the First Amendment

3. Fighting words- Instead of benefitting society, it is argued, punishing hate speech may harm society by driving hate groups into dangerous underground cells. The Supreme Court has ruled that most expression of bigotry and prejudice is political speech protected by the First Amendment. Only words that amount to a slap in the face, expression that constitutes fighting words, are beyond constitutional protection. Fighting words are defined as those that by their very utterance inflict injury or tend to incite an immediate breach of the peace.

makes the first ten amendments to the Constitution—known as the Bill of Rights—binding on the states. Through incorporation, state governments largely are held to the same standards as the federal government with regard to many constitutional rights, including the FIRST AMENDMENT freedoms of speech, religion, and assembly, and the separation of church and state

It is used where regulations restrict the content of political, social, and artistic expression, skeptical judges subject the regulations to an analysis called Stright Scritny. It is a judicial requirement that a restriction on protected contents are 1.justified by a compelling government interest and (2) narrowly drawn so as to impose the minimum abridgment of free expression.