Civil Rights and Liberties

• 1833
• The Supreme Court determined that the Bill of Rightsrestricted the national government but not the state governments.
• Overturned by 14th Amendment in Gitlow vs. New York

• 1925
• Concerned freedonm of speech and freedom of the press.
• Ruled that state limits on speech and teh press could not exceed thae limits allowed by the national government.
• Created the "Bad Tendency Doctrine," which held that speech could be restricted even if it only has a tendency to lead to illegal action.

Applying federal law/Bill of Rights to state law on a case-by-case basis.

• 2nd Amendment right to bear arms.
• 3rd Amendment protecting against forced quartering of troops in private homes.
• 5th Amendment right to indictment by grand jury.
• 7th Amendment right to a jury trial in all civil cses.
• 8th Amendment protection against excessive bail and fines.

• 1963
• Incorporated the 6th Amendment right to legal counsel.

• 1919
• Schenck, a socialist, handed out pamphlets that encouraged resistance against the draft.
• Chief Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes ruled that 1st Amendment speech rights are not protected if it evokes "clear and present danger", nor is slander, libel, obscenity, or speech used to incite violence.
• Used the famous "fire!" example.

Reflects the Court's belief that freedom of speech is fundamental to liberty; therefore any limits on free speech must address severe, imminent threats to the nation, and mist also be limited to contraining those threats.

• 1969
• Students in a Iowa school were suspended for wearing black armbands to protest the Vietnam War.
• The Court ruled that this suspension was unconstitutional, and that public school students do not "shed their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse door."

• 1986
• This case gave public school officials that authority to suspend students for speech considered to be lewd or indecent.

• 1988
• In this much-publicized case, the Court held that intentional infliction of emotional distress was permissible 1st Amendment--so long as such speech was about a public official, and could not reasonably be construed to state actual facts about its subject.

• 1989
• Johnson established that burning the American flag is an example of permissible free speech, and struck down numerous anti-flag burning laws.

• 2007
• This case was known as the "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" case, in which the Supreme Court limited students' free speech rights.
• The justices ruled that Frederick's free speech rights were not violated by his suspension over what the majority's written opinion called a "sophomoric" banner.

• 2010
• The case established that corporations have a First Amendment right to expressly support political candidates for Congress and the White House

• Laws designed to protect reporters from having to disclose their sources.
• Exists in state laws concerning state cases, but not in all states.
• Never applies to federal cases.

• Would the average person, applying community standards, judge the work as appealing primarily to people's baser sexual instincts?
• Does the work lack other value, or is it also of literary, artistic, political, or scientific interest?
• Does the work depict sexual behavior in an offensive manner?

1931