Cases Flashcards
NYT v. Sullivan
(1963) L.B. Sullivan, Montgomery, Ala., city commissioner - claiming defamation from NYT full-page ad against his city.
The Court held that the First Amendment protects the publication of all statements, even false ones, about the conduct of public officials except when statements are made with actual malice (with knowledge that they are false or in reckless disregard of their truth or falsity). Under this new standard, Sullivan’s case collapsed.
9 votes for NYT, 0 against
Schenck v. US
(1918) Charles Schenck - Secretary of the Socialist Party of America, was printing fliers during WWI that advocated opposition to the draft.
Holmes, speaking for a unanimous Court, concluded that Schenck is not protected in this situation. The character of every act depends on the circumstances. “The question in every case is whether the words used are used in such circumstances and are of such a nature as to create a clear and present danger that they will bring about the substantive evils that Congress has a right to prevent.” During wartime, utterances tolerable in peacetime can be punished.
9 votes for U.S., 0 against
Dennis v. US
Benjamin J. Davis - Chairman of the CPUSA’s Legislative Committee, indicted by USDC for conspiracy to fraudulently obtain services of NLRB
The Court ruled that Dennis did not have the right under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution to exercise free speech, publication and assembly, if the exercise involved the creation of a plot to overthrow the government.
7 votes for Dennis, 2 against
Smith Act
(1940) Prohibits willfully and knowingly conspiring to teach and advocate the overthrow of the government by force.
Yates v. US
(1956) Fourteen leaders of Communist Party in California tried/convicted under Smith Act.
Court reversed convictions and remanded cases to District Court for retrial. Court drew a distrinction between the “advocacy and teaching of forcible overthrow as an abstract principle” and the “advocacy and teaching of concrete action for the forcible overthrow of the Government.”
Abrams v. US
(1919) Defendants (Jacob Abrams) convicted for inciting resistance to the war effort and for urging cultailment of war material production for leaflets thrown from building.
Defendants’ criticism of U.S. involvement in WWI was not protected by 1st amend. because they advocated a strike in munitions production and the violent overthrow of the govt.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (dissent) - “I think that we shoudl be eternally vigilant against attempts to check the expression of opinions that we loathe and believe to be fraught with death”
Brandenburg v. Ohio
Brandenburg - Ku Klux Klan leader, made speech at Klan rally and was convicted under Ohio law which made illegal advocating “crime, sabotage, violence, or unlawful methods of terrorism as a means of accomplishing industrial or political reform.”
Unanimous decision, Ohio law violated Brandenburg’s right to free speech. Ohio law made illegal the advocacy and teaching of doctrines while ignoring whether or not that advocacy and teaching would actually incite imminent lawless action.
Near v. Minnesota
Jay Near, publisher of The Saturday Press in Minneapolis, attacked local officials, charging that they were implicated w/ gangsters. MN officials obtained an injunction to prevent Near from publishing his newspaper under a state law that allowed such action against periodicals.
PREVIOUS RESTRAINT
Court decided that the statute authorizing the injunction was unconstitutional as applied. History had shown that the protection against previous restraints was at the hear of the 1st Amend. Court said that the statutory scheme constituted a prior restraint and hence was invalid under 1st Amend. Govt. could not censor or otherwise prohibit a publication in advance.
Alien and Sedition Acts
(1978) Under the threat of war with France, Congress in 1798 passed four laws in an effort to strengthen the Federal government. Known collectively as the Alien and Sedition Acts, the legislation sponsored by the Federalists was also intended to quell any political opposition from the Republicans, led by Thomas Jefferson.
Espionage & Sedition Acts
Congress passed Espionage Act in 1917 and Sedition Act in 1918 to make illegal the speech and expression of opinion that cast the govt. or war effort in a negative light. Was upheld in Abrams v. US, though Holmes used dissenting opinion to make commentary on what has come to be known as “the marketplace of ideas.”
Thomas Jefferson
It is the main tool by which people protect themselves against abusive governments.
Walter Lippman
Even when government is working dutifully on behalf of its people, it can still benefit from outside critical analysis. (doctor and stomach ache analogy)
John Stuart Mill
3 arguments:
1) Their opinion might just be right (to believe otherwise is so assume our own infallibility),
2) Even if the opinion is wrong, it might contain some useful bit of truth, and
3) Even where it does not contain even a bit of truth, the necessity of proving this is a way for society to practice the defense of a value it considers important, namely free speech.
Alexis de Toceuqville
No doubt there is harmful expression, but to find it and outlaw it requires that some individual or group of individuals decide for the rest of us what is good and what is bad expression. The record on this kind of legislation is not good.
Oliver Wendell Holmes
“The ultimate good desired is better reached by free trade in ideas–that the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market…”
