First Amendment Freedoms Flashcards
Unprotected Speech - Obscenity
The First Amendment generally protects the right of freedom of speech, and this freedom includes the right to show movies. Obscenity is the category of unprotected speech most relevant here. The Court has defined obscenity as a depiction of sexual conduct that, taken as a whole, by the average person, using contemporary community standards: (i) appeals to the prurient interest in sex; (ii) portrays sex in a patently offensive way; and (iii) using a rational, reasonable person standard, does not have serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value. SCOTUS has held that while a statewide community standard may be used, it is not mandatory - a local community standard is sufficient to evaluate whether the film is “patently offensive”.
SPEECH - advertising on government property
SCOTUS has held that allowing advertising on government-owned property does not make the property a public forum; rather, the property is a commercial forum. Cities can differentiate between broad categories of speech in accepting advertisement on city-owned property, as long as restriction is viewpoint neutral and reasonably relate to a legitimate government interest.
