First Amendment Freedoms Flashcards
First Amendment
prohibits Congress from establishing religion or interfering with the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedoms of speech and press, or interfering with the right of assembly. These prohibitions are applicable to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment.
Government Speech
The Free Speech Clause restricts government regulation of private speech; it does not require the government to aid private speech nor restrict the government from expressing its views. Generally, government speech and government funding of speech will be upheld if rationally related to a legitimate state interest.
Limitation to government speech rule
spending programs may not impose conditions that limit First Amendment activities of fund recipients outside the scope of the spending program itself. ex. the gov cannot require recipients of federal funds given to organizations to combat HIV/AIDS to agree in their funding documents that they oppose prostitution.
public monument
a city’s placement of a permanent monument in a public park is government speech, even if monument is privately donated.
When gov does fund private speech
must do so on viewpoint neutral basis unless its artists than it is based on the content of the art.
trademark protection
not government speech, private speech and is subject to strict scrutiny
content regulations
regulations forbidding communication of specific ideas
conduct regulations
regulations of the conduct associated with speaking, such as the time of the speech, sound level, etc.
content neutral speech regulations
subject to intermediate scrutiny - they must advance important interests unrelated to the suppression of speech and must not burden substantially than necessary (or must be narrowly tailored to further those interests.
conduct
can be regulated by content-neutral time, place and manner restrictions.
Overbroad
a regulation of speech or speech related conduct punishes a substantial amount of protected speech in relation to its plainly legitimate sweep is facially invalid.
Void for Vagueness
if a criminal law or regulation fails to give persons reasonable notice of what is prohibited it will violate the DPC
Cannot give officials unfettered discretion
a regulation cannot give officials broad discretion over speech issues there must be defined standards for applying the law. If a statute gives licensing officials unbridled defined standards it is void on its face and speakers dont need to apply for a permit.
Scope of Speech
includes the freedom not to speak, symbolic acts
Can the government require you to salute the flag or display other messages with which you disagree?
No
symbolic acts
government may regulate if it has an important interest in the regulation independant of the speech aspects of the conduct and incidentally burdens the speech is not greater than necessary.
Can government compel a person to subsidize private messages she disagrees with
no, non-union members do not have to pay union dues
Can gov tax people and use revenue to express a message with which they may disagree?
yes, ( a beef producer can be required to pay an assessment to support government-sponsored generic advertising of beef even if the producer thinks generic advertising is a waste of money)
exception University Fees
The government can require public university students to pay a student activity fee even if fee is used to support political and idealogical speech by student groups whose beliefs are offensive to the student, as long as the program is viewpoint neutral.
Test for time place and manner restrictions on public forums and designated public forums
content neutral
narrowly tailored to serve an important government interest
leave open alternative channels of communication
- most government interests pass this
Test for limited public forums and non-public forums
viewpoint neutral
reasonably related to a legitimate government purpose
public forums
streets, sidewalks, public parks, the internet.
designated public forums
school rooms that are open for after school use by social, civic, or recreation groups.
limited public forums
school gym opened to host a debate on a particular community issue
nonpublic forums
government property not historically linked with speech and assembly and not held open for speech activities, such as military bases, schools while classes are in session, government workplaces, etc.)
regulations on content test
must be necessary to achieve a compelling government interest.
unprotected speech
inciting imminent lawless action fighting words obscenity defamatory speech some commercial speech
inciting imminent lawless action
creates a clear and present danger of imminent lawless action. Must be shown that imminent illegal conduct is likely and that the speaker intednded to cause it