Midterm Flashcards
According to Roscoe Pound, law can be defined as _________ engineering.
social
The five sources of law:
- common law
- equity law
- statutory law
- Constitutional law
- executive order and administrative rules
Common law is sometimes known as _________________________.
“Judge-made law”
List the four different options that courts have when offered a case as precedent by an attorney for one of the parties in a lawsuit.
- accept/follow
- modify/update
- distinguish
- overrule
List three typical forms of judicial decrees in equity law.
- temporary restraining order
- preliminary injunction
- permanent injunction
The U.S. Constitution is the _________________________________.
highest law in the land
Describe the “void for vagueness doctrine.
The “void for vagueness doctrine” deems that a statute or regulation is unconstitutional if the statute/regulation is so vague that someone of “reasonable and ordinary intelligence” would not know – after reading it – what is permitted and what is prohibited.
Why might a statute be declared unconstitutional because it violates the “overbreadth doctrine”?
A statute might be declared unconstitutional because it violates the overbreadth doctrine if the statute bans a substantial amount of something (like protected speech) in the process of banning its intended target: something unprotected (like unprotected speech).
What is the most relevant administrative agency for the purposes of media law?
Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
________ courts are fact-finding courts and _________ courts are law-reviewing courts.
Trial and appellate
The Supreme Court of the United States is:
the oldest federal court (operating since 1789).
Name the types of Supreme Court Opinions.
- opinion of the court (majority)
- concurring opinion
- dissenting opinion (minority)
- plurality opinion
- per curiam opinion (unsigned)
- memorandum order
A ________ is most likely to be found in the trial court of general jurisdiction (State Court System).
jury
One of the most important powers of courts (and at one time one of the most controversial) is the power of _________________.
Judicial review
The part who commences or brings a civil lawsuit is called the _____________.
plaintiff
The party to whom the suit is brought is called the _________________.
defendent
Several decades prior to the community censorship involving the Dixie Chicks in 2003, country music stations refused to play the songs of another female country music performer. Who was the performer and what were the songs in question about?
The other female country music performer who was censored was Loretta Lynn. Her songs, which include “The Pill” and “Rated X”, discussed a woman’s happiness in marriage after beginning birth control and the stigma/double standards divorced women face, respectively. They were bold, risky, and feminist songs.
The first constitution of the United States of America was adopted in what year?
1781
In a 2019 survey, only 22% of journalists know that the First Amendment protects _____________________.
a free press
Identify the two basic elements or parts of the symbolic speech doctrine.
- Actor – the person who conducts him/herself in a way intended to convey a particular message
- Audience – the people who witnesed the actor’s conduct and understood the message the actor intended it to convey
The seven First Amendment theories:
- absolutist theory
- ad hoc balancing theory
- preferred position balancing theory
- Maiklejohnian theory
- marketplace of ideas theory
- access theory
- self-realization theory
Suppression of freedom of expression reached a higher level during ___________________ than in any other time in our history.
World War I
An important, well-known Supreme Court ruling on prior restraints came in 1971 and addressed the federal government’s ability to ______________________________________________ that it contended jeopardized national secutiry during the war in Vietnam. This is the famous Pentagon Papers decision.
stop the publication of stolen/classified information
In 2005 a federal appellate court in ________________________________ upheld a permanent injunction barring Thurston Paul Bell from promoting and selling unlawful tax advice. Bell, as the court put it, was a “professional tax protester who ran a business and a Web site selling bogus strategies to clients endeavoring to avoid paying taxes.”
United States v. Bell
The __________ standard applies not only to students in public high schools, but also all the way down to students in public elementary schools.
Tinker
Why was Bretton Barber asked to remove his T-shirt at his public high school?
Bretton Barber wore a T-shirt with a photo of President George W. Bush and the words “International Terrorist.” One student complained, and the school requested that he remove his T-shirt.
The idea of “legitimate pedagogical concerns” is a standard that related to school newspaper censorship that came from the precedent setting __________________________________ case.
Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier
What important 1986 case involved a student being suspended by making a sexually suggestive speech nominating a classmate for student government at an assembly packed with 600 students?
Bethel School District v. Fraser
In ___________, the U.S. Supreme Court heard a student-speech case called Morse v. Frederick.
2007
Since the Supreme Court decision in Hazelwood, two federal appellate court decisions have addressed censorship by officials of student-run publications. They are:
- Kincaid v. Gibson
- Hosty v. Carter
How long did it take Virginia Tech officials to send an email warning to students about the 2007 shooting spree of Cho, who remained on the loose, and continued his on-campus rampage, ultimately killing 32 students before taking his own life?
more than 2 hours (2 hours 9 minutes)
The government can base its attempts at prior censorship on three additional factors beyond content:
- time
- place
- manner
What are the guidelines for time, place, and manner restrictions?
- Rules must be content neutral.
- Rules must not constitute a complete ban on communication.
- Rules must be justified by a substantial state interest.
- Rules must be narrowly tailored.
In the section on public forums, the text points out that there are no First Amendment guarantees of freedom of expression on ______________________.
private property
In 1991, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the ______________________ was a content-based regulation that violated the First Amendment. ______________________________________________
Son of Sam Laws; Simon and Schuster, Inc. v. New York Crime Victims Board
What 2011 court case protected the pseech of the Westboro Baptist church?
Snyder v. Phelps
The government cannot ________ invectives or epithets that simply injure someone’s feelings or are merely rude or discourteous.
prohibit
The ______________________ is clearly implicated in any election campaign.
First Amendment
The First Amendment was drafted long before the information superhighway. As each new medium has emerged – radio, motion pictures, over-the-air television and so on – the courts have had to __________ the scope of the First Amendment protection appropriate to that medium.
define
Describe net neutrality.
Net neutrality is a vague term that is used to suggest that Internet service providers should treat all traffic contnent similarly. They also should not charge extra money for or block access to faster services. It raises First Amendment issues, like the right to receive speech and the right to access information.
The roots of libel law in this country spring directly from _____________________.
British common law
_______ or libel, is what lawyers call a ______, or a civil wrong.
Defamation, tort
Libel is the publication or broadcast of any statement that: ___________________________________________________________________________-
“lowers the reputation of an individual by holding him or her up to contempt, ridicule, or scorn.”
Libel is the most __________ and often the most ____________ problem faced by people who work in the mass media.
common; troublesome
Oral defamation is called ___________.
slander
_____________ is any communication that holds a person up to contempt, hatred, ridicule or scorn.
Defamation
To win a libel suit, a plaintiff must prove:
- the libel was published
- words were of and concerning the plaintiff
- material is defamatory
- material is false
- defendant was at fault
Under the law, ___________ means that one person, in addition to the source of the libel and the person who is defamed, sees or hears the defamatory material.
publication
Courts regard communication on the _________ the same way they regard material published in newspapers, magazines, or books.
Web
CDA stands for:
Communications Decency Act
The injured party in a libel suit must show the court that the allegedly defamatory statement is “of and concerning him, her, or it.” This is known as:
identification
___________ as opposed to a flat assertion can be defamatory.
Innuendo
Criticism of a product falls into a different legal category, called:
“disparagement of property” (a.k.a. trade libel)
The first rule of proving ________ or _________ is that the evidence presented in court must go to the heart of the libelous charge.
truth; falsity
Even if a story contains nothing but truthful statements, it still might be regarded as false if important facts are left out and the story leaves a ____________________.
false impression
The New York Times v. Sullivan case involved an editorial-advertisement titled:
“Heed Their Rising Voices”
All public officials must also prove ________________ when suing for libel.
actual malice
By the end of the decade (1960s), the Supreme Court had extended the actual malice rule to plaintiffs whom the court called ______________.
public figures
Summarize the two basic rules of fault.
- Private persons who sue for defamation must at least prove that the material was published with negligence (failure to exercise reasonable care).
- Individuals who are either public officials or public figures for purposes of a defamation suit have to prove that the defendant exhibited actual malice (publishing with the knowledge that the libelous assertion was falso, or with reckless disregard for whether it is true or false) when the material was published.
