First Amendment Issues

Censorship in the 1980s Most major case concerned rock music. The Washington Wives were well connected women, including Tipper Gore (Al Gore’s now separated wife, he was Clinton’s vice president and ran for president in 2000). Wanted to clean up music that was on the radio and on cassette and vinyl. Wanted a similar system to that used to rate movies. They would gain that system.

Prayer in School Throughout the 1980s, students were given the opportunity to have moments of silence in schools and were permitted to pray. Prayer could only come from students, it could not be initiated by faculty. It is compared to the court rulings on the pledge of allegiance. Both prayer in schools and the pledge have been debated due to the Establishment Clause, which prevents a state sponsored religion.

Equal Access Act Public high school are required to provide equal access to extracurricular clubs. Lobbied for by Christian groups who wanted to ensure students the right to conduct Bible study programs during lunch and after school, it is also essential in litigation regarding the right of students to form gay–straight alliances. If a school receives federal aid and has a "limited open forum," or at least one student-led non-curriculum club that meets outside of class time, it must allow additional such clubs to be organized, and must give them equal access to meeting spaces and school publications.

Burning of the American Flag Symbolically burned, often in protest of the policies of the American government, both within the country and abroad. Texas v Johnson, Still has content-neutral restrictions may still be imposed to regulate the time, place, and manner of such expression.

School Control Over Student Publications Hazelwood School District v Kuhlmeier, School principal removed an article concerning divorce and another concerning teen pregnancy, the student journalists sued, claiming their First Amendment rights were violated. A 5-3 decision in 1988, the Supreme Court overturned the circuit court decision with a majority opinion that school administrators could exercise prior restraint of school-sponsored expression, such as newspapers and assembly speeches, if the censorship is "reasonably related to legitimate pedagogical concerns". In this, school-sponsored newspapers are considered limited public forums of expression.

End of the ban on the teaching of evolution unless accompanied by instruction about creationism in Louisiana. Edwards v. Aguillard, Louisiana law requiring that creation science be taught in public schools, along with evolution, was unconstitutional because the law was specifically intended to advance a particular religion. It also held that "teaching a variety of scientific theories about the origins of humankind to school children might be validly done with the clear secular intent of enhancing the effectiveness of science instruction".