1. First Amendment Rights
What are the limits????

2. With your neighbor, define the word “Right”
“Power or privilege that belongs to a person by law, nature or tradition.” Webster’s Dictionary

3. Here is the situation:
Let’s pretend that the Colorado state legislature has just passed a new law that says: “The minimum age for driving a motorized vehicle shall be 19 years of age”. The governor signed the law this week and the law will go into effect in three months.

4. The legal age for driving a car has always been 16
The legal age for driving a car has always been 16. Those already possessing a license will be allowed to drive, but youth between 16 and 19 who do not have a license must wait until they are and 15 year-olds are particularly unhappy, they must now wait 4 or 5 more years to drive!

5. The consequences are severe
The consequences are severe. How will students who live outside town get to school? What about kids who have jobs? What about kids who have payed for driving lessons? Young people are being unfairly punished!!!

6. Some students have organized a Teen Drivers Political Action Committee
Some students have organized a Teen Drivers Political Action Committee. They are investigating options for protesting this new law. Since the state legislature only allowed citizens of voting age to speak during public hearings, young people are even more upset, and are thinking of taking more serious action.

7. Here are ways the teens are considering to protest . . .
With a neighbor read through the following situations.
Label each of the following proposals with
P = protected speech
NP= Not protected free speech

8. P = protected, NP = not protected
Speaking against the state government on a busy street corner near the capitol. You consider insulting the governor.
Give a speech at Viele Lake and declare “We should revolt against the dictatorship of the state government because the legislature will not permit the expression of our opinions at public hearings.”

9. P = protected, NP = not protected
3. You consider distributing pamphlets at 29th Street and Flatiron Crossing criticizing the legislature and governor and ask shoppers to sign a petition to put the driving age issue on the ballot.
4. Drive through the neighborhoods where legislators live, using a loudspeaker to address the citizens
5. Conduct a march from Fairview down to City Hall.
6. Camp overnight in a “nonviolent sleep-in” in City Park, right by the state capitol.

10. Supreme Court “tests” or limits of First Amendment Rights – 6 of them
Clear and Present Danger
The First Amendment doesn’t protect statements that are uttered to provoke violence or cause panic.
Fighting words
Language that provokes a fight can be punished.

11. .
Libel and slander
Libel is written, Slander is spoken. You do not have a constitutional right to tell lies.
Obscenity (3 parts)
Would the average person in the local community viewing the work as a whole find it to be obscene?
Does the work depict or describe sexual conduct in an offensive way?
Does the work lack serious literary, artistic, o\political, or scientific value?

12. Balancing Doctrine
In times of war, there may be reasons to restrict First Amendment rights.
Time, Place and Manner
Did the expression occur at a time or place that is inappropriate or illegal? Did the speaker use methods of communicating the idea that were inappropriate?

13. Now re-examine your 6 guesses. . .
Would you change anything?

14. Speaking against the state government on a busy street corner near the capitol. You consider insulting the governor. _____
Not Protected – Feiner v New York, Iriving Feiner made insulting remarks toward the president and mayor in a street corner speech urging blacks to fight for their rights. The public was forced to walk onto a busy street around a crowd of listeners. When the crowd became hostile, police arresteed Feiner. The court declared, 6-3 that public safety was of greater significance than Fiener’s free speech.

15. Give a speech at Viele Lake and declare “We should revolt against the dictatorship of the state government because the legislature will not permit the expression of our opinions at public hearings.”_____
Protected – Brandenburg v Ohio, Brandenburg was a leader of the Ohio KKK. He declared that the government was trying to suppress the white race. He suggested that there might be some revenge. He was arrested for violating a state law regulating “criminal syndicalism”. The court ruled that a “state can not forbid speech it is not likely to incite or produce” imminent lawless action.

16. You consider distributing pamphlets at 29th Street and Flatiron Crossing criticizing the legislature and governor and ask shoppers to sign a petition to put the driving age issue on the ballot._____
Protected - Pruneyard Shopping Center v Robins, Mike Robins and a group of his classmates went to their local shopping mall to peacefully protest a United Nations Resolution they believed to be anti-Semitic. They passed out pamphlets and asked shoppers to sign a petition. Security guards at the mall asked them to leave and they did. The court found that Robins’ manner of speech was orderly and the activity was conducted in the common public area of the mall.

17. Drive through the neighborhoods where legislators live, using a loudspeaker to address the citizens ______
Not Protected - Kovacs v Cooper, Kovacs was publically protesting a loabor dispute through the city streets using a sound truck to broadcast his message. He was arrested for violating a local ordinance prohibiting the use of any sound equipment that resulted in a loud noise. The court ruled that the city had a legitimate interest in reasonably regulating the time place and volume of the sound. While the content of his speech was protected his method was not.

18. Conduct a march from Fairview down to City Hall. ______
Protected – Edwards v South Carolina 1963
Approximately 200 high school students conducted a peaceful march to the South Carolina State Capitol protesting racial discrimination. The Court ruled that a state may not “make criminal the peaceful expression of unpopular views”.

19. Camp overnight in a “nonviolent sleep-in” in City Park, right by the state capitol.______
Not Protected – Clark v Community for Creative Non-violence, A group of protesters concerned with the Reagan administration’s treatment of the nation’s poor camped and demonstrated in Lafayette Park across from the White House. They were arrested for camping on restricted government property. The Court ruled prohibition of camping on designated property was a reasonable restriction of the time, place, manner in which the First Amendment rights could be exercised.

20. Closure question
Do we still need the First Amendment Freedom of Speech protections? Why or why not?