1st Amendment
Bart is ticked off. To make time for more standardized testing, the public school he attends has decided to reduce recess to three minutes a day. To protest the school's decision, he publishes a one-page flyer that says "Recess Rules! Standardized Testing Drools." As he has seen many other community activists do before, he takes his flyers to the town square, where he peacefully offers copies to passerby. Which of the following acts probably violates his First Amendment rights? A) A police officer politely orders Bart to stop distribution and go home B) A local merchant, an ardent support of standardized testing, angrily rips the flyers out of Bart's hands and shreds them C) Bart's mother, embarrassed by the all the hullabaloo, confiscates the flyers and grounds him for two weeks D) All of the above
A) A police officer politely orders Bart to stop distribution and go home The First Amendment only prohibits government officials (state actors) — such as the police officer in this case — from restricting a citizen's free speech activities. Neither the local merchant nor Bart's mom fall into that category. While their actions definitely limit Bart's speech, they do not violate the First Amendment.
Which of the following categories of speech is never protected by the First Amendment? A) Copyright infringement B) Ridiculing a person's sexual orientation C) Indecent speech D) Lying
A) Copyright infringement The First Amendment does not protect an individual's right to publish material that infringes another person's valid copyright interests. The First Amendment does protect — to at least some degree — the right of individuals to engage in the other listed speech activities.
Which of the following categories of speech is never protected by the First Amendment? A) Deceptive or misleading advertising B) Speech advocating that marijuana be legalized C) Speech that mocks a person's political views D) Erotic literature
A) Deceptive or misleading advertising The First Amendment does not protect an individual's right to publish deceptive or misleading ads. The First Amendment does protect — to at least some degree — the other listed types of speech.
A group advocating same-sex marriage has applied for a permit to march down Anytown's Main Street. The town's mayor — knowing the issue is highly controversial — has called for a special election in which the town's voters will decide whether the permit is granted. Which of the following statements is true? A) The mayor's plan is illegal. B) The mayor's plan is legal C) Whether the mayor's plan is legal or illegal depends on the outcome of the vote. D) It depends in which state Anytown is located since the law can vary significantly.
A) The mayor's plan is illegal. The First Amendment exists to protect unpopular or controversial speech. Indeed, if people only expressed thoughts or ideas with which everyone agreed, there would be no need for the First Amendment. For this reason, it is unconstitutional to allow the majority an opportunity to vote away an individual's or group of individual's First Amendment rights.
Which of the following categories of speech is never protected by the First Amendment? A) Hate speech B) Defamation C) Profanity D) Harsh criticism of a person's religious beliefs
B) Defamation The First Amendment does not protect defamatory speech. Defamation, which includes both libel and slander, occurs when a person publishes a false and unprivileged statement about an individual that seriously harms that person's reputation. The First Amendment does protect — to at least some degree — the other listed types of speech.
Which of the following is not a right explicitly protected by the First Amendment? A) Press B) Privacy C) Assembly D) Religion
B) Privacy There are five freedoms explicitly protected by the First Amendment: Freedom of Religion Freedom of Speech Freedom of the Press Freedom of Assembly Freedom to Petition the Government Privacy is not a right explicitly guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, but rather has been recognized by the Court to have evolved and "emanated" from the recognition of other Constitutional rights. Griswold v. Connecticut (1965).
The Bill of Rights is: A) The statement police must read to you when you are arrested. B) The first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution. C) The opening paragraph of the Declaration of Independence. D) The Preamble to the U.S. Constitution.
B) The first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution. The U.S. Constitution was signed on Sept. 17, 1787. Following much debate, the Bill of Rights — the first 10 amendments to the Constitution — went into effect on Dec. 15, 1791, guaranteeing the essential freedoms we now rely on to protect citizens from excessive governmental power.
Which of the following are true? A) The First Amendment prohibits government officials from establishing an official religion. B) The First Amendment restricts government officials from interfering with an individual's exercise of his or her religious beliefs. C) Both statements are true. D) Neither statement is true.
C) Both statements are true. The First Amendment includes both an "Establishment" clause that prohibits government officials from favoring any particular religion and a "Free Exercise" clause that prohibits government officials from unduly interfering with an individual's right to practice their religious beliefs as they choose.
Which of the following categories of speech is never protected by the First Amendment? A) Indecent speech on the internet B) Four-letter words C) Obscenity D) Nudity
C) Obscenity Obscenity is a category of speech that is not protected by the First Amendment. Obscenity, however, is not the same as indecency, profanity or nudity and the First Amendment does protect — to at least some degree — such speech.
Which student is most likely to prevail on his or her First Amendment claim? A) Rebecca wants to challenge the school's dress code that prohibits students from wearing crop tops in school. B) Rob wants to challenge a school policy that prohibits students from wearing flip-flops to class. C) Rachel wants to challenge a school policy that prohibits her from wearing an anti-war T-shirt to school. D) Reggie wants to challenge a school policy that prohibits students from dying their hair bright, non-natural colors.
C) Rachel wants to challenge a school policy that prohibits her from wearing an anti-war T-shirt to school. While there are limits and ongoing disagreement among courts about where the specific lines should be drawn, courts have generally allowed school officials a fair share of leeway in determining appropriate dress and grooming standards for students where their purpose is to promote a better and safer learning environment. Policies that restrict clothing that may cause significant distraction to other students (for example, sexually revealing clothing or extravagant hair styles or body piercing) or that pose an unreasonable safety or health hazard (for example, unprotective footwear) are generally upheld. On the other hand, where students can show that the effect of a dress code is to suppress a particular message or political expression (for example, a T-shirt containing an otherwise lawful anti-war message), courts have been more sympathetic to student rights.
How does the First Amendment begin? A) "Four score and seven years ago...." B) "When, in the course of human events...." C) "Freedom of speech and of the press shall not be abridged...." D) "Congress shall make no law...."
D) "Congress shall make no law...." The full text of the First Amendment — all 45 words — reads as follows: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
Which of the following categories of speech is never protected by the First Amendment? A) Expression intended and likely to incite imminent lawless action B) "True threats" C) Clear and immediate threats to national security D) All of the above
D) All of the above The law recognizes that certain categories of speech — fairly small in number and defined by law — are not protected by the First Amendment and can be lawfully restricted and/or punished. The categories above are among those in the "unprotected speech" categories.
A local 14-year-old girl was recently found guilty of masterminding a dognapping ring, which had shaken the community for months. Though the legal proceedings were closed to the public because she was charged as a minor, a trusted source has confirmed that the judge today sentenced the girl to four years in a juvenile detention center. You are the editor of the community newspaper who must decide how to cover the story. Which of the following options would the First Amendment protect? A) Because the girl is a minor and the proceedings were closed to the public, you choose not to publish the story. B) You publish the story with accurate details of the crime and the girl's sentence but, because she is a minor, you withhold her name. C) You run the story with accurate details of the crime, her sentence, her name and a photo of her entering court with her parents. D) All of the above options are legal.
D) All of the above options are legal. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the First Amendment protects the right of news organizations to publish accurate, lawfully obtained and newsworthy information about a minor. Smith v. Daily Mail (1979). While some news organizations do not identify minors, they do so as a matter of editorial policy, not because the law requires it. Finally, the fact that the proceedings were closed to the public does not prevent news media from reporting accurate information they lawfully obtain elsewhere.
Which of the following categories of speech is never protected by the First Amendment? A) Use of racial epithets B) Ridiculing a person's ethnicity C) Speech that demeans a person's gender D) Speech that violates a person's legal right to privacy
D) Speech that violates a person's legal right to privacy The First Amendment does not protect an individual's right to publish material that invades another person's legal right to privacy. The First Amendment does protect — to at least some degree — the other listed types of speech activities.
The First Amendment does not protect which of the following religious beliefs? A) Islam B) Satanism C) Christianity D) The First Amendment protects all of the above.
D) The First Amendment protects all of the above. The First Amendment does not permit the government to selectively choose which religions or churches it will protect based on their popularity or the general acceptance (or rejection) of their beliefs. Religious freedoms extended to one church or set of religious beliefs must generally be extended to all.
Betty is upset with her public school's proposed new dress code policy. She writes a column in which she explains why she opposes the policy. In the column, she criticizes the principal for using inaccurate statistics to support his position and urges her classmates to contact the school board to urge them to vote against the policy. Which of the following would be protected by the First Amendment? A) Using her home computer, Betty posts the column on her personal Web site. B) Betty publishes the column on a flyer that she created at her mom's office. She offers the flyer to classmates as they enter school in the morning. C) Betty includes the column as part of a press release that she sends to local media. Following an interview with a local TV station, her comments criticizing the school policy and the principal are seen throughout the community. D) The First Amendment protects all of the above.
D) The First Amendment protects all of the above. The First Amendment provides significant legal protection to non-school-sponsored, independent student speech. Public school officials are prohibited from punishing or unreasonably interfering with students who engage in lawful (not libelous, obscene, etc.), independent speech activities — on or off-campus — that do not seriously interfere with normal school activities.
True or False: Where a public school fully funds its student newspaper, public high school principals have unlimited authority to dictate its content.
False Allocating taxpayer dollars and other public resources to support student media does not give a public school principal unlimited authority over a publication's content.As one federal appeals court has noted, a public school is "clearly an arm of the state and this single fact will always distinguish it from the purely private publisher as far as censorship rights are concerned." Bazaar v. Fortune (1973).
True or False: A press pass gives reporters a First Amendment right to trespass on private property when covering the news.
False Journalists have no special license or privilege to break the law. Whether it is trespassing on private property, breaking into a locked filing cabinet, hacking into a private computer without consent, purchasing or using an unlawful substance, planting an electronic bug in a private room or any other illegal act — even if done solely for journalistic purposes — the news media have no special "Get Out of Jail Free" card and can be held accountable for their actions.
True or False: While the First Amendment restricts their authority to actually censor the press, government officials must be permitted to simply read or view highly controversial news stories before a commercial newspaper or TV station publishes or airs them for the general public.
False Most courts consider "prior review" (reading only) to be a form of unconstitutional prior restraint. In the context of public college and commercial news media, the law prohibits nearly all mandatory prior review by government or school officials. Question 18
True or False: The First Amendment prohibits private schools that accept government funding from censoring or punishing students who participate in lawful and peaceful on-campus speech activities.
False The First Amendment only prohibits government officials (state actors) from restricting a citizen's free speech activities. Administrators at a private school are not government officials and are therefore not limited by the First Amendment. The mere receipt of government funding does not alter a private school's status as a non-governmental entity.
True or False: The church/state clause of the First Amendment prohibits students from praying in class before a test.
False The First Amendment only prohibits government officials from endorsing or promoting a particular religion. It does not prohibit students from doing so on their own. For example, while it would be unlawful for a public school teacher to have his class recite the Lord's Prayer prior to handing out a test, nothing prohibits his students from quietly praying on their own.
True or False: The government can ban song lyrics that most people would find offensive.
False The First Amendment protects "offensive" speech in song lyrics (and in other published material) from government censorship. Note, however, that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) can restrict material or require warning labels when "indecent" speech is broadcast over the airwaves.
True or False: The First Amendment limits the authority of school officials to strip-search students.
False While the Constitution does restrict the authority of school officials to conduct strip searches, it is the Fourth Amendment — not the First — that protects students' rights in such cases.
True or False: A public school can lawfully enact a campus speech code that prohibits "harassing, demeaning, highly offensive or insulting speech based on one's actual or perceived race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, disability or other personal characteristic."
False Courts have consistently struck down so-called campus or school "speech codes" that seek to limit lawful speech that many listeners would nevertheless find offensive. As one federal appeals court judge noted in striking down a public school district's student speech code: "There is no categorical 'harassment exception' to the First Amendment's free speech clause. ... [While] non-expressive, physically harassing conduct is entirely outside the ambit of the free speech clause...there is...no question that the free speech clause protects a wide variety of speech that listeners may consider deeply offensive, including statements that impugn another's race or national origin or that denigrate religious beliefs." Saxe v. State College Area School District (2001).
True or False: The First Amendment protects students while at school.
True In its landmark decision, Tinker v. Des Moines Indep. Community School Dist. (1969), the U.S. Supreme Court, in what has become a much-quoted statement, ruled that neither "students [n]or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate."
True or False: The Constitution prohibits public school teachers from teaching about religion in school.
True The First Amendment prohibits government officials — including public school teachers — from endorsing or promoting a particular religion. It does not prohibit teachers from discussing or providing instructional materials about various religions and churches as part of a viewpoint-neutral curriculum where such discussion is relevant (e.g., history class discussion of the Reformation or the Holocaust).
True or False: The First Amendment protects a person's right to burn the American flag as a form of political protest.
True The U.S. Supreme Court has held that burning the American flag is constitutionally protected free speech. Texas v. Johnson (1989).
True or False: Students cannot be forced to pledge allegiance to the flag.
True The U.S. Supreme Court has held that students have a First Amendment right to refuse to recite the Pledge of Allegiance or salute the flag during school. West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (1943).
True or False: A reporter can be sent to jail for refusing a judge's order to reveal the identity of his or her news source.
True While both the First Amendment and so-called "shield laws" do provide some protection to reporters working with confidential sources and information, such protection is rarely absolute. Unfortunately, where a court decides that the law does not protect a journalist, he or she may be ordered to cooperate. Where they refuse, they may be subject to penalty, including jail time. A growing number of reporters, as a matter of principle and journalistic ethics, have gone to jail to honor their promise to a confidential source and to protect the public's right to know.
