Essay On Freedom Of Speech

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Speech rights have changed or been expanded through a series of 20th and 21st century court decisions to include political speech, campaign financing, pornography, and school speech. In Tinker v Des Moines (1969) the Supreme Court ruled that students "do not shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate." The ruling stated that school officials had violated freedom of speech by suspending some students who wore black armbands to protest the war in Vietnam. It was considered to be a display of symbolic speech. The Tinker standard has been applied in numerous decisions through the years. In another decision, Hazelwood School District v Kuhlmeir (1988), the Supreme Court ruled that the high school …show more content…

Freedom of press protects publication of information and opinions. Most of the principles that apply to freedom of speech also apply to freedom of the press. Like freedom of speech, freedom of the press allows varying viewpoints to be heard. However, one special meaning for freedom of the press is that of prior restraint. The courts in Near v Minnesota (1931) and New York Times v United States (1971) have ruled that the government cannot censor information before it is written and published, except in extreme cases of national …show more content…

It allows people to meet together in public or in private to express their opinions and ideas freely without fear of retribution. It allows people to gather for peaceful and lawful purposes. Former Justice Charles Evans in a ruling on DeJonge v Oregon (1937) stated that the right of peaceable assembly is a fundamental right just as freedom of speech and the press. He wrote that "peaceable assembly for lawful purposes cannot be made a crime." It does have limitations regarding disruption of public order or traffic flow, interference with people 's freedom to go about their normal business, or interference with peace and quiet. Permits are usually needed just to allow officials to be adequately prepared for preventing major

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