Freedom Of Speech Outline

I. Free speech has had issues for many years on how society, government, and other institutions interpret it.
II. One of the rights protected by the First Amendment is the right to free speech.
A. Show why freedom of speech was so important to our forefathers when they were developing the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

B. There are many different definitions of “Freedom of Speech”, but I think the best one is on the Free Dictionary website which defines it as “The right, guaranteed by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, to express beliefs and ideas without unwarranted government restriction.”

C. Claremont University Student Body

III. Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District is about how far an educational

institution can go with disciplining students for expressing themselves under the umbrella of freedom of speech. In this case the challenge was that the school district had to prove that the wearing of black armbands would disrupt school activities.
A. The focus of the Tinker case was that the school board attempted to prevent students from wearing black armbands to school to protest the Vietnam War.

B. School board’s position was that the armbands would disrupt school activities, but couldn’t prove that it would actually interfere what so ever.

C. The Supreme Court ruled in the favour of the students which limited what schools could do to students disciplinary wise for expressing themselves.

IV. Other examples of how freedom of speech violations have been argued.
A. Clyde Reed the pastor of Good News Community Church, sued the town of Gilbert Arizona for violating his right to freedom of speech when they made him take down the church’s signs which advertised the date, time and location of the church’s services.

B. Anthony Elonis went to court arguing that his freedom of speech rights were violated when he was locked up for posting violent threats on social media.

Ended up getting off on a technicality due to bad instructions to the jury by the lower courts.

V. Because freedom of speech is such an important civil liberty, there will always be someone who questions if an organization’s policy keeps them from expressing themselves and if it does you can guarantee a court case will probably take place.