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On liberty freedom of speech
The first amendment freedom of speech
On liberty freedom of speech
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In the Bjorn, MN case of restricting “Animal Attractions” from selling the video, Hands Up!, the cities obscenity law directly violates the United States constitution, and the First Amendments guarantee of freedom of speech and expression. In the past, the Supreme Court of the United States had written that sexual materials could be deemed obscene if they were found to be "utterly without redeeming social importance" (Roth v. United States, Alberts v. California). This broad restriction, however, received numerous additions in the 1973 case, Miller v. California. In this case, the court established a three-prong test, which is as follows: 1. Whether ‘the average person, applying contemporary community standards’ would find that the work, ‘taken as a …show more content…
KKKops are killing us every day!” In addition, she had also had posted a picture with the status that depicted a police vehicle with its emergency lights on (however no officer is visible), and a computer generated image of a gun pointed in the air. Because of this, Ms. Banks was reported to the authorities and was arrested. In addition to arresting Ms. Banks, law enforcement searched her house and found materials often used for bomb creation, a ski mask, and two shotguns and a rifle. So the question remains—did Ms. Banks’s website post incite violence, and, is it protected by the First Amendment. The simple answers are no, her post did not incite violence and is therefore protected by the First Amendment. A clear case for the defense of Ms. Banks is made in the landmark 1969 Supreme Court Case, Brandenburg v. Ohio. In this case, a test to establish incitement laws was created by the Warren court in a Per curiam decision. The decision created a three-pronged test, which is as follows: 1. Is the act direct
On January 27, 1964, the court released her upon recommendation of two doctors appointed by the probate court to examine her. She filed law suits for false imprisonment, assault and battery and malpractice against Wolodzko, Anthony Smyk and Ardmore Acres. The court dismissed case on Smyk and Ardmore (115, 497, & 924, 1969) and (Swainson, n.d.).
United Stated trial, I, serving as a Supreme Court Justice, have decided that Fields has been correctly convicted of his crime. A precedent that’s able to further support my decision goes back to the case of the New York Times v. Sullivan, which demonstrates the right to make false statements. This precedent has helped keep past cases consistent, liable, and precise. Within this certain case, the First Amendment comes in hand with protecting the publication of all statements, even false ones. Furthermore, Mills’ statement of Ehle admitting that he would falsely testify against Fields for favorable treatment was legal. The US Supreme Court had found evidence of the men’s association with the Aryan Brotherhood gang, which became an abundant source of evidence for Mills' possible bias against the respondent’s case. Therefore, Mills' membership in the gang is not exactly proof that he is lying, but considerable evidence that he is more plausible to lie. Basically, this precedent has shown that Fields has been rightfully prosecuted and
There have been many Supreme Court cases that dealed with many concepts of the law, like obscenity for example. As a matter of fact, obscenity is a concept that Miller v. California deals with. To be more specific, this case deals with what is considered obscene, and if the specific obscenity mentioned in this case is protected by the first amendment, the freedom of speech. I will now explain this case in more depth.
In her essay “Let’s Put Pornography Back in the Closet,” Susan Brownmiller, a prominent feminist activist, argues that pornography should not be protected under the First Amendment (59). Her position is based on the belief that pornography is degrading and abusive towards women (Brownmiller 59). She introduces the reader to the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment, and explains how it relates to her beliefs on censoring pornographic material (Brownmiller 58). In addition, she provides examples of First Amendment controversies such as Miller v. California and James Joyce’s Ulysses to explain how the law created a system to define pornographic material (Brownmiller 58). She described the system that used a three-part test as confusing (Brownmiller 58). Regardless of whether or not the First Amendment was intended to protect obscenities, she and many others believe that the legislatures should have the final say in the decision of creating and publishing pornography (Brownmiller 60).
Weems v. United States (1910) set a judicial precedent for showing that punishment must be proportionate to the crime committed and allowed courts to decide what is “cruel and unusual”. Lower courts allowed the VIS and that use sometimes came under question. Thus the case was sent to the U.S. Supreme Court to review. In Booth v. Maryland (1987) and Gathers v. South Carolina (1989) the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that VIS could potentially lead to harsher sentences and yet upon further review reconsider their stance on VIS and overturn their decisions and concluded that the Eight Amendment was not violated by victim Impact statements on the ground that such statements did not lead to cruel and unusual punish...
3. Was the inclusion of Terminiello's speech as a violation of the Chicago ordinance on disorderly conduct unconstitutional?
Often, they struggled with the fact that although there were laws in place, these laws rarely applied to slaves. With this constant questioning, Judge William Hall decided to take this trial as an opportunity to address the conflict, disputing any claims of an unfair trial by providing Celia with a talented attorney named John Jameson. Jameson was thought to be able to give a “presence [that] would make it difficult for slavery’s critics to label the trial a farce or sham.”(82) It can be noted that although Celia had the right to a trial, she was not guaranteed a fair trial. One of the blatant disregards to a fair trial was that Celia was not allowed to testify in her own defense. “For under Missouri law, as was the case in many southern states, a slave could not testify against a white person, even one deceased” (108) as noted by McLaurin. This law often resulted in slaves receiving a bias trial in favor of those bringing charges against them. Unlike most attorney’s, Jameson fought valiantly for Celia , arguing that in this situation, Celia had a right to protect herself(103). If an altercation escalated far enough, slaves in “slaveholding states…[had] the right to use force to repel physical attacks that threatened his or her life” (102).This right not only allowed slaves to defend themselves physically but legally as well. With these basic
Outside the courthouse in Newton, Georgia, in the early hours of January 30, 1943, Robert “Bobby” Hall was beaten unconscious by M. Claude Screws, Frank Edward Jones, and Jim Bob Kelley[1] while in their custody for the alleged theft of a tire;[2] Screws, Jones and Kelley were, respectively, Baker county sheriff, night policeman, and a civilian deputized specifically for the arrest.[3] Without ever recovering consciousness, Hall died as a result of a fractured skull shortly after his arrival at an Albany hospital that morning.[4] The NAACP and FBI investigated Hall’s death in the following months and federal charges were brought against Screws, Jones, and Kelley for violation of Section 20 of the Federal Criminal Code, which stipulates that no person may “under color of any law … willfully” deprive a person of “any rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution and laws of the United States.”[5] After being found guilty in the lower courts, the defendants brought their case to the Supreme Court on appeal, alleging that they had violated a state rather than federal law and, consequently, could not be held liable under Section 20. The Supreme Court’s central concern in Screws et al. v. United States was to interpret the intent and breadth of Section 20 in order to judge its constitutionality; in doing so, the Court struggled to reach a consensus regarding the definition of state action and the indefinite nature of the rights protected by the statute. Such consensus proved difficult, indeed, as the case was narrowly decided and divided the Court along deep constitutional lines; while a majority of the Court advocated reversal of the lower co...
In the case Lawrence v. Texas (539 U.S. 558, 2003) which was the United States Supreme Court case the criminal prohibition of the homosexual pederasty was invalidated in Texas. The same issue has been already addressed in 1989 in the case Bowers v. Hardwick, however, the constitutional protection of sexual privacy was not found at that time. Lawrence overruled Bowers and held that sexual conduct was the right protected by the due process under the Fourteenth Amendment. The effects of the ruling were quite widespread and led to invalidation of the similar laws throughout the United States that tried to criminalize the homosexual activity of adults which were acting in privacy. The case attracted much of the public attention and quite a large number of briefs were filed in the cases.
Kay, H. H. (2004, Jan). Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Professor of Law. Columbia Law Review, 104, 1-20. doi:10.2307/4099343
Pornography Under The Federal Sentencing Guidelines In The United States. Law & Contemporary Problems, 76(1), 27-52.
forced to drive around and was raped so she should have known who it was.
Cotj, Lawerence. “The Facts Behind the Angela Davis Case.” Human Events 17 June 1972: 447. Web
The eighth amendment protects Americans from the infliction of cruel and unusual punishment. Many death penalty opponents use this as the backbone to their argument against capital punishment. Other than being cruel, I do not think that the death penalty can be used judiciously in the United States or any other part of the world. Personally, I do not think that human beings are perfect and as such they cannot set up a perfect justice system. In any justice system that is flawed and allows bias in certain cases, the death penalty should not be used as a means of punishment because of its irrevocable nature. When I came across Sarah Hawkins’ article regarding the case of Karla Faye Tucker, I was surprised to see the manifestation of my fears of the biases involved in the use of the death penalty in the case of this woman. Hawkins described how the representations of Tucker as a white, heterosexual Christian woman worked in her favor in the criminal justice system, and how media representations perpetuated the argument for her release from death row. Hawkins made very valid and convincing arguments that representations of “womanhood” that are expected in American culture can make a large difference in how we perceive criminals, and in certain cases these representations can be a matter of life or death.
...e’s shoes using imagination, it is difficult to decide on which ideals are equal and which are not and equality promotes respect. Martha Nussbaum takes great caution and goes into great detail to educate the world on the fact that just because a behavior is found to be disgusting, it shouldn’t be used as the deciding factor for a regulation or a ban. As Nussbaum puts it “constitutional law expresses our deepest sense, as a society, of what freedom and equality are; of what it means to have fundamental rights; of what it means to have certain protected areas of both liberty and equality that are seen as inherent in the very idea of human dignity” (Nussbaum 208). Constitutional law should be based of what is equal for all and what promotes libertarian interests among the people. Discrimination shouldn’t get in the way of letting this occur especially through disgust.