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On liberty freedom of speech
Freedom of speech amendment
Supreme court and its role robert dahl
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Snyder v. Phelps (2010) was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Westboro Baptist Church had a protest during a late marine’s, Matthew Snyder, funeral. The church’s members are blunt in their actions and have very strong, prejudice opinions focusing on America. For example, they have absolutely no tolerance for the LGBTQ community, Jews and even Catholics; they also regularly hold protests in front of high schools and even military funerals. Matthew’s father, Albert Snyder, sued the leader of Westboro Baptist Church’s protests, Fred Phelps, on account that Phelps caused emotional and physical distress, invaded private property, and used, “fighting words,” which are considered unconstitutional. The question that arose from …show more content…
The distress caused was most likely due to being at his only son’s funeral. Of course any loved one’s death would surely have an impact on someone's physical and emotional health.
Another argument Snyder brought up was invasion of property and disturbance of peace. Now this could have been good evidence to back Snyder up, if it were not for the fact that Phelps got police permission and stood a proper distance away from the church. In addition, Phelps left around the time that the the funeral began.
Looking back to a similar case, Virginia v. Black(2003), “Barry Black burned a cross at a rally for the KKK near a highway in a field on private property belonging to a person who was sympathetic to the views of the klan.” The Supreme Court concluded that it was in Black’s rights to burn a cross as a political statement as long as he was not trying to threaten any specific person. Both cases involve being accused of trespassing on private property. However, if there is no intention to harm, you are protected by the 1st.
The Bryan v McPherson case is in reference to the use of a Taser gun. Carl Bryan was stopped by Coronado Police Department Officer McPherson for not wearing his seatbelt. Bryan was irate with himself for not putting it back on after being stopped and cited by the California Highway Patrol for speeding just a short time prior to encountering Officer McPherson. Officer McPherson stated that Mr. Bryan was acting irrational, not listening to verbal commands, and exited his vehicle after being told to stay in his vehicle. “Then, without any warning, Officer McPherson shot Bryan with his ModelX26 Taser gun” (Wu, 2010, p. 365). As a result of being shot with a Taser, he fell to the asphalt face first causing severe damage to his teeth and bruising
Arizona V. Hicks discusses the legal requirements law enforcement needs to meet to justify the search and seizure of a person’s property under the plain view doctrine. The United States Supreme Court delivered their opinion of this case in 1987, the decision is found in the United States reports, beginning on page 321, of volume 480. This basis of this case involves Hicks being indicted for robbery, after police found stolen property in Hick’s home during a non-related search of the apartment. Hicks had accidentally discharged a firearm into the apartment below him, injuring the resident of that apartment. Police responded and searched Hicks apartment to determine the identity of the shooter, recover the weapon, and to locate other victims.
Matthew's father appealed the school district's actions on behalf of his son to the federal district court. He alleged a violation of his First Amendment right to freedom of speech and sought both injunctive relief and monetary damages. The District Court held that the school's sanctions violated respondent's right to freedom of speech under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, that the school's disruptive-conduct rule is unconstitutionally vague and overbroad, and that the removal of respondent's name from the graduation speaker's list violated the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment because the disciplinary rule makes no mention of such removal as a possible sanction.
Johnson and his lawyers were dissatisfied with this decision and made an appeal to the Fifth Texas Supreme Judicial District. This appeal, made on May 8, 1985 would be titled as Texas vs. Johnson. The defense argued that Johnson was prosecuted in violation of the first Amendment, clearly states that no law may take away a person's freedom of speech or expression, and of the Bill of Rights and the free speech clause of the Texas Constitution. Johnson argued that in his opinion, flag burning is part of freedom o...
The evidence presented to myself and the other juror’s proves that Tyrone Washburn is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of the murder of his wife, Elena Washburn. On March 12, 1979 Elena Washburn was strangled in the living room of her family’s home. Her body was then dragged to the garage, leaving a trail of blood from the living room to the place it was found. Her husband, Tyrone Washburn, found her in the family’s garage on March 13, 1979 at 1:45 A.M. When officer Dale Chambers arrived at the scene he found her lying face down in a pool of blood. The solid evidence in this case proves only one person, Tyrone Washburn, is guilty of murder.
While the picketing was done in regards to a private funeral, Phelps and his church were a good distance away from the service. Snyder even claims that he could only see the tops of the picketers signs from the funeral. Also, “there is no indication that the picketing interfered with the funeral service itself” (Snyder v. Phelps).
The Dred Scott decision of the Supreme Court in March 1857 was one of the major steps
Much history came within the Texas v. Johnson case. It all started during the 1984 Republican National Convention, this is where Johnson participated in a political demonstration to protest what policies Regan was administrating (Brennan 1). A march was occurring throughout the city streets, which Johnson did take part in. Johnson burned an American flag while protesters chanted him on (Brennan 1). No person was specifically injured during this protest; although, many witnesses were severely offended (Brennan 1). Johnson was convicted of Desecration of a venerated object, which violated the Texas Statue. The state court of appeals affirmed Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and reversed the case stating it was a form of expressive conduct, so it was alright (Brennan 1). In a 5 to 4 decision the Supreme Court came to the conclusion that Johnson’s burning of the flag was protected under his First Amendment rights (Brennan 1). The court also found that although witnesses may have found it offensive, does not...
"Protecting Freedom of Expression on the Campus” by Derek Bok, published in Boston Globe in 1991, is an essay about what we should do when we are faced with expressions that are offensive to some people. The author discusses that although the First Amendment may protect our speech, but that does not mean it protects our speech if we use it immorally and inappropriately. The author claims that when people do things such as hanging the Confederate flag, “they would upset many fellow students and ignore the decent regard for the feelings of others” (70). The author discusses how this issue has approached Supreme Court and how the Supreme Court backs up the First Amendment and if it offends any groups, it does not affect the fact that everyone has his or her own freedom of speech. The author discusses how censorship may not be the way to go, because it might bring unwanted attention that would only make more devastating situations. The author believes the best solutions to these kind of situations would be to
Lawrence v. Texas 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 who were acting in privacy.
Can an individual be prosecuted for openly burning the American flag in a political protest? Gregory Johnson did this in a political protest outside Dallas City Hall. He was then tried and convicted of desecrating a venerated object under a Texas law (Penal Code 42.09), which states that "a person commits an offense if he intentionally or knowingly desecrates a state or national flag" (317). The question of whether this Texas law is in violation of the First Amendment, which "holds that Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech" (316), was brought before the United States Supreme Court in Texas v. Johnson (1989). A divided court ruled 5 to 4 that the Texas law was in violation of the First Amendment. Using the same Constitution, precedents, and legal standards, the Supreme Court justices came to two drastically different positions regarding the constitutionality of prohibiting flag burning. To see how such a division is possible, we are going to compare and contrast both the arguments and the methods of argumentation used by both the majority opinion (written by Associate Justice Brennan) and the dissenting opinion (written by Chief Justice Rehnquist), which critiques the majority opinion.
v City of St. Paul (Hudson). The R.A.V and other conspirators made and burned a cross inside the fenced yard of a black family. St. Paul charged R.A.V. using the Bias-Motivated Crime Ordinance. St. Paul’s reasoning was that this symbolic speech resonate hatred, and fear. The trial court dismissed the charge because this case was excessively broad, but the State Supreme Court reversed the decision. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled St. Paul’s Bias-Motivated Crime Ordinance was held unconstitutional because it was substantially overbroad and impermissibly content-based. Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in his “the exclusion of ‘fighting words’ from the scope of the First Amendment simply means that, for purposes of that Amendment, the unprotected features of the words are, despite their verbal character, essentially a ‘non-speech’ element of communication.”
he was young and her death got to him deeply. He studied at Oxford and
Disturbing the peace rules generally tend to affect people protesting during night time hours, and in the state of Arizona, you are technically disturbing the peace if the person is disturbing the peace of a quiet neighborhood, engaging in fighting, creating violent or seriously disruptive behavior, unreasonable noise, abusive or offensive language/gestures that could invoke violence, refusing to obey a law, or using a dangerous weapon. In this case, Paul is not using a dangerous weapon, is not in a neighborhood, is not making unreasonable noise, is not refusing to obey the law, and although there was a punch throw, he was not engaging in fighting or his language was not abusive enough to invoke violence. While Joe Gymrat may have a different argument that the words were offensive, a general court and jury would not hold these works offensive enough for violence, as they would have to be fighting words. Therefore, Paul is not disturbing the peace and cannot be charged for
First of all, the controversial Quran burning had many Americans debate the power of the constitution. Many people stated that the Quran burning was protected under the power of the first amendment, which guarantees the right to free speech. Jones wanted people to stop believing and worshipping a religion; and his way of expressing free speech was initiating a burning ceremony (Kiser 1). Being a Muslim is the “Un-American thing, according to Jones, and he is using his right of free speech to suppress the rights of Muslims to worship their religion. In Kiser’s article, “The Controversy over International Burn a Quran Day” he writes, “The Constitution of the United States does advocate, ‘Free Speech’, but it remains dim on the offensiveness of that free speech. The Constitution also advocates “Freedom of Religion”, but the United States remains a country where religion is abused and suppressed...