The Supreme Court has been entrusted with the task of interpreting the Constitution of the United States. In the First Amendment of the Constitution, freedom of speech serves as the foundational liberty which is the cornerstone to the practice of democracy. Commencing at the early part of the twentieth century cases such as Schenck v. United States, Debs v. United States, Abrams v United States, Whitney v. California, and Dennis v. United States, paved the way for the Court to set the legal standard for defining protected and unprotected speech. Nonetheless, the Court has struggled to interpret said boundaries property and has failed to protect speech in some of the above cases. This essay will analyze two different scenarios where the Court …show more content…
United States proved the Court’s abridgment of First Amendment protections of political speech. Similar to the Schenck case, Mister Debs’ criminal conviction for advocating against joining the draft was upheld by the Court. In this case the Court explained that the defendant “attempted to cause and incite insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny and refusal of duty” to the arm forces during wartime. Mister Deb’s dissemination of the message “you need to know that you are fit for something better than slavery and cannon fodder,” was construed as harmful speech based on the “clear and present danger test.” Justice Holmes delivered the Court’s opinion once again. Although the government has the authority to curtail free speech rights, and punish speech that incites violence and harm, the First Amendment provides far reaching boundaries for the advocacy of political …show more content…
United States deals with the second scenario and the government’s ability to prosecute leaders of well-organized political parties. The Court also developed new legal tests to measure the risk speech causing harm; the risk formula approach. The risk formula approach questions whether the gravity of the evil justifies the invasion of free speech in order to avoid danger. In Dennis v. Unites States, the Court found that the Secretary of the Communist party in the United States did not have First Amendment protections of free speech, assembly and publication of their political doctrines. Chief Justice Vinson stated in the Court’s decision that Dennis violated the Smith Act, for advocating the overthrowing of the U.S. government. He further added that it was the Court’s responsibility to decide what constitutes evil to justify the invasion of free speech in order to avoid dangers. Both Justices Black and Douglas wrote dissenting opinions where they clarify that Dennis was not charged
In the “Bethel School District v. Fraser” case, Fraser believed that the school violated his first amendment “freedom of speech” rights. Fraser gave a speech with some inappropriate content in it and the school gave him a three day suspension because two teachers warned him before he gave the speech. Fraser took it to court and the justices said they would shorten the suspension and let him have his right to speak at graduation because the school was taking away his freedom of speech.
On December Fourth, 1950, the court case Dennis v. United States was brought to the Supreme Court concerning the Constitutionality of the Smith Act. The Smith Act stated that citizens cannot knowingly work towards to and willingly advocate for the violent and forceful overthrow of the United States government. It is also illegal for citizens to support or organize a group that aims to do so by the Smith Act. Before this case was introduced to the Supreme Court, it underwent trial at multiple lower courts after the leading members of the Communist Party of America were arrested for violating the Smith Act in 1948. Eugene Dennis, an elected official to the Executive Secretary position of the Communist Party of America was arrested along
During World War I, Charles Schenck sent a copious amount of circulars over to the draftees. The circulars consisted of anti-draft sentiments and claimed that the draft was despicably supported by the capitalist system. Schenk basically told the readers to join him in protest. Schenk was unsurprisingly charged with conspiracy for his action due to violating the Espionage Act of 1917 by causing disruption in the military and attempting to prevent military recruitment. The main issue emerging from this case was whether or not Schenck’s circulars were protected by the First Amendment’s via freedom of speech.
Abrams was a case under the repressive Espionage and Sedition Acts passed during World War I, the most outrageously unconstitutional violations of our civil liberties since the 1798 Alien and Sedition Acts. The 1917-18 laws prohibited anything — including speech — that criticized the government, brought it into disrepute, and supposedly interfered with our war effort. The Supreme Court consistently upheld this legislation.
She posed a “relatively serious” threat to the country and its’ citizens. Issue The issue and question at hand was whether the 1919 Criminal Syndicalism Act of California violated the Fourteenth Amendment. Also, the other question was that did the Criminal Syndicalism Act also violate the First Amendment.
Supreme Court, in Burstyn v. Wilson, declared that the right of Americans to communicate, and receive ideas must be given and the states and cities were given fair warning that the era of total state interest was over. The majority of the Court did not follow Justice Frankfurter and simply declare the New York law void for vagueness. Instead they declared that movies were entitled to free speech protection. And even though this might not mean the application of the identical rules that govern other media of communication, it meant some protection, yet to be defined
In 1803 the Supreme Court which was led by a great man by the name of John Marshall chose a controversial case to take on that is still examined today by many. It is one of the most famous cases and goes by the name of Marbury vs Madsion. Now the question was whether a demonstration offensive to the constitution can turn into the tradition that must be abided by is an inquiry profoundly intriguing to the United States; however, not of an unpredictability proportioned to its advantage. It appears to be just important to perceive certain standards, expected to have been long and settled. The first argument was that the people have the original right to establish a constitution for now and, for the future generations.
Marbury v Madison The case of Marbury v. Madison will always be considered one of the most important cases ever decide by the Supreme Court. The Court’s ruling has been discussed and examined by many law scholars throughout the world. This essay summarizes the case and explains the implications of it regarding the powers of the Judicial Branch.
It also made it illegal to try to “[obstruct the] production in support of war efforts.” In addition to avoid internal conflicts during war time, the bill was passed as a response of fear to the rise of communism overseas. A U.S. Supreme Court case, Schenck v. United States, which concluded with the Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. stating that the actions of Schenck, who was passing anti-draft pamphlets to young men, that his actions would intend the crime of sedition and created a “clear and present danger.” This also led to the standard of the bad tendency test in which the inclination of the speech was to promote an illegal action. In 1951 shortly after the World War II, several Communists were tried by the United State Supreme Court.
In the discussion of the 8th amendment, this paper will examine: the history of the 8th amendment, the interpretations made by courts regarding 8th, and how the 8th affects us today. The Amendment first was ratified in 1791 along with the nine other amendments to form the bill of rights. The bill of rights is used to “lists specific prohibitions on governmental power.” (“Bill of Rights”). By doing this, the government has less power to not make the citizens feel like that even the government has to follow some sort of procedure and would stabilize the power the government has from having either too much or too little.
Since the establishment of the United States Supreme Court in 1789 the role and function of the court has varied depending on the need of the country. There are several different schools of thought when it comes to the purpose and the function that the Supreme Court should take, ranging from strictly ruling on constitutional matters up to weighing in on national policy cases. To evaluate what role the court actually takes, one must examine both the institutional function as well as the political function. Alexander Hamilton’s Federalist No. 78 has been considered one of the most influential pieces of work in the field, as it lays the ground work of what he believed was the role of the court.
The first Amendment declares, “Congress shall make no law… abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press…” However, after the Espionage Act was passed, during World War 1, Schenck was arrested for violating this Act by printing 50,000 leaflets that contradicted the war and the draft. As illustrated, U.S. citizens should be granted the ability to protest wars and drafts since it violates the first Amendment’s right to free speech. The Supreme Court made an invalid choice.
The article argues that the courts should only view harmful speech in the same eyes and rule them the same as if they were conduct harms. The source then discusses how many scholars believe that freedom of speech only applies when the benefits outweigh the harms, regarding what is being said. The article does a good job of approaching the problem through a semi-neutral lens. The article clearly lets its opinion be known at times; however, it approaches the opposite side of the argument in a fair manner. The article will be incredibly beneficial because it discusses when freedom of speech should not apply with a neutral approach.
I A. B. Cantwell v Connecticut (1940) D. Jesse Cantwell and his son going door to door in their neighborhood talking badly to people about the religion of catholicism which lead to two people becoming angry. This leads to the Cantwells being arrested for breaking a local ordinance that requires a permit for solicitation and also for encouraging an infraction of the peace E. Were the Cantwells first amendment free speech rights violated when they were religious views were suppressed and did they encourage an infraction of the peace or not. F.The court ruled that you could restrict general solicitation but you could not put limitation based on religion and that if you did so it would be trying to silence someone's views.
The United States of America is known for it ’s freedom of expression, whereas in other countries it is heavily restricted. It’s very valuable to the country’s reputation because not every country has the right to freedom of speech. As a result, some Americans feel that they can say whatever they desire. The question is whether we classify freedom of speech as a problem is becoming a very debated topic.