Exam 3: Expressive Freedom and the First Amendment

Under New York Times v. Sullivan (1964), a public official cannot prevail in a libel suit unless he or she can show that the defendant's statements were made with "______."

In The Florida Star v. B.J.F. (1989), the Court overturned an ____________ verdict against a newspaper that reported the name of a rape victim, where the newspaper had obtained the victim's name from a police report that had been released in violation of state law and the established police department policy.

Which of the following forms of expression is least likely to be accorded First Amendment protection?

Does the First Amendment protect a citizen's right to publicly advocate terrorism against the United States, at least in the abstract?

In Gitlow v. New York (1925), the Supreme Court upheld a conviction under New York's _________________, which prohibited advocacy of the overthrow of government "by force or violence."

Writing for the Supreme Court in Roth v. United States (1957), Justice Brennan expressed the view that obscenity ______________________________.

By the early 1950s, ______________, with its emphasis on the alleged "communist menace" to internal security, had achieved national prominence.

Over the years Supreme Court justices have advocated a variety of positions regarding freedom of expression, ranging from the ___________ adopted by Hugo Black to the ______ approach favored by John M. Harlan.

In Commentaries on the Laws of England, Vol. IV (1769), ______________ stated the rule against prior restraint in the context of freedom of the press: "The liberty of the press is indeed essential to the nature of a free state; but this consists in laying no previous restraints upon publications, and not in freedom from censure for criminal matter when published."

In ___________________, a statute aimed at suppressing commercial trafficking of depictions of animal cruelty, such as "crush videos" where small animals are crushed underfoot, was invalidated by the Supreme Court because the statute created "a criminal prohibition of alarming breadth."

Under what circumstances is the spending of one's money an act of free speech protected by the First Amendment?

In Tinker v. Des Moines Community School District (1969), John and Mary Beth Tinker wore ____________ to school to protest American involvement in the Vietnam War.

In ________________, the Supreme Court struck down the Helms Amendment to the Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act of 1992, which required cable systems that lease channels to commercial providers of "patently offensive" programming to scramble the signals of those channels and make them available only to subscribers who specifically request access.

Can a public school constitutionally restrict students from "wearing items that might convey a political message"?

The Supreme Court has consistently maintained that ____________ is not protected by the First Amendment.

In _________________, the Supreme Court upheld a Florida court's injunction that prohibited antiabortion protesters from coming within a 36-foot buffer zone around the entrances to an abortion clinic.

Writing for the Court in Palko v. Connecticut (1937), Justice __________ characterized freedom of speech as "the matrix, the indispensable condition, of nearly every other form of freedom."

As stated by Justice Brennan, the standard in defamation cases "prohibits a public official from recovering damages for a defamatory falsehood relating to his official conduct unless he proves that the statement was made with ___________, that is, with knowledge that it was false or with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not."

In Brandenburg v. Ohio, (1969), the Supreme Court invalidated a state _______ statute, thus explicitly overruling Whitney v. California.

For a brief period during the administration of President John Adams, the national government sought to suppress public criticism through enforcement of the __________, passed by Congress in 1798.