Deck 3: Methods of Control

Question 1

Although First Amendment doctrine presumes that prior restraints are unconstitutional, in limited instances, such as cases involving false advertising or copyright violations, prior restraints are permissible.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

The Blackstonian view of press freedom, which prohibits prior restraints but allows subsequent punishment of illegal expression, was familiar to the founders of the U.S. Constitution.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

In Near v. Minnesota, Chief Justice Hughes stated that the First Amendment's prohibition on prior restraints was absolute.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

In New York Times v. United States, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the injunction at issue was unconstitutional but provided little guidance about when injunctions in other cases might be constitutional.

Question 5

Just as private corporations may prohibit employees from revealing confidential business information, the government may prevent its employees from divulging information that would jeopardize national security.

Question 6

In 2009, the validity of prepublication agreements was emphasized by the Second Circuit in a case involving CIA operative Valerie Plame's authorship of a memoir.

Question 7

In Shuttlesworth v. City of Birmingham, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a parade ordinance that allowed local officials to prohibit parades that were harmful to the "public welfare."

Question 8

Even though local governments have the legal authority to license films, they no longer do so.

Question 9

Due to the physical limitations of the electromagnetic spectrum, the U.S. Supreme Court regards the licensing of broadcasters as permissible.

Question 10

The government's authority to revoke or not renew a broadcast license for programming-related reasons is similar to the government's power to control newspaper publishing.

Question 11

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1997 that unlike broadcasting, the Internet was fully protected by the First Amendment.

Question 12

In Los Angeles v. Preferred Communications, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that cable-franchising decisions by local governments are exempt from First Amendment scrutiny.

Question 13

A tax aimed solely at the largest newspaper in a state is unconstitutional, but a general sale tax treating all newspapers like other businesses is constitutional.

Question 14

A sales tax applicable to religious magazines, but exempting news magazines, is permissible.

Question 15

In the Bartnicki and Florida Star cases, the U.S. Supreme Court held that a journalist's mere receipt of information from a source is lawful, even when the source obtains the information illegally or is not supposed to disclose it.

Question 16

The unsuccessful 1942 attempt by the Roosevelt administration to get a grand jury to indict the Chicago Tribune for its coverage of the Battle of Midway serves as a powerful reminder to government officials of the obstacles to punishing the press for disclosure of classified information.

Question 17

The draft card law at issue in United States v. O'Brien was content neutral because it did not single out public protestors but applied to all men who destroyed their draft cards.

Question 18

Although content-based restrictions will generally be subjected to strict scrutiny by courts, content-neutral restrictions are subjected to a less rigorous ad hoc balancing process.

Question 19

The U.S. Supreme Court regards content-neutral restrictions and content-based restrictions as equally harmful to free expression.

Question 20

Eleanor McCullen, a "sidewalk counselor," won her case challenging a 35-foot buffer zone at the entrance of abortion clinics when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Massachusetts could serve its interests with less restrictive measures.

Question 21

Matt Bissonnette, a former member of Navy Seal Team 6, agreed to forfeit $6.8 million in book royalties and speaking fees because he did not clear his disclosures with the Pentagon.

Question 22

Military bloggers must submit posts to commanding officers for prepublication security review.

Question 23

The federal government and 45 states have laws preventing criminals from profiting from the sale of their memoirs.

Question 24

A speech regulation targeted at specific subject matter is content based even if it does not discriminate among viewpoints within the subject matter.

Question 25

Some forms of expression, such as door-to-door advocacy, are exempt from licensing.

Question 26

Although the U.S. Supreme Court has said that the media may be liable for publishing confidential government information, the media has never been successfully prosecuted for violating the Espionage Act.

Question 27

In 2019, a district court found that the federal government was not entitled to proceeds from Edward Snowden's best-selling memoir, Permanent Record, even though he did not submit his manuscript discussing classified intelligence activities to federal agencies for prepublication review.

Question 28

In 2020, every U.S. intelligence agency imposed a lifetime prepublication review requirement on at least a subset of their former employees.

Question 29

In 2019, former national security officials filed suit challenging the government's prepublication review process under the First Amendment, claiming the ambiguous and vague standards place too much discretionary power in reviewing officials who can discriminate against low-ranking critics, while quickly clearing favorable material by senior officials. The case was dismissed by a district court, and the Fourth Circuit affirmed in 2021, drawing on Snepp for the conclusion that the plaintiffs voluntarily signed the agreements and therefore knowingly waived their First Amendment rights.

Question 30

The 1931 case in which the U.S. Supreme Court established the presumption that prior restraints are unconstitutional, but acknowledged that prior restraints might be permissible in wartime to bar expression harmful to the safety of troops.

A) Gitlow v. New York
B) Schenck v. United States
C) Near v. Minnesota
D) Abrams v. United States
E) none of the above

Question 31

The 1971 case in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the government had not met its "heavy burden" of proof to overcome the presumption that prior restraints are unconstitutional.

A) Near v. Minnesota
B) Smith v. Daily Mail
C) Cox v. New Hampshire
D) New York Times v. United States
E) Snepp v. United States

Question 32

The 1952 case invalidating a state film-licensing statute and establishing that motion pictures are a constitutionally-protected form of expression.

A) Burstyn v. Wilson
B) Freedman v. Maryland
C) Interstate Circuit v. Dallas
D) Mutual Film Corp. v. Ohio
E) Cox v. New Hampshire

Question 33

The 1969 case establishing that broadcasters can be required to broadcast opposing views on public issues.

A) Los Angeles v. Preferred Communications
B) CBS v. FCC
C) Red Lion Broadcasting v. FCC
D) Trinity Methodist Church, South v. FRC
E) FCC v. National Citizens Committee for Broadcasting

Question 34

The 1979 case in which the U.S. Supreme Court established that it is extraordinarily difficult for the state to punish the publication of lawfully acquired truthful information of public significance.

A) New York Times v. United States
B) Smith v. Daily Mail Publishing Co.
C) Bartnicki v. Vopper
D) United States v. O'Brien
E) Cox Broadcasting v. Cohn

Question 35

The 1968 case in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled constitutional a federal statute protecting draft cards.

A) United States v. Eichman
B) United States v. O'Brien
C) Clark v. Community for Creative Non-Violence
D) Ladue v. Gilleo
E) United States v. Grace

Question 36

Which of the following is not regarded as a prior restraint?

A) injunction
B) discriminatory taxes
C) prepublication agreement
D) security Review
E) post-publication sanctions

Question 37

Which of the following is a content-neutral law?

A) a law punishing treatment of the American flag in a disrespectful manner
B) a sales tax applicable to religious magazines but not fashion magazines
C) a law punishing "offensive" bumper stickers
D) a law prohibiting the sale of violent video games to children
E) a law prohibiting picketing inside the U.S. Supreme Court building

Question 38

Which of the following is a content-based law?

A) a law prohibiting distribution of leaflets inside university buildings
B) a law prohibiting door-to-door solicitation inside university dorms
C) a law prohibiting marches through residential neighborhoods
D) a law banning billboards in historic neighborhoods
E) a law banning picketing near embassies if the message is critical of foreign officials

Question 39

In which of the following did the U.S. Supreme Court find a content-neutral law banning residential yard signs to be unconstitutional?

A) United States v. O'Brien
B) Clark v. Community for Creative Non-Violence
C) Ladue v. City of Gileo
D) Ward v. Rock Against Racism
E) none of the above

Question 40

Why do press advocates fear that a prosecution of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for violating the Espionage Act will chill journalism?

A) when Assange was indicted in 2019, the head of the National Security Division of the Department of Justice said there is no doubt that Assange is a journalist
B) Assange's indictment charged him with gaining unauthorized access to a Defense Department computer network-a practice that journalists regularly engage in
C) mainstream news outlets sometimes publish leaked classified information
D) B & C
E) all of the above

Question 41

This organization was at the center of the recent dispute over whether computer-aided design (CAD) files posted online-revealing how to create a 3D-printed gun-are protected by the First Amendment:

A) National Rifle Association
B) Gun Owners Foundation
C) Guns for Hire
D) Defense Distributed
E) none of the above

Question 42

Claims of political manipulation of the prepublication review process permeated the Trump administration's 2020 efforts to prevent publication of:

A) Former national security advisor John Bolton's memoir The Room Where It Happened
B) Former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham's memoir I'll Take Your Questions Now
C) Washington Post associate editor Bob Woodward's book Rage
D) Former attorney general William Barr's memoir One Damn Thing After Another
E) none of the above

Question 43

In a 2021 action that departed from prior restraint doctrine, a New York judge temporarily prevented:

A) The New York Post from publishing a story that included classified information about U.S. foreign policy in China
B) The New York Times from publishing information contained in attorney-client memoranda written by a lawyer for Project Veritas, a group known for using unusual information gathering techniques such as fake identities and hidden cameras.
C) The Wall Street Journal from publishing a story that included trade secrets related to Coca Cola's partnership with Delta Airlines.
D) The New Yorker from publishing information contained in the personal diaries of the former mayor of New York
E) None of the above

Question 44

What is the definition of the following term:
-Injunction

Question 45

What is the definition of the following term:
-Security review

Question 46

What is the definition of the following term:
-Franchise

Question 47

What is the definition of the following term:
-Time, place, and manner regulation

Question 48

What is the definition of the following term:
-Computer-aided design (CAD)

Question 49

Discuss the distinction between content-based and content-neutral regulations of expression.

Question 50

Discuss the distinction between prior restraints and post-publication penalties.