Deck 3: Expressive Freedom and the First Amendment

Question 1

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

A) libel
B) obscenity
C) criminal syndicalism
D) vagrancy

Answer 1

C

Question 2

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.

A) military fatigues
B) peace signs
C) black armbands
D) North Vietnamese flags

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Consider United States v. The Progressive (1979) and New York Times Company v.
United States (1971). Given the holdings in these cases, should national security concerns over "the war on terrorism" outweigh freedom of the press? Justify your answer.

Answer 3

Not answer

Question 4

Should a law prohibiting establishments where dancers perform nude from serving alcoholic beverages be struck down as a violation of the First Amendment?

Question 5

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

Question 6

Does an individual have a constitutional right to belong to a white supremacist organization that advocates the reinstitution of slavery? Should this organization be permitted to hold an assembly on the Mall in Washington, D.C. where Martin Luther King, Jr. once addressed a massive civil rights rally?

Question 7

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."

A) Criminal Anarchy Act
B) Clear and Present Danger Act
C) Seditious Libel Act
D) Smith Act

Question 8

Was the Supreme Court correct in holding that publicly burning the American flag as an act of political protest is protected by the First Amendment?

Question 9

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

Question 10

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

Question 11

Which should prevail--the right of members of a private country club to associate with whom they wish or the power of a city to require the club to accept African-Americans as members?

Question 12

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.

A) Seditious Libel Act
B) Northwest Ordinance
C) Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions
D) Alien and Sedition Acts

Question 13

In Schenck v. United States (1919), Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. first articulated the famous ________________ test.

A) clear and present danger
B) clear and probable danger
C) imminent lawless action
D) bad tendency

Question 14

In Pierce v. Society of Sisters (1925), the Supreme Court struck down an amendment to the Oregon constitution aimed at prohibiting parents from sending their children to _______.

A) day care centers
B) work in factories
C) private schools
D) none of the above

Question 15

In Feiner v. New York (1951), the Supreme Court upheld a conviction for _______ arising from a street corner speech that produced unrest.

A) seditious libel
B) disorderly conduct
C) lewd and lascivious conduct
D) incitement to riot

Question 16

Is the Supreme Court correct to extend the protections of the First Amendment to commercial speech?

Question 17

Consider Justice Hugo Black's absolutist position on First Amendment freedom of
speech. Should an individual be given the right to say to write anything, regardless of its impact on other individuals or society in general?

Question 18

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

A) was utterly without redeeming social importance
B) was protected by the First Amendment
C) was not a crime under federal law
D) none of the above

Question 19

Should profanity enjoy constitutional protection, or should state and local governments be permitted to punish individuals for using foul language?

Question 20

Is "hate speech" constitutionally protected if it is directed at members of minority groups in the aggregate but not at specific individuals?

Question 21

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

A) obscenity
B) symbolic speech
C) political association
D) all of the above

Question 22

In NAACP v. Alabama (1958), the Supreme Court held that Alabama had infringed the NAACP's __________ by enforcing a law requiring organizations based outside the state to register members' names and addresses.

A) right of privacy
B) freedom of assembly
C) right to petition government for a redress of grievances
D) freedom of association

Question 23

In Virginia State Board of Pharmacy v. Virginia Citizens Consumer Council (1976), the Supreme Court struck down a state law banning _________________.

A) the advertisement of prescription drug prices
B) the sale of "generic" drugs
C) the sale of certain "over the counter" medications to minors
D) the use of birth control devices

Question 24

Despite the importance of the 1st Amendment, the Supreme Court did not begin to give major attention to these rights until after _______.

A) the Civil War
B) World War I
C) the Great Depression
D) World War II

Question 25

In Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier (1988), the Supreme Court _________ a public school principal's decision to excise certain controversial material from the school newspaper.

A) refused to review
B) upheld
C) reversed
D) enjoined

Question 26

In New York Times v. United States (1971) the Supreme Court rebuffed the Nixon Administration's attempt to block publication of the __________________.

A) Communist Manifesto
B) Watergate Tapes
C) Pentagon Papers
D) names of CIA agents stationed in Southeast Asia

Question 27

As a Supreme Court justice, former Harvard law professor Felix Frankfurter sharply criticized the doctrine that the First Amendment occupies a(an) "__________ position."

A) ignoble
B) preferred
C) sacrosanct
D) unfettered

Question 28

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 "______."

A) criminal negligence
B) actual malice
C) reckless abandon
D) defamatory intent

Question 29

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.

A) clear and present danger test; clear and probable danger
B) bad tendency test; absolutist position
C) ad hoc balancing; clear and present danger
D) absolutist position; ad hoc balancing

Question 30

In _____________ (1961), the Supreme Court upheld Section 2 of the Smith Act, which made it a crime to belong to the Communist Party.

A) Jackson v. United States
B) Bonner v. American Communist Party
C) Dennis v. Higgins
D) Scales v. United States

Question 31

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

A) commercial advertising
B) symbolic political speech
C) libel
D) questionable scientific claims

Question 32

In Texas v. Johnson, the flag-burning decision of 1989, it was surprising that two Reagan appointees, Justices __________ and ________, joined the majority in reversing Johnson's conviction.

A) Scalia; Kennedy
B) O'Connor; Kennedy
C) Souter; Scalia
D) O'Connor; Scalia

Question 33

In Miller v. California (1973) the Supreme Court stated that the "basic guidelines" that the "trier of fact" must follow in an obscenity case include the determination of whether the work in question _____________.

A) is indecent
B) shocks the conscience of the average adult
C) lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value
D) is utterly without redeeming social importance

Question 34

The doctrine of _____________ prohibits laws that do not aim specifically at evils the government has a right to prevent but sweep within their ambit activities that are protected by the First Amendment.

A) overbreadth
B) vagueness
C) imminent lawless action
D) desuetude

Question 35

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."

A) Benjamin Cardozo
B) Hugo Black
C) Robert Jackson
D) Felix Frankfurter

Question 36

As a Supreme Court justice, former Harvard law professor ___________ was critical of the doctrine that the First Amendment occupied a "preferred position."

A) Hugo Black
B) Wiley Rutledge
C) Robert Jackson
D) Felix Frankfurter

Question 37

In Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier (1988), the Supreme Court voted to uphold a public school principal's decision to excise certain controversial material from the school newspaper.

A) Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (1969)
B) Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier (1988)
C) Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954)
D) none of the above

Question 38

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."

A) Thomas Jefferson
B) Alexander Hamilton
C) John Adams
D) Sir William Blackstone

Question 39

In the 1958 decision in ________ the Supreme Court held that a state had infringed the constitutional rights of organization members by enforcing a law requiring organizations based outside the state to register members' names and addresses. Specifically, the Court held that the law violated the First Amendment freedom of association.

A) NAACP v. Alabama
B) Rostker v. Goldberg
C) Nebbia v. New York
D) none of the above

Question 40

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

A) McCarthyism
B) conservatism
C) Progressivism
D) none of the above

Question 41

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.

A) Adderley v. Florida (1966)
B) Schenck v. Pro-Choice Network (1997)
C) Madsen v. Women's Health Center (1994)
D) none of the above

Question 42

In _______________, the Supreme Court recognized that the sidewalks surrounding the Court's own building in Washington, D.C. qualified as a public forum and struck down the federal law forbidding use of that space for picketing or handing out leaflets.

A) Perry Educational Association v. Perry Local Educators' Association (1983)
B) Lloyd Corporation v. Tanner (1972)
C) Schenck v. United States (1919)
D) United States v. Grace (1983)

Question 43

Under the _______________, courts were required in each case to "ask whether the gravity of the 'evil,' discounted by its improbability, justifies such invasion of free speech as is necessary to avoid the danger."

A) clear and present danger test
B) the clear and probable danger test
C) the bad tendency test
D) none of the above

Question 44

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.

A) Denver Area Educational Telecommunications Consortium v. Federal Communications Commission (1996)
B) Federal Communications Commission v. Pacifica Foundation (1978)
C) Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union (1997)
D) none of the above

Question 45

Dissenting in Dennis v. United States (1951), Justice __________________ wrote, "I have always believed that the First Amendment is the keystone of our Government, that the freedoms it guarantees provide the best insurance against destruction of all freedom . . . So long as this Court exercises the power of judicial review of legislation, I cannot agree that the First Amendment permits us to sustain laws suppressing freedom of speech and press on the basis of Congress' or our own notions of mere 'reasonableness.' Such a doctrine waters down the First Amendment so that it amounts to little more than an admonition to Congress."

A) Benjamin Cardozo
B) Hugo Black
C) Robert Jackson
D) Felix Frankfurter

Question 46

Prior to the mid-1970s, the Supreme Court regarded the regulation of __________ __ as simply an aspect of economic regulation, entitled to no special First Amendment protection.

A) political speech
B) symbolic speech
C) commercial speech
D) none of the above

Question 47

In Coates v. City of Cincinnati (1971), the Supreme Court _________ an ordinance that made it unlawful for "three or more persons to assemble ... on any sidewalks and there conduct themselves in a manner annoying to persons passing by" under the overbreadth doctrine.

A) upheld
B) invalidated
C) denied certiorari
D) none of the above

Question 48

In Lorillard Tobacco Company v. Reilly (2001), writing for the majority, _____________observed that "so long as the sale and use of tobacco is lawful for adults, the tobacco industry has a protected interest in communicating information about its products and adult customers have an interest in receiving that information."

A) Chief Justice William Rehnquist
B) Justice Anthony Kennedy
C) Justice John Paul Stevens
D) Justice Sandra Day O'Connor

Question 49

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."

A) United States v. Stevens (2010)
B) Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union (1997)
C) Coates v. City of Cincinnati (1971)
D) none of the above

Question 50

In Abrams v. United States (1919), the Supreme Court affirmed the convictions of Jacob Abrams, a self styled "anarchist Socialist," and several associates for distributing leaflets in New York City urging the "workers of the world" to resist, among other things, American intervention in Russia against the newly formed Bolshevik government under the ______________.

A) clear and present danger test
B) the clear and probable danger test
C) the bad tendency test
D) none of the above

Question 51

In ________________, the Supreme Court adhered to its decision in Texas v. Johnson and struck down the Flag Protection Act as applied to flag burning as a means of political protest.

A) United States v. Eichman (1990)
B) Street v. New York (1969)
C) Doran v. Salem Inn (1975)
D) none of the above

Question 52

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.

A) libel
B) slander
C) defamation of character
D) invasion of privacy

Question 53

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."

A) ill will
B) hatred of the public official
C) actual malice
D) actual discontent

Question 54

In ______________, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a state statute that increases the severity of punishment if a crime victim is chosen on the basis of race or other designated characteristics.

A) R.A.V. v. St. Paul (1992)
B) Wisconsin v. Mitchell (1993)
C) Virginia v. Black (2003)
D) none of the above

Question 55

In _______________, the Supreme Court struck down a District of Columbia regulation that prohibited the display of signs within 500 feet of a foreign embassy if the message displayed on the signs brought the embassy's government into "disrepute."

A) Kovacs v. Cooper (1949)
B) Boos v. Barry (1988)
C) Heffron v. International Society for Krishna Consciousness (1981)
D) none of the above

Question 56

In _____________, the Court rejected the First Amendment claim of a Vietnam War protester that publicly burning his draft card was a form of constitutionally protected symbolic speech.

A) Minersville School District v. Gobitis (1940)
B) Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (1969)
C) United States v. O'Brien (1968)
D) none of the above

Question 57

In _________________, the Supreme Court handed down new legal guidelines for obscenity where the Court expressed the view that obscenity is "utterly without redeeming social importance" and thus entitled to no First Amendment protection.

A) Roth v. United States (1957)
B) Regina v. Hicklin (1868)
C) Jacobellis v. Ohio (1964)
D) none of the above