ERIC ED321307: Freedom of Speech as Protected pdf

ERIC ED321307: Freedom of Speech as Protected

More Book Details

Description of the Book:

While some analysts have asserted that the First Amendment was intended to prohibit laws against seditious libel (speech overtly critical of the government), the judicial record reveals a willingness to tolerate some onerous infringements on free expression. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, 25 states passed “sedition” or “criminal syndicalism” laws, which criminalized anti-government expression. Local ordinances designed to protect public health and safety were also employed in the suppression of speech. Not until the 1925 case of Gitlow v. New York was the First Amendment applied to the states via the Fourteenth Amendment. During this period, state courts also resisted free speech challenges to the sedition laws, as state constitutions offered even less protection for speech than did the First Amendment. Judicial participation in speech suppression challenges the traditional view of the Supreme Court as protector of rights. Today, the First Amendment must be construed in light of present conditions.

While the past cannot be ignored, there is a difference between mindless adherence to the ways of the past and appreciation for continuity, stability, and tradition. (Sixty-one footnotes are included.) (SG

• Creator/s: ERIC
• Date: 1989-11
• Year: 1989
• Book Topics/Themes: ERIC Archive, Civil Liberties, Constitutional History, Constitutional Law, Court Judges, Court Litigation, Freedom of Speech, Libel and Slander, United States History

An excerpt captured from the PDF book