Freedom of Speech

Documents Decoded

David L. Hudson Jr.

• Publisher: ABC-CLIO
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781440842504
• eBook ISBN: 9798216087076
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Law
• Subtopic: Civil Rights in Law
• Index: Law

Detailed yet highly readable, this book explores essential and illuminating primary source documents that provide insights into the history, development, and current conceptions of the First Amendment to the Constitution. The freedom to speak one's mind is a subject of great importance to most Americans but especially to students, minorities, and those who are socially or economically disadvantaged—individuals whose voices have historically been censored or marginalized in American society. Documents Decoded: Freedom of Speech offers accessible, student-friendly explanations of specific developments in freedom of speech in the United States and carefully excerpted primary documents, making it an indispensable resource for educators seeking to teach the First Amendment and for students wanting to learn more about important free-speech decisions. The chronologically ordered documents explore topics typically covered in American history and government curricula, addressing such contemporary issues as the regulation of online speech, flag desecration, parody, public school student speech, and the Supreme Court's recent decisions on the issue of corporate speech rights.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• Sedition Act (July 14, 1798)
• John Quincy Adams’s Letter on the “Gag Rule” (May 25, 1836)
• Robert LaFollette’s “Free Speech during Wartime” Speech (October 6, 1917)
• Eugene Debs’s Speech in Canton, Ohio (June 16, 1918)
• Schenck v. United States (March 3, 1919)
• Abrams v. United States (November 10, 1919)
• Whitney v. California (May 16, 1927)
• President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “Four Freedoms” Speech (January 6, 1941)
• Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire (March 9, 1942)
• West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (June 14, 1943)
• Margaret Chase Smith’s “Declaration of Conscience” Speech (June 1, 1950)
• Talley v. California (March 7, 1960)
• Edwards v. South Carolina (February 25, 1963)
• New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (March 9, 1964)
• Mario Savio’s “Bodies upon the Gears” Speech (December 2, 1964)
• United States v. O’Brien (May 27, 1968)
• Pickering v. Board of Education (June 3, 1968)
• Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (February 24, 1969)
• Watts v. United States (April 21, 1969)
• Brandenburg v. Ohio (June 8, 1969)
• Cohen v. California (June 7, 1971)
• New York Times Co. v. United States (June 30, 1971)
• Police Department of Chicago v. Mosley (June 26, 1972)
• Miller v. California (June 21, 1973)
• Erznoznik v. City of Jacksonville (June 23, 1975)
• Bates v. State Bar of Arizona (June 27, 1977)
• Renton v. Playtime Theatres, Inc. (February 25, 1986)
• Bethel School District v. Fraser (July 7, 1986)
• Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier (January 13, 1988)
• Hustler Magazine, Inc. v. Falwell (February 24, 1988)
• Texas v. Johnson (June 21, 1989)
• Reno v. ACLU (June 26, 1997)
• Russ Feingold’s Speech on the PATRIOT Act (October 25, 2001)
• Garcetti v. Ceballos (May 30, 2006)
• Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association (June 27, 2011)
• Barack Obama’s Statement after the Charlie Hebdo Attack (January 7, 2015)
• House Joint Resolution No. 48 (April 28, 2015)
• Reed v. Town of Gilbert (June 18, 2015)
• Timeline of Events
• Further Reading
• Index
• About the Author