The argument for the freedom of speech and press during the ratification of the US Constitution, 1787–88

This article is about the limits of the right to free speech. The first section provides a brief introduction to this topic, primarily in the context of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The second section describes the case of Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire, which was fundamental to the topic of this paper because the United States Supreme Court created the so-called "fighting words" doctrine based on it. In the next two sections, two court cases are presented that perfectly demonstrate the limits of the right to free speech in the United States: Snyder v. Phelps and Village of Skokie v. National Socialist Party of America. The fifth part shows the right to freedom of speech in the context of Polish civil, criminal, and constitutional law, as well as acts of international law binding on Poland. The last part is a short summary.

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Introduction

Strategic Indeterminacy in the Law ◽

10.1093/oso/9780190923693.003.0006 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 1-3

Author(s):

David Lanius

Keyword(s):

Human Dignity ◽

Freedom Of Speech ◽

Basic Law ◽

The Us ◽

Us Constitution

The US Constitution states that freedom of speech shall not be abridged, but it does not tell us what kind of speech is protected. The German Basic Law states that human dignity shall be inviolable, but it does not tell us what kind of behavior would violate it. There have consistently been complaints that such constitutional provisions say nothing by themselves. Why are they phrased so broadly?...

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Hip Hop as Martial Art

The Oxford Handbook of Hip Hop Music ◽

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190281090.013.11 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

J. Griffith Rollefson

Keyword(s):

Political Economy ◽

Hip Hop ◽

Rap Music ◽

Physical Violence ◽

Freedom Of Speech ◽

Kung Fu ◽

Martial Art ◽

The Us ◽

Us Constitution ◽

The Right

This chapter examines how hip hop exemplifies the instrumentalization of verbal arsenals, lyrical kung fu, and other rhetorical gestures to “words as weapons.” Indeed, this weaponization of knowledge may be thought of as the very premise of hip hop—of rap music as martial art. While this theorization will help explain hip hop’s enduring polycultural commitment to martial arts, the aim here is a more foundational one—to account for the ways that the trope of physical violence functions in hip hop discourses and performative practices. The chapter employs a political economy framework to argue that this translation from the discursive to the material is a counterhegemonic response to the conflation of the First and Second Amendments of the US Constitution: “the freedom of speech” and “the right to bear arms.” The chapter concludes by explaining why hip hop has proven an unlikely force for nonviolence in the Black Lives Matter moment.

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Ethical Principles on the Freedom of Speech and Expression in the Developed and Developing Countries

Annals of Bioethics & Clinical Applications ◽

10.23880/abca-16000172 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Abdul Alim

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Supreme Court ◽

First Amendment ◽

Free Speech ◽

Freedom Of Speech ◽

The United States ◽

United States Constitution ◽

Bill Of Rights ◽

The Us ◽

Us Constitution

The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is an essential part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, obstructing the free exercise of religion, infringing on the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering peoples assembling rights in a peaceful manner or prohibiting the petitioning for a governmental remedy of grievances. The guarantees of this Bill of Rights were subject to the limitation imposed by the free speech and press provisions of the First Amendment to the US Constitution as interpreted and applied by the Supreme Court and other courts. The United States and India are the largest democratic country and almost have similar free speech provisions in their Constitutions. This Article is intended to present the free speech provisions of the American and Indian Constitution as a basic fundamental right of human being. It is also to be examined that what is the role of Supreme Court in interpreting the freedom of speech and expression provisions. The study also tries to incorporate the comparison between the looms of both countries as far as freedom of speech is disturbed.

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Freedom of Expression in the US Constitution: Formation and Development

Law and Safety ◽

10.32631/pb.2019.4.03 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 75 (4) ◽

pp. 30-37

Author(s):

O. V. Sendetskaya

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Civil Rights ◽

Freedom Of Expression ◽

Freedom Of Speech ◽

The United States ◽

The Rule Of Law ◽

Advantages And Disadvantages ◽

The Us ◽

Us Constitution ◽

The Right

The essence of such rights as the right to freedom of expression and the right to freedom of speech has been analyzed. Based on the United States regulations, the author has compared approaches to understanding and interpreting freedom of speech and freedom of expression. Freedom of expression has been studied as one of the dominant values of constitutionalism, a precondition for democracy and the rule of law. Historical aspects of the formulation of the right to freedom of speech in the United States of America, as well as its consistent regulatory enshrinement and interpretation have been analyzed. Different approaches to the constitutional proclamation of the freedom of speech have been researched and the optimal formulation of the said law has been clarified. Particular attention has been paid to the differences between American and European concepts of freedom of expression, and fundamentally different points in its understanding. The importance of banning the oppression of freedom of expression for the development of a democratic society and the market for ideas has been substantiated. Particular attention has been paid to the study of the formation and development of these rights under US law and their enactment. Based on a comparison of American and Ukrainian options for guaranteeing this right, their advantages and disadvantages have been highlighted, which may assist in gaining positive experience for Ukraine. The author has made conclusions regarding the higher level of guaranteeing the right to freedom of expression and freedom of speech in the practice of the United States, although these rights are more detail enshrined in Ukrainian law. The author has argued in favor of the fact that Ukraine should take into account the American approach to the protection of the right to freedom of expression and freedom of speech, as well as to establish a mechanism for their observance as fundamental personal human and civil rights.

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Scripturalizing and the Second Amendment

10.1093/oso/9780198722618.003.0036 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Rosamond C. Rodman

Keyword(s):

White Women ◽

White Children ◽

The Bible ◽

Second Amendment ◽

The Us ◽

The Status ◽

Us Constitution ◽

Half Decade

Expanding beyond the text of the Bible, this chapter explores instead a piece of political scripture, namely the Second Amendment of the US Constitution. Over the last half-decade, the Second Amendment has come to enjoy the status of a kind of scripture-within-scripture. Vaulted to a much more prominent status than it had held in the first 150 years or so of its existence, and having undergone a remarkable shift in what most Americans think it means, the Second Amendment provides an opportunity to examine the linguistic, racial, and gendered modes by which these changes were effected, paying particular attention to the ways in which white children and white women were conscripted into the role of the masculine, frontier-defending US citizen.

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Dirty tricks on the underground press

Index on Censorship ◽

10.1080/03064228108533186 ◽

1981 ◽

Vol 10 (2) ◽

pp. 47-50

Author(s):

Geoffrey Rips

Keyword(s):

Vietnam War ◽

The United States ◽

Freedom Of Information ◽

Underground Press ◽

General Terms ◽

The Us ◽

Psychedelic Drugs ◽

Us Constitution ◽

The Vietnam War ◽

The 1960S

What was known in the United States as the ‘underground press’ – self-published newspapers of the youth counterculture sold at street corners and around campuses in American cities during the 1960s and early 70 s – was once a significant network estimated at over 400 publications. Their hallmark was opposition to US involvement in the Vietnam War, criticism of the authorities, of uncontrolled technology and big business, advocacy of sexual freedom and artistic experimentation and, frequently, the advocacy of marijuana, LSD and other psychedelic drugs. Few of these publications have survived the past ten years, and their disappearance has been variously attributed to the cooling of radical interest after the American withdrawal from Vietnam, as well as to the vague and shifting nature of the ‘hippie’ scene. Complaints by their publishers during the early and mid-seventies that printers refused their business, that office rents suddenly doubled, that advertising was cancelled, that papers were lost – these were seen as local accidents and were rarely reported by the established media. Claims of official or officially-sanctioned harassment were dismissed – even by fellow radicals – as paranoid. Recent research by Geoffrey Rips of the PEN American Center has revealed the extent and variety of official pressure exerted against alternative publications during the Vietnam War period. Using evidence from government hearings like the Church Committee, which reported in 1976, actual FBI documents released to American PEN under the Freedom of Information Act, and other sources, Mr Rips argues that such harassment contributed materially to the closure of certain publications and in general terms constituted a gross infringement on the protection afforded to dissenting opinion and to a free press under the US constitution. We publish edited extracts here from Geoffrey Rips' report which will be published in full by the PEN American Center and the City Lights Press.

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Legal basis of «democracy»

Development of legal systems in Russia and foreign countries: problems of theory and practice ◽

10.29039/02061-6-219-227 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Sergey Polischuk

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

The United States ◽

Bill Of Rights ◽

Legal Basis ◽

Founding Fathers ◽

Political Events ◽

Capitol Hill ◽

The Us ◽

Us Constitution ◽

Election Results

The article examines the main political events that took place in the United States from the controversial election results to the tragic events on Capitol Hill for Trump supporters, which led to human casualties, finally untied the hands of the Democrats and allowed them to bury all the democratic values that America has taught the whole world since the adoption of the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights by the founding fathers of the state.

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Religious Neutrality and the Government’s Freedom of Speech in the Jurisprudence of the us Supreme Court

Religion and Human Rights ◽

10.1163/18710328-12341278 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

pp. 1-23

Author(s):

András Koltay

Keyword(s):

Supreme Court ◽

Freedom Of Speech ◽

The State ◽

Social Conditions ◽

Religious Symbols ◽

The Us ◽

Us Supreme Court ◽

The Government ◽

Hard Cases

The issue of the use of religious symbols by the State, the Government, the Municipalities and Courts has emerged as a practical constitutional problem during the last quarter of a century. Contradictory examples of us Supreme Court jurisprudence prove that this issue is among the constitutional ‘hard cases’. The relatively recent appearance of the problem clearly indicates the ways in which American social conditions have changed and the transformation of us society’s attitude to religion.

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The US Constitution and monetary powers: an analysis of the 1787 constitutional convention and the constitutional transformation of the US monetary system

Financial History Review ◽

10.1017/s0968565006000059 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

pp. 43-71 ◽

Cited By ~ 23

Author(s):

FARLEY GRUBB

Keyword(s):

Constitutional Convention ◽

Watershed Transformation ◽

Founding Fathers ◽

Legal Tender ◽

Paper Money ◽

Monetary System ◽

The Us ◽

Us Constitution

The monetary powers embedded in the US Constitution were revolutionary and led to a watershed transformation in the nation's monetary structure. They included determining what monies could be legal tender, who could emit fiat paper money, and who could incorporate banks. How the debate at the 1787 constitutional convention over these powers evolved and led the founding fathers to the specific powers adopted is presented and deconstructed. Why they took this path rather than replicate the successful colonial system and why they codified such powers into supreme law rather than leaving them to legislative debate and enactment are addressed.

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