... to or influenced by a moral or ethical message with which they do not agree. People who disagree with a message in a song either reject it and never let it touch their CD player again or create a twisted definition of the song that fits their beliefs, which no one can dispute. Patricia Greenfield, a social scientist, conducted a study of music in 1987. She played ... been exposed to "violent" music. The PMRC has no evidence behind that statement either. What the PMRC doesn't realize is that they need much more than CD's in their 18 and over sections. In addition to CD's, these sections ...

• Word Count: 1767
• Approx Pages: 7

... speech, and how it affects you as Americans. I will discuss the meaning of this part of the first amendment and what speech is not protected by the first amendment. Although this censorship may seem trivial to some, I believe that almost any infraction of First Amendment rights is a serious ... climate in this nation, the possibilities are endless. Yes, one can also express dissatisfaction by burning one's draft card. However, burning a flag is protected speech, but burning a draft card is not. This is a good example of the bureaucracy and inconsistencies that can occur with the judicial...

• Word Count: 1758
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

... no distinction between refusing extraordinary life saving means and hastening eminent death with physician assisted suicide. In either case the end result will be the same and since one is protected under the Constitution the other, physician-assisted suicide should be as well. It is after all the underlying illness or disease that has brought the individual to deaths door, it ... dealt with the issue of abortion the debate over physician-assisted suicide fits the criterion for due process protection established in the Casey case. Since intimate and personal decisions are a protected du...

• Word Count: 908
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... that a replacement is substantially younger than the plaintiff is a far more reliable indicator of age discrimination than is the fact that the plaintiff was replaced by someone outside the protected class." While this holding does not provide a specific definition of "substantially younger", it does affirm the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's (EEOC) regulation, which prohibit an ... employer from discriminating on the basis of age even when all parties are in the protected age group. The following is a summary of James O'Connor v. Consolidated Coin Caterers Corporation:...

• Word Count: 1113
• Approx Pages: 4

... of $8 million in punitive damages. The Westboro Baptist Church challenged this verdict as "grossly excessive " and sought judgment as a matter of law on the grounds that the first Amendment fully protected its speech. The District Court reduced the punitive damages awarded but otherwise left the rest of the verdict intact. Westboro moved for summary judgment and an appeal contending that the ... First Amendment protected the Church's speech from tort liability. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit reversed the original verdict on all claims, finding that the Westboro Baptist ...

• Word Count: 3341
• Approx Pages: 13
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... convention in Dallas, Texas. The state sentenced Johnson to one year in prison and a fine of $2000. Johnson argued that the right to burn the American flag was protected under the right to free speech in the First Amendment. Johnson appealed the conviction to the Court of Appeals for the Fifth District in Dallas. The court upheld the ... then appealed to the Untied States Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court upheld the decision of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. The Supreme Court decided that Johnson was protected under the first Amendment and the charges were dismissed. The majorit...

• Word Count: 591
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... speech having even the slightest redeeming social importance, "even ideas hateful to the prevailing climate of opinion"#, however, obscene material does not contain this social importance and is therefore not protected by the Constitution. In light of this decision, the Supreme Court found it then necessary to define "obscenity" and to distinguish it from the portrayal of sex. This distinction drawn ... referred to simple, private possession of such materials. However, as Justice Marshall states in the opinion of the Stanley case, "Roth does declare, seemingly without qualification, tha...

• Word Count: 3509
• Approx Pages: 14
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... of prisons as well as the rights of the inmates (Lund, Lynn J., Deland, Gary, Gallaher, Sharon, and Bowker, Gary.) Although prisoners do not have full Constitutional rights they are protected by the Constitution's prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment. This protection requires that prisoners be afforded a minimum standard of living. Prisoners retain some other Constitutional rights including due process in ... free from racial segregation in prisons, except where necessary for preserving discipline and prison security. Inmates do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their...

• Word Count: 2215
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... would not be threatened by the government. A multitude of colonists came to America because they wanted religious freedoms. The Founding Fathers wanted to make sure that religious freedoms would be protected. This amendment was also created to ensure the separation of church and State. Even with religion as an important aspect of the Founding Fathers lives, they wanted to make sure ... taken for granted. This right is important in a Republic, as a means of protecting public participation in the government. The Supreme Court has regularly said the students, while at school, are protected...

• Word Count: 2212
• Approx Pages: 9

... can help schools to do this is by supporting student's rights to voluntarily practice their religious beliefs, including prayer at school. . . For more than 200 years, the First Amendment has protected out religious freedom and allowed many faiths to flourish in our homes, in our work places and in our schools. Clearly understood and sensibly applied, it works." The Florida and ... other students. " On January 8, 2002, President Bush signed the "No Child Left Behind" Act that states by the upcoming fall the Dept. Of Education must publish a guidance stating that "Constitutionally protec...

• Word Count: 1383
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... power to pass a law effecting a contract. The question layed upon Marshall was if a charter was actually a contract and if the Constitution protected this private charter. The Supreme court decided that the charter of a private corporation was in fact a contract protected by the Constitution. The decision proved that the Constitution restricted all state legislatures the power to change a private agreement. Marshall increased the ... set a precedent for the protection of private property whic greatly affected the face of the economy. Investors and private buisnessmen could now be ensure...

• Word Count: 989
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... has continued to under go criticism from students, parents, and administrators. They argue that random drug testing infringes on their constitutional rights. However, random drug testing should protected by the Fourth and the Fourteenth Amendment. The Fourth Amendment mandates that federal actors not subject individuals to unreasonable searches and seizures, allowing them to maintain their bodily ... 's "legitimate need to ensure drug-free athletes" (Gittins 1988). In this ruling, participation in interscholastic athletics was considered a privilege, not a "property" or "liberty" interest...

• Word Count: 1422
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... as title VII of the civil rights act of 1964, as written and/or interpreted by the courts, proscribes many inquiries that have a negative employment-related impact on protected classes of people. Plaintiffs also are asking the courts to curb employer access to employee records and other personal information under the right to privacy arguement, a constitutional arguement ... is Disparate impact. The landmark US Supreme court case Griggs vs. Duke Power ( 401 U.S. 424 { 1971 } ) interpreted disparate impact as any nuetral employment practice that adversly affects a protected class of peop...

• Word Count: 3335
• Approx Pages: 13
• Grade Level: High School

One of the basic tenets of American democracy is that the majority rules. But, another tenet is that the minority is protected. This is the overlying theme concerning the upcoming Supreme Court case Lawrence and Garner v. Texas, where the Supreme Court may use its power of judicial review to overturn Texas" "Homosexual ... rule? Eugene Rostow, in his work "The Democratic Character of Judicial Review" (1952) purports, thus, that it is a defined role of the Supreme Court to ensure that the minority is protected from "tyranny of the minority." Therefore, it seems that the Supreme Court is the p...

• Word Count: 930
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... our liberty by assuring a free press, to gather and publish information without being under control or power of another, in the First Amendment to the Constitution. We are not very protected by this guarantee, so we concern ourselves on account of special interest groups that are fighting to change the freedom of expression, the right to freely represent individual thoughts, feeling ... censor. There are members of society that believe in the freedom to speak publicly and to publish. This is a basic belief in the freedom of expression and is to be protected by the First Amendment to the...

• Word Count: 664
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... . California resulted in a three-prong test for determining whether or not a work of art is obscene. U.S. Supreme Court upheld the decision and reaffirmed that obscenity in not a form of speech protected by the First Amendment (Lankford and Pankratz 4). The three prong test set forth by the courts state that "a work must (a) appeal to prurient interest as judged by an average person ... canvas with a coathanger that was dripping blood. The painting was immediately removed and Claudio filed suit. The district court found that Claudio's painting of a sexual and controversial issue was not ...

• Word Count: 2311
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: High School

... Amendment? Had theSon of Sam? law become just another form of censorship veiled beneath the well-meaning intentions of the New York State Legislature? Are not our criminals also Americans protected under a Constitution that predisposes thatall men are created equal? as affirmed by the Declaration of Independence. It is the absolute freedom to speak our minds, without prejudice or censorship, that ... . And while the people who commit these crimes are monsters in our minds, our hearts will be safe in the knowledge that the greater good of the nation is being protected. The needs of the ma...

• Word Count: 1561
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... life, liberty or property, without due process of law"(Rein 118). This is called the Due Process Clause of the Constitution. "In 1997, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld that "the liberty" protected by the Due Process Clause does not include a right to commit suicide, which itself includes a right to assistance in doing so"(Rein 121). Does this mean that a terminally ill person ... life of a terminally ill, mentally competent patient and therefore physician assisted suicide should be legalized. The Constitution, as an ever changing, developing document, has recognized the right to die as a p...

• Word Count: 1830
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

... to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized (Galloway 214). The court was unsure on weather or not they should consider a public telephone booth as an area protected by the fourth amendment. The court did state that: The Fourth Amendment protects people, not places. What a person knowingly exposes to the public, even in his own home or office ... , is not a subject of Fourth Amendment protection. But what he seeks to preserve as private, even in an area accessible to the public, may be constitutionally protected. Searches conducted without warrants have been held unlawful notw...

• Word Count: 1082
• Approx Pages: 4

... committed to prison until he answered the questions. He then filed an application for writ of habeas corpus, which the highest state court denied. The judge said that he was protected against prosecution growing out of his replies to all but one question, and that as to that question his failure to explain how his answer would incriminate him negated his ... to persons testifying in judicial proceedings, not to persons testifying before committees or subcommittees of Congress. The Court upheld the law by stating that a testimony in a congressional subcommittee was not protected under th...

• Word Count: 2444
• Approx Pages: 10
• Grade Level: High School

... and the colonials years, they looked at abortion as something wrong. The English and Colonials looked at abortion as if it is the last thing you need. An abortion was protected by the mother if something went wrong with the mothers then you could terminate the baby. Also in the English and the Colonial times they had to proved the fetus ... that the unborn were not a person and so it had no rights to their life. A woman called Dorothy Toothy Beasley argued that the state and the central issue must be protected of the fetual life. The fetus is "another person", and the privacy ends when ...

• Word Count: 3570
• Approx Pages: 14
• Grade Level: High School

... discrimination due to race, religion or national origin. Since that law came into existence, many changes have taken place to provide a broader scope of protection for what the government calls protected class members. The laws" intent was to afford underprivileged minority groups" equal opportunities for employment that were available to the white male. Although advantageous, the results generated detrimental effects as ... far as 1879 in Plessy vs. Ferguson. Since that law came into existence, many changes have taken place to provide a broader scope of protection to what the governmen...

• Word Count: 1980
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... to read. Weiman v Updegraff (1952): The right of freedom of speech and press includes the freedom of inquiry, freedom of thought, and freedom to teach. NAACP v Alabama (1958): The court protected the freedom of association and privacy in one's associations Snyder v Massachusetts (1934): The court stated that the Due Process Clause protects those liberties that are so rooted in the traditions ... and conscience of our people. United Public Workers v Mitchell (1947): The Ninth Amendment simply lends strong support to the view that the liberty protected by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendmen...

• Word Count: 623
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... involved. In Smith v Allwright (1944), the Court overruled its previous decision made nine years earlier in Grovey v. Townsend, and held that the right to vote in primary elections was actually protected by the Constitution. This case again concerned the Texas Democratic Party's resolution that restricted membership to white citizens of Texas. The Court found that primary elections were conducted by the ... five of 400 African Americans but no whites, which thereby continued white domination in municipal elections. When an otherwise lawful exercise of state power is used to get around a...

• Word Count: 1766
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... things, promoting insubordination or refusal of duty among the armed forces" (Ostrowski 5). "Three persons convicted under this act appealed their convictions to the Supreme Court, arguing that their activities were protected and shielded from prosecution by the First Amendment" (Ostrowski 5). "In these cases, the illegal behavior consisted of publishing a pamphlet opposing the draft, publishing a pamphlet sympathetic to Germany, and speaking out ... are tossed into the trash because their authors mock the liberty that made the books possible. Indeed, expressing revulsion at the sight o...

• Word Count: 1987
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: Undergraduate