CENSORSHIP: PROTECTION VS. FREEDOM On September 6th, 2001, fourteen year-old Corey H died. He killed himself with a butcher knife in his home in Turket, PA. His death hardly affected the small town ... in mind. In a world where violence, sex crimes, and teen pregnancy levels are rising steadily, one cannot help but want to protect the youth. Censorship, for some people, is the protection of rights, not the removal of them. Educators are just trying to protect our youth from harmful influences, just as the Parental Advisory Board protects them from inappropriate song lyrics ... . As the soul ...

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... YORK TIMES: TOP COP WINS The mighty have fallen! Yesterday afternoon, in a little over two hours, unanimous jurors found that The New York Times did not have First Amendment constitutional protection from libel suits when it printed statements that contained factual errors that damaged the official's reputation. The jurors awarded the police commissioner, L.B. Sullivan, $500,000 in damages. The March 29 ... in damages. 2) Discuss the similarities and the dissimilarities between the common law of Alabama as applied by the Alabama courts in Sullivan v. New York times, and the Sedition Act...

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... is known under the name the idea–expression dichotomy. The copyright law of the United States is governed by the federal Copyright Act of 1976. Copyright Status of Work by the U.S. Government 17 U.S.C. § 105 withholds copyright from most publications produced by the United States ... Government, and its agents or employees while in their employment: Copyright protection under this title is not available for any work of the United States Government, but the United States Government is not precluded from ... receiving and holding copyrights transferred to it by assignment, bequest...

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... in question, the material is either used by the agency or is destroyed. Probably the biggest battle yet over the first amendment rights so far has been the Communications Decency Act or CDA. In March 1995 Senator Jim Exon introduces legislation to criminalize online publication of any material deemed "obscene, lascivious, filthy or indecent." This legislation was attached to a larger and ... too vague. With that loss, proponents of the CDA have vowed to bring new legislation. Another Bill that Was introduced into legislation is the Child Online Protection Act or COPA. In March of 1998, ...

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... in question, the material is either used by the agency or is destroyed. Probably the biggest battle yet over the first amendment rights so far has been the Communications Decency Act or CDA. In March 1995 Senator Jim Exon introduces legislation to criminalize online publication of any material deemed "obscene, lascivious, filthy or indecent." This legislation was attached to a larger and ... too vague. With that loss, proponents of the CDA have vowed to bring new legislation. Another Bill that was introduced into legislation is the Child Online Protection Act or COPA. In March of 1998, ...

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... question was whether flag burning was a form of freedom of speech. Eichman and a group of people burned several flags; some on the capital steps and some in Seattle. The Flag Protection Act of 1989 says "anyone who knowingly mutilates, defaces, physically defiles, burns, maintains on the floor or the ground, or tramples upon a United States flag can be prosecuted." Flag burning is ... speech and flag burning is part of free speech. This can be proven in the 1st Amendment, The Flag Protection Act, and the fact that the flag does not loose its symbolism when it is burned. The United State...

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... include listening to a speech, watching a movie, reading a book or viewing a webpage, among many other things. The internet deserves protection of free speech because it is the most widely used form of mass communication we have. As US Judge Stewart Dalzell wrote in overturning the Communications Decency ... Act, "The internet may fairly be regarded as a never-ending worldwide conversation. The government may not . . . interrupt that conversation. As the most participatory form of mass speech yet developed, the internet deserves the highest protection from governmental intrusion." CNET N...

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Internet Censorship The debate over whether the government should censor the Internet is intense. In 1995 the senate passed the Communications Decency Act written by Senator Jim Exon. The act "outlaws "obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy or indecent" communications on the Internet," (Exon 130). Americans on both sides of the issue are asking some very pertinent, yet difficult to answer, questions ... "a verified credit card, debit account, adult access code or personal identification number," to gain access into questionable Internet cites (Exon 127). Opponents of Internet censorship and the Co...

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... , "The Statecannot deprive any person of life, liberty or property, without due process of law; nor deny any person within itsjurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." The group believes that a terminally ill patient has the Constitutionalright to decide whether or not to end his or her life with ... life with the aid of a doctor. Senior Judge S. JosephDavis, brought in from Seminole County, "found that Florida's strict privacy law and the equal protection clause in theU.S. Constitution entitled Hall, 35, and Dr. McIver to carry out an assisted death without fear of prosecution" (Su...

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... , "The Statecannot deprive any person of life, liberty or property, without due process of law; nor deny any person within itsjurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." The group believes that a terminally ill patient has the Constitutionalright to decide whether or not to end his or her life with ... life with the aid of a doctor. Senior Judge S. JosephDavis, brought in from Seminole County, "found that Florida's strict privacy law and the equal protection clause in theU.S. Constitution entitled Hall, 35, and Dr. McIver to carry out an assisted death without fear of prosecution" (Su...

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... of the land is being violated in many different ways; the first is the fourteenth amendment. The fourteenth amendment states that all men have equal protection under the law; the denial of marriage is not equal protection or equal rights. According to article nine of the Constitution the enumeration, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained ... one does not truly have freedom of religion if one does not have the right to freedom from religion as well. The defense of marriage act, or DEMO, was passed in 2001 by the senate. This act states that the fe...

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... 's expression was not for uttering insulting words, this complicated the Supreme Court's decision. The First Amendment forbids the abridgment only of "speech" but the court has long established that its protection does not end at the spoken or written word. Therefore, the court must determine whether Johnson's goal to convey a particular message was present, and whether those who viewed it would ... such a symbol without punishment would be unjust. Also dissenting, Justice Stevens questions, "Is it the power of the state or the federal government to decide the punishment on such an act?"...

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... doubt that the so called democracy that many of us believe in is in fact authoritative governance" [qt. Rosen 1999]. The original Bill of Rights is basically a narrative of the protection of the people under the law and it prevents war representatives to exploit the people. At the time religion had been the dominant force behind the Bill thus allowing the ... waltz right into someone's house and do whatever they saw fit which is not right. With the above discussion it is clear that the foundation of the American freedom and protection of the Bill of Rights have changed for the worse as ...

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... as fighting words (Klotter 56). The words must be used abusively and insulting and they are spoken in a face-to-face encounter where they may provoke the other party to act violently (Klotter 56). Treats are also not protected under the First Amendment and include telephone harassment even though the treats are incapable of being carried out at the time of ... contempt against races, religion, sex, ethnicity, and sexual orientation, it is protected under the First Amendment (Klotter 63). Many people disagree with the idea of hate speech receiving First Amendment protection but the Supre...

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... of it. Our nation's flag symbolizes those values; liberty and equality that are worth fighting for. As such it cannot be true that the flag is not itself worthy of protection from unnecessary discretion. The court's decision in Texas v. Johnson is intriguing for a number of reasons. The odd alignments of two of the more conservative members of the Rehnquist Court, Scalia ... the Court's ruling. President Bush immediately condemned it and public opinion polls indicated that Americans generally favored a constitutional amendment overturning the ruling. Due to that ruling Congress pass the...

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... made without regard whether they were false or not. When Congress met in 1789, one of their main concerns was the creation of the Bill of Rights, which concerned the protection of speech and expression. The First Amendment guarantees that, along with other human liberties such as religion, assembly and petition. It states, "Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom ... of speech, or the press." Why were the founders so concerned about the protection of human expression and speech though? Primarily because they themselves had been denied rights such as those by England and they wa...

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... as fighting words (Klotter 56). The words must be used abusively and insulting and they are spoken in a face-to-face encounter where they may provoke the other party to act violently (Klotter 56). Treats are also not protected under the First Amendment and include telephone harassment even though the treats are incapable of being carried out at the time of ... contempt against races, religion, sex, ethnicity, and sexual orientation, it is protected under the First Amendment (Klotter 63). Many people disagree with the idea of hate speech receiving First Amendment protection but the Supre...

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... their battle cry: "No taxation without representation!" The people of the Massachusetts Bay Colony demonstrated their outrage at the tax on tea in a dramatic act of civil disobedience, which lead to the Boston Tea Party. (Eldridge, 15) The need for freedom of speech was first brought up in Massachusetts ... written into the Bill of Rights and was ratified in 1791. A few years after the First Amendment was ratified, the government passed the Sedition Act of 1798. This was to help prevent resistance or rebellion against the government. It also made it illegal to print, write or say "any ....

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... the Unites States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." This Amendment, one of the Civil War Amendments, would later be used by the Supreme Court to extend the religion clauses of the first amendment beyond the ... public schools, is another example of the pervasiveness of religion in the education system. The Pledge was first published Sept. 8, 1892, but the phrase, "under God", was added by an act of Congress in 1954, it has since been removed ...

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... the general secretary of the Socialist party headquarters in Philadelphia. (Schenck vs. United States) He was accused of violating the Espionage Act of 1917, and attempting to cause rebellion in the armed forces. (Landmark Decisions) This was the first time the government had ... were distributed, Schenck was charged with "conspiring to cause a rebellion and insubordination in the armed forces." He was also charged with violating the Espionage act of 1917. The courts said that he "willfully" conspired to cause such rebellion and insubordination in the armed forces, and also to obstruct t...

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... (1969) Students were suspended for wearing black armbands protesting the police action in Vietnam. School stated that it disrupted the environment of education, but the supreme court ruled that this act was unconstitutional because it infringed on the students first amendment right to free speech and expression. In the supreme court case Texas v. Johnson; The court ruled that criminalizing a person for ... desecration of the united states flag was unconstitutional and against their first amendment rights to free speech. In 1989 congress passed the Flag Protection Act, but was again rule...

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... Kennedy, concurring Chief Justice Rehnquist, with whom Justice White and Justice O" Connor, Justice Stevens join in dissenting. These judges felt that Johnson's burning of the flag was no act of expression, but and act of inciting a breach of the peace. They also felt that the court was wrong to see that Johnson was prosecuted for his freedom of expression, but the real ... reason he was prosecuted was the method he chose to express his dissatisfaction. The Justices believed that the American flag that represents liberty and equality should be worthy of protection from unnecessary ... ...

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... a great deal of information on the Internet that some people may view as "indecent." Congress has attempted to censor this information in the past, most notably with the Communications Decency Act, a controversial piece of legislation signed into law by President Clinton on February 8, 1996 (Esposito). There were many advocates to passing this law that claimed that there is much information on ... . In a landmark 1997 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that the Internet is a unique medium entitled to the highest protection under the free speech protections of the First Amendment to the Un...

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... problem but merely covering it up. The problem needs to be exposed and recognized as an issue to be effectively treated. Enforcing certain hate speech codes that go beyond the protection of the first amendment can actually be more harmful then better. For instance, and African American Educator said that he actually felt more of a minority once a university he was attending ... enforced speech codes protecting him. Another example, a Racial Relations Act was adopted in 1965 to outlaw racist defamation. But the act was largely used to persecute activists of color, trade unionists and ant...

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... the internet. In previous attempts by the government to ban explicit material the effort was deemed unconstitutional. In 1997 ruled in Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union that the Communications Decency Act was unconstitutional, declaring that "the Internet is entitled to the same broad free speech protections given to books, magazines, and casual conversation" (592). In an appeal the Supreme Court upheld ... the ruling deeming the CDA unconstitutional. In the latest attempt to ban the internet the Supreme Court sent a case referring to COPA, the Child Online Protection Act, to lower...

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