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Freedom Of Speech Under The First Amendment

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Even though freedom of speech can be tricky, being able to excogitate is key to understanding what can be said under the first amendment is key. This will give you more confidence when you're talking about current events, it'll inhibit social interaction, but the biggest reason of all is understanding your rights will keep you out of jail. Even the supreme court struggles to determine what exactly constitutes protected speech. When trying to see if your covered by the first amendment, certain questions have to be displayed. Are we free to say whatever we want? Exactly what is freedom of speech, what can I say, and what can't I say and still be covered by the first amendment? Understanding the dilemma that freedom of speech just like anything …show more content…

One negative impact the federalism has on freedom of speech is that it protects everyone, including people who protest, pickets, and demonstrations of hate speech. By the same token the Ku Klux Klan expressed racial views, and were protected. American flags could burn as an act of political protest. One of the most uniquely hateful groups is the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas, who are a small fringe religious group, that tried to live by the bible. In March 2006 they picketed at an ebullient U.S. Marines funeral. The Marines name is Mathew Snyder who died in Iraq fighting for a free country. During the picketing they had signs that stated God hates America, fag troops, thank god for dead soldiers and many more. The Snyder's dad tried to sue the church for defamation of character and inflicting emotional stress on his family. This case went all the way to the Supreme Court in 2010, the church was protected under the freedom of speech in an 8-1 decision. A Socialist Party leader Eugene Debs spoke out about the draft, and received a sentenced to 10 years in prison. The Supreme Court was protecting all kinds of freedom of speech. Correspondingly Congress passed a bill in 2012 called The Honoring America's Veterans and Caring for Camp Lejeune Families Act. Not only does the bill prohibit demonstrators from picketing military funerals two hours before, but …show more content…

This establishes a free society based on the principle that every individual has a right to decide for themselves. Censorships is similar to a bad disease, if not treated it will spread for the worse. If we allow the government to censor different types of entertainment just because they feel it's harmful to our culture, we are losing our rights. Censorship is the governments way of controlling our vision. With having freedom of speech there has to be a balance between rights and interest. Being able to offend or insult others is equally important as part of that freedom. Lets recap on all the information that has been covered in the paper. We talked about the understanding of freedom of speech, and it not being so free. Before speaking there are certain stipulations that have to be followed, in order to be covered by the first amendment. We touched on the different types of speeches being symbolic and pure speech. We talked about the importance of the Alien Seduction Act, and what it meant to the first amendment. We also discussed what happens to people who break the Alien Seduction Act. We talked about positive freedom of speech. An example of this was the magnanimous group NWA, who spoke up on behalf of a community discussing real life current events. Police brutality being one of the more

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