• Founders were worried about official censorship
• 1^st Amendment applies only to govt. restrictions
• newspapers can voluntarily refuse to print certain words
• MLB punishing John Rocker

1. Illegal Advocacy

1. Earliest free speech concerns centered around people inciting violence and

revolution

2. Schenck v. US (1919) – speech is permitted unless it creates a "clear and present danger" of serious harm
3. Illegal to shout "fire" in crowded theater
4. Speech is NOT free if it…

• if the speech is directed to inciting or producing "imminent lawless action"
• and only then if the speech is likely to cause such action.

1. Yates v. US 1957 – govt. cannot punish someone for advocating illegal activity merely as "abstract doctrine" that doesn’t advocate a specific action.
2. 1973 – Vietnam Protest – "We’ll take the street later." He was arrested for disorderly conduct. Was it a call to immediate lawless action?

• The Court ruled no – it was a call to disobey the police "at some indefinite future time." He called for the crowd to take the street later, not at that moment. And he did not advocate violence against the police.

1. Fighting Words

1. Some speech is considered outside the realm of free speech – fighting words – words aimed at another individual and "likely to produce the average person to retaliation, and thereby causing a breach of the peace.

 Back to ELP Index Page

Back to Lane Home Page