| Line 1: |
Line 1: |
| | {{Government Lectures}} | | {{Government Lectures}} |
| − | <under development>
| |
| − |
| |
| | The United States is the only nation in the history of the world that is founded on an '''''idea'''''. And what is that "idea"? The Constitution. | | The United States is the only nation in the history of the world that is founded on an '''''idea'''''. And what is that "idea"? The Constitution. |
| | | | |
| Line 129: |
Line 127: |
| | The right to free speech can even protect lies about public officials. If you are a public figure, then others have a free speech right to make outrageous claims about you. Only if the statements were made with malice, like a deliberate disregard for the truth, is a public figure allowed to recover damages for a lie spread about him or her. | | The right to free speech can even protect lies about public officials. If you are a public figure, then others have a free speech right to make outrageous claims about you. Only if the statements were made with malice, like a deliberate disregard for the truth, is a public figure allowed to recover damages for a lie spread about him or her. |
| | | | |
| − | You may agree with some or all of the expansions of free speech rights above. In general, conservatives and liberals tend to support broad free speech rights, and for that reason free speech has greatly expanded. Only pro-government moderates tend to oppose free speech in politics. Can you think of an example of someone famous who opposed free speech? (Answer: President John Adams and the Sedition Act; also Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes in ''Schenck v. United States'' (1919), p. 346); note that kings tend to oppose free speech as well.) | + | You may agree with some or all of the expansions of free speech rights above. In general, conservatives and liberals tend to support expanding free speech rights, and for that reason free speech has greatly expanded. Can you think of an example of someone famous who opposed free speech? (Answer: President John Adams when he signed the Sedition Act to prohibit criticism of him; also Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes when he wrote the decision in ''Schenck v. United States'' (1919), which affirmed the conviction of someone for criticizing the compulsory military draft in World War I) |
| | | | |
| | Public schools do not allow full free speech (should they?). On one hand, it is easy to see why we would not allow students to be able to say whatever they like. Suppose they started talking about drugs? Suppose they wanted to be rude to the teachers? | | Public schools do not allow full free speech (should they?). On one hand, it is easy to see why we would not allow students to be able to say whatever they like. Suppose they started talking about drugs? Suppose they wanted to be rude to the teachers? |
| Line 135: |
Line 133: |
| | There is not free speech in the military, either. If you insult your commander, then he is going to punish you for insubordination. About twenty years before Japan sunk most of our ships at Pearl Harbor, General Billy Mitchell spoke out against how our top military commanders were leaving our navy unprotected against that sort of attack. Later events proved him to be completely right, but at the time he was court martialed for insubordination and was both humiliated and forced to resign. (After the Pearl Harbor attack and after Billy Mitchell died, our military admitted its mistake and reinstated his benefits). Should there be free speech in the military? | | There is not free speech in the military, either. If you insult your commander, then he is going to punish you for insubordination. About twenty years before Japan sunk most of our ships at Pearl Harbor, General Billy Mitchell spoke out against how our top military commanders were leaving our navy unprotected against that sort of attack. Later events proved him to be completely right, but at the time he was court martialed for insubordination and was both humiliated and forced to resign. (After the Pearl Harbor attack and after Billy Mitchell died, our military admitted its mistake and reinstated his benefits). Should there be free speech in the military? |
| | | | |
| − | Conservatives strongly oppose one type of expansion of free speech, however: pornography. Many liberals oppose it also. But a lawyer who represented the pornography industry (Abe Fortas) was a friend of President Lyndon Johnson, who appointed him to be a Supreme Court Justice. Pornography, like gambling, has a devastating effect on the minds of those taken in by it. And there is an enormous amount of money and profits pushing pornography on the public. | + | Conservatives strongly oppose one type of expansion of free speech, however: pornography. Some liberals oppose it too. But a lawyer who represented the pornography industry (Abe Fortas) was a friend of President Lyndon Johnson, who appointed him to be a Supreme Court Justice, and the Supreme Court then expanded free speech rights for pornography, despite its devastating effect on the minds of view it. Gambling has a similar terrible effect on the mind, but it is conduct (activities) that is considered to be a type of free speech. |
| − | | |
| − | Speaking of [[gambling]], is it free speech? Why not? (It’s more conduct than speech, and thus does not quality as free speech.)
| |
| | | | |
| − | Further, free speech does not generally protect one from the resulting consequences of that speech by private persons. For example, your boss has a right to fire someone for making unflattering statements about him on the internet.
| + | Keep in mind that the right to free speech does not generally protect one from the resulting consequences of that speech. For example, someone's boss has a right to fire him for making unflattering statements about him on the internet. |
| | | | |
| | ===Rights of Criminal Defendants=== | | ===Rights of Criminal Defendants=== |