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| | 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? |
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| − | 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. | + | Conservatives strongly oppose one type of expansion of free speech, however: pornography. Some liberals oppose it too. Pornography destroys the minds of many people who view it, but the U.S. Supreme Court misused the free speech clause to allow pornography to pollute our society. Gambling has a similar devastating effect on the mind, but it is conduct (activities) that is considered to be a type of free speech. |
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| − | 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. | + | Your instructor filed briefs with the U.S. Supreme Court opposing an extension of free speech protection to the sale of violent video games to children. But by a narrow 5-4 majority, the Supreme Court held that the Free Speech Clause gives people the right to sell the most violent video games imaginable to young children. |
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| | + | Keep in mind that the right to free speech does not generally protect one from the resulting consequences of that speech. The harm that some types of speech (including images) causes, both to others and to yourself, is very real. People often lose their job because of something they said at work, or on the internet outside of work, for example. Also, speech relating to conduct, such as threatening someone with harm or asking to do something that is illegal, is a crime punishable with jail sentences. |
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| | ===Rights of Criminal Defendants=== | | ===Rights of Criminal Defendants=== |