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JUL 4, 1776
The United States Begins...
The Continental Congress adopts the final draft of the Declaration of Independence on July 4. -
JAN 1, 1801 19th Century
The 19th century witnesses a Supreme Court hostile to many claims of freedom of speech and assembly. -
1868 The 14th Amendment to the Constitution is ratified.
The amendment, in part, requires that no state shall “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.” -
1942 The U.S. Supreme Court determines “fighting words” are not protected by the First Amendment.
In Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire, the Court defines “fighting words” as “those which by their very utterance inflict injury or tend to incite an immediate breach of peace.” The Court states that such words are “no essential part of any exposition of ideas, and are of such slight social value as a step to truth that any benefit that may be derived from them is clearly outweighed by the social interest in or -
1972 Lloyd Corp. v. Tanner
In Lloyd Corp. v. Tanner, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that owners of a shopping center may bar anti-war activists from distributing leaflets at the center. The Court finds that citizens do not have a First Amendment right to express themselves on privately owned property. -
1973 Miller v. California
The U.S. Supreme Court in Miller v. California defines the test for determining if speech is obscene: (1) whether the “average person applying contemporary community standards” would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest; (2) whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law; and (3) whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value. -
1977 Reno v. ACLU
The U.S. Supreme Court in Reno v. ACLU rules that some provisions in the federal Communications Decency Act of 1996 are unconstitutional. The Court concludes that the act, which makes it a crime to display indecent or patently offensive material on the Internet where a child may find it, is too vague and tramples on the free-speech rights of adults. -
1982 Board of Education v. Pico
The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Board of Education v. Pico that school officials may not remove books from school libraries because they disagree with the ideas contained in the books. The Court states that “the right to receive ideas is a necessary predicate to the recipient’s meaningful exercise of his own rights of speech, press, and political freedom,” and makes clear that “students too are beneficiaries of this principle.” -
1986 Bethel School District v. Fraser
The U.S. Supreme Court case Bethel School District v. Fraser curtailed the protections established in the Tinker case. Bethel School District in Spanaway, Wash., suspended 17-year-old Matthew Fraser, an honors student, for two days after what was considered a lewd spring election campaign speech at a school assembly with 600 students present. His candidate won. -
1988 Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier
In Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that school officials may exercise editorial control over content of school-sponsored student publications if they do so in a way that is reasonably related to legitimate pedagogical concerns. -
1969 Tinker v. Des Moines
The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent School District that Iowa public school officials violated the FirstAmendment rights of several students by suspending them for wearing black armbands to protest U.S. involvement in Vietnam. The Court determines that school officials may not censor student expression unless they can reasonably forecast that the expression will cause a substantial disruption of school activities. -
2011 Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association
In Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that video games are a form of speech protected by the First Amendment. The Court holds California’s law restricting the sale or rental of violent video games to minors is unconstitutional. -
2012 United States v. American Library Association
The U.S. Supreme Court upholds the Children’s Internet Protection Act in United States v. American Library Association, Inc. The law requires public libraries and public schools to install filtering software on computers to receive federal funding.