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Smith v. Board of School Commissioners of Mobile
Parents and other citizens brought a lawsuit against the school board, alleging that the school system was teaching the tenets of an anti-religious religion called "secular humanism." -
Evans v. Selma Union High School District of Fresno County
They tried to make a library exclude the king james bible from the collection of books at the library. The court stated that the mere act of purchasing a book to be added to the school library does not carry with it any implication of the adoption of the theory or dogma contained therein, or any approval of the book itself, except as a work of literature fit to be included in a reference library. Freedom of press and religion were involved in this case. -
Whitney vs California
Since Anita Whitney did not base her defense on the First Amendment, the Supreme Court, by a 7 to 2 decision, upheld her conviction of being found guilty under the California’s 1919 Criminal Syndicalism Act for allegedly helping to establish the Communist Labor Party, a group the state argued taught the violent overthrow of government. -
Near vs Minnesota
In this case, the Supreme Court interpreted the First and Fourteenth Amendments to forbid "previous restraints" upon publication of a newspaper -
Thornhill v. Alabama
Peaceful picketing to advertise a labor dispute was determined to be protected by the first amendment. Freedom of assembly is addressed -
Rosenberg v. Board of Education of City of New York
Tried to say Oliver Twist and Merchant of Venice are objectionable because they tend to engender hatred of the Jew as a person and as a race. Court decided that these two works cannot be banned from the New York City schools, libraries, or classrooms. Freedom of press and free expression. -
Torcaso v. Watkins
Maryland’s requirement that office holders declare a belief in the existence of God was ruled unconstitutional.Freedom of religion is adressed. -
Brandenburg v. Ohio
The Supreme Court established the modern version of the "clear and present danger" doctrine, holding that states only could restrict speech that "is directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action, and is likely to incite or produce such action." -
Todd v. Rochester Community Schools
Courts decided that Slaughterhouse-Five could not be banned from the libraries and classrooms of the Michigan schools. Vonnegut's literary dwellings on war, religion, death, Christ, God, government, politics, and any other subject should be as welcome in the public schools of this state as those of Machiavelli, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Melville, Lenin, Joseph McCarthy, or Walt Disney.The students of Michigan are free to make of Slaughterhouse-Five what they will." -
Minarcini v. Strongsville (Ohio) City School District
The Strongsville City Board of Education rejected faculty recommendations to purchase Joseph Heller's Catch-22 and Kurt Vonnegut's God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater and ordered the removal of Catch-22 and Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle from the library. Freedom of religion and press, also rights in school -
Right to Read Defense Committee v. School Committee of the City of Chelsea
The Chelsea, Mass. School Committee decided to bar from the high school library a poetry anthology, Male and Female under 18, because of the inclusion of an "offensive" and "damaging" poem, "The City to a Young Girl," written by a fifteen-year-old girl. -
Salvail v. Nashua Board of Education
MS magazine was removed from a New Hampshire high school library by order of the Nashua School Board. The U.S. District Court decided for the student, teacher, and adult residents who had brought action against the school board, the court concluding: "The court finds and rules that the defendants herein have failed to demonstrate a substantial and legitimate government interest sufficient to warrant the removal of MS magazine from the Nashua High School library. All first ammenment rights -
Central Hudson Gas and Electric v. Public Service Commission
A law completely banning the utility company from advertising the promotion of electricity was deemed unconstitutional. -
Kreimer vs Bureu of police for Morristown
In detailed analysis, the court of appeals held that a municipal public library was a limited public forum, meaning open to the public for the specified purposes of exercising their First Amendment rights to read and receive information from library materials -
Bartnicki v. Vopper
Media outlets can not be held liable for broadcasting material acquired illegally by a third party.
