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Stanley v. Georgia
Police officers searched Stanley's home because of an investigation of his alleged bookmaking activities. During the search, the officers found three canisters of film. The officers viewed the films, concluded they were obscene, and seized them. Stanley was then tried and convicted under a Georgia law prohibiting the possession of obscene materials. The supreme court ruled that the court and state had no right to tell a person what they can't read or watch inside of their own home -
Brandenburg v. Ohio
A man named Clarence Brandenburg was a leader of the Ku Klux Klan. He was holding a rally for the kkk. And assuming that it was a klan rally the speech was not appreciated and he was arrested because of a law that made it illegal for crime, sabotage, violence, or unlawful methods of terrorism as a means of accomplishing industrial or political reform or what is more commonly referred to hate-speech nowadays. the supreme court said that it wasn't lawful to arrest him because he was being violent. -
New York Times Company v. United States
During the War in Vietnam there was an order to make a list or file on all the things the US involvement in Asia. But the person that made the list leaked the 43 of 47 volumes that where produced to The New York times. Nixon and the government got mad so they tried to get executive authority to suspend the printing of it because it was classified information. on June 30, 1971 the Supreme Court upheld the decision that the paper had the right to print it under the first amendment. -
Wooley v. Maynard
A New Hampshire law required cars to have a license plates that had the state motto "Live Free or Die." George Maynard who was a Jehovah's Witness thought the motto to be against his religious and political beliefs so the cut the "or Die" part off his plate. Maynard was convicted of violating the state law that prohibited people from covering their license plate. he was fined and given jail time. The supreme court said that they didn't have to have the state motto on their private property. -
Texas v. Johnson
Gregory Lee Johnson was a citizen that lived in Texas that burned a the flag in a form of protest against the Reagan polices. he was tried and convicted because of a law that outlawed disrespecting the flag. he was sentenced to jail and was fined $2,000. He appealed the case so it went to the supreme court. the court found that he had the right to so that under the first amendment. the reason was they didn't have the right to suppresses an idea because society thinks it is offensive. -
R.A.V v. St. Paul
A couple of teenagers allegedly burned a cross on a black family's lawn. The police arrested one of the teens and charged him because of a law that had that made it illegal to do something that could "arouses anger, alarm or resentment in others on the basis of race, color, creed, religion or gender." in other words that could offend someone. the court. the decision was overturned because they you are prohibiting speech only on the content of the speech -
City of Ladue v. Gilleo
Margaret Gilleo placed a sign asking for peace in the Persian Gulf on her front lawn. The first sign disappeared and the next sign was knocked down. She called the police who told her that such signs were prohibited in Ladue. She sued the city and the District Court ordered a preliminary injunction. Ladue repealed the law and replaced it with a new one which also banned window signs. It went to the supreme court and they voted that it was ok to express your own ideas.
