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Ginsberg v. New York, 390 U.S. 62, 20 L. Ed. 2d 195, 88 S. Ct. 1274
The Supreme Court upheld a New York State statute barring retailers from selling sexually explicit publications to minors under the age of 17.Noting that the statute did not interfere with the right of adults to purchase and read such materials it found that it was not constitutionally impermissible for New York to restrict minors rights to such publications in light the state's interest in safeguarding children's welfare and supporting parents' claim to authority the rearing of their children. -
Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, 393 U.S. 503, 89 S.Ct. 733, 21 L.Ed.2d. 731
In this seminal case considering the First Amendment rights of students (John F. Tinker, Christopher Eckhardt, and Mary Beth Tinker) who were expelled after they wore black armbands to school in symbolic protest of the Vietnam War, the Supreme Court held that students "do not shed their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse gate" and that the First Amendment protects public school students' rights to express political and social views. -
New York Times Company v. United States, 403 U.S. 713, 91 S.Ct. 2140, 29 L.Ed.2d. 822
In the "Pentagon Papers" case, the U.S. government attempted to enjoin the New York Times and the Washington Post from publishing classified documents concerning the Vietnam War. Applying the doctrine of prior restraint from Near v. Minnesota, the Court found that the claims that publication of the documents would interfere with foreign policy and prolong the war were too speculative, and could not overcome the strong presumption against prior restraints. -
Todd v. Rochester Community Schools, 200 N.W.2d 90 (Mich. Ct. App. 1972)
In deciding that Slaughterhouse-Five could not be banned from the libraries and classrooms of the Michigan schools, the Court of Appeals of Michigan declared 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 -
Wallace v. Jaffree.
This controversy arose over a change to Alabama’s moment-of-silence law to include a requirement that the moment of silence be for the purpose of meditation.The Court found such a change result of a desire to return to government promotion of prayer in the schools, and struck the statute down. Currently many states have laws requiring moment of silence at the beginning of each school day. justices explained, neutral moment of silence is appropriate, but any legislation must have secular purpose -
Mozert v. Hawkins County Board of Education, 827 F.2d 1058
Parents and students brought this action challenging the mandatory use of certain textbooks on the ground that the texts promoted values offensive to their religious beliefs. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit rejected the plaintiffs' claim, finding that the Constitution does not require school curricula to be revised substantially in order to accommodate religious beliefs. -
Romano v. Harrington, 725 F.Supp. 687
The U.S. District Court found in favor of a faculty adviser to a high-school newspaper who claimed a violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments when fired following the newspaper's publication of a student's article opposing the federal holiday for Martin Luther King, Jr. The Court held that educators may exercise greater editorial control over what students write for class than what they voluntarily submit to extracurricular publications. -
U.S. v. Eichman and U.S. v. Haggerty, 496 U.S. 310, 110 S.Ct. 2404, 110 L.Ed.2d 287
The Supreme Court struck down a federal statute designed to allow the government to punish persons who burn United States flags. The Court held that the plain intent of the statute was to punish persons for political expression and that burning the flag inextricably carries with it a political message. -
Lamb's Chapel v. Center Moriches Union Free School Dist., 508 U.S. 384, 113 S.Ct. 2141, 124 L.Ed.2d. 352
The Court held school district that opened its classrooms after hours a range of groups for social civic and recreational purposes including films and lectures about a range of issues such as family values and child-rearing could not deny access to a religious organization to discuss the same permissible issues from a religious point of view Whether or not the classrooms were public for the school district could not deny use based on the speaker's point of view on an otherwise permissible topic -
City of Ladue v. Gilleo, 512 U.S. 43, 114 S.Ct. 2038, 129 L.Ed. 2d. 36
A federal court struck down a local ordinance banning the placement of signs on private property, in a challenge brought by a woman who had posted a sign on her lawn protesting the Persian Gulf War. The Court said lawn signs were a "venerable means of communication that is both unique and important," for which "no adequate substitutes exist." -
McIntyre v. Ohio Election Commission, 514 U.S. 334, 115 S.Ct. 1511, 131 L.Ed.2d. 426
The Supreme Court struck down a state law banning distribution of anonymous campaign literature, emphasizing the long tradition of anonymous and pseudonymous political and literary speech and recognizing the right to exercise First Amendment rights anonymously as an "honorable tradition of advocacy and dissent." -
Scheidler v. National Organization for Women, Inc.
ending a two-decade-old legal fight over anti-abortion protests by ruling that federal extortion and racketeering laws cannot be used to ban demonstrations. (A 2003 ruling in the case had lifted a nationwide injunction on anti-abortion groups led by Joseph Scheidler and others; the 2006 decision came after the 7th Circuit had kept the case alive.) U.S. Supreme Court dealt a setback to abortion clinics in its 8-0 decision in Scheidler v. National Organization for Women, Inc.,
