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Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District
-Three public school students wore black armbands to protest against the Vietnam War
-Students were suspended for refusing to take them off
-School district created a policy for forbidding armbands
-Students wore them anyway and got suspended
-Sued the district for violating their 1st Amendment rights -
New York v. Ferber
-Supreme Court added child pornography as another category of speech excluded from 1st Amendment protection
-Other categories include obscenity, defamation, incitement, and "fighting words"
-U.S. Supreme Court affirmed a conviction against Ferber for showing a movie depicting two young boys masturbating
-The court made the distinction between what was obscene if children were the participants compared with the adults were the leading actors -
Bethel School District v. Fraser
-Public school student suspended for giving a speech with indecent content
-There were 600 other students that voluntarily attended
-When giving the speech, caused students to yell and make gestures
-Student was banned from speaking at graduation
-He sued the school for violating his freedom of speech -
Smith v. Board of School Commissioners of Mobile County
-The school system was teaching the tenets of anti-religious called “secular humanism”
-The complainants asked that 44 elementary through high school textbooks be removed
-The U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that if the school was motivated by a secular purpose, it was okay to share ideas
-The court found that the texts had secular values and textbooks neither unconstitutionally advanced a nontheistic religion nor theistic religion
-Parents and citizens brought a lawsuit against the school board -
Hustler Magazine, Inc v. Falwell
-Hustler magazine published a parody of a liquor advertisement describing a the "first time" as a drunken encounter with his mother in an outhouse
-Supreme Court held that a public figure had to show actual malice in order to recover for intentional infliction of emotional distress
-The Court held that political cartoons such as this parody played a prominent role in public and political debate
-The Court saw no reason to get rid of the parodies that would not harm public discourse -
Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier
-Public school student removed articles from the school newspaper because he thought the content was inappropriate
-Produced by the school’s journalism class
-One being about teen pregnancy and the other being about divorce
-The principal defended his action that he was protecting the privacy of the pregnant students, other students from inappropriate references, and the school from a libel action
-Three of the students sued the school claiming their 1st Amendment rights were violated -
Case v. Unified School District
-Olathe, Kansas, School Board voted to remove the book Annie on My Mind, a novel about two teenage lesbians from the districts junior and senior libraries
-The federal district court in Kansas found they violated the students 1st Amendment
-It became obvious that the book was removed because they disapproved of the book's ideology
-It was found that the school board had violated their own materials selection and reconsideration policies -
Cohen v. San Bernardino Valley College
-English Professor was disciplined for violating the college’s sexual harassment policy
-Used profanity, discussions of sex, pornography, obscenity, cannibalism, and other controversial topics in devil's advocate style
-The court held the policy unconstitutionally vague as applied to his in-class speech calling it “legalistic ambush”
-The in-class speech did not fall within the policy
-He did not know the policy would be applied to him or his teaching methods -
American Amusement Machine Association
-City ordinance required that video game arcade owners to limit that contained certain activities including amputation, decapitation, dismemberment, bloodshed, or sexual intercourse
-Permission by a parent is needed for children 17 years old and younger to play
-A three-judge panel of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the trial court’s decision stating that children have 1st Amendment rights -
Tattered Cover, Inc. v. City of Thornton
-The Colorado Supreme Court reversed a court decision that required the Tattered Cover Book Store to turn over info about books purchased by its customers
-Officers of the City of Thornton found two books on the manufacture of amphetamines in a suspect's residence
-This served as a Drug Enforcement Agency subpoena (title and info) by the Tattered Cover
-Tattered Cover brought suit to litigate the validity of a search warrant and the court for 1st Amendment and right to purchase book anonymously -
Counts v. Cedarville School District
-The school board voted to restrict students access to Harry Potter books
-Promoted disobedience and disrespect for authority and dealt with witchcraft
-Students were required to have a slip signed from a parent/guardian saying they were allowed to borrow a Harry Potter book from school libraries
-The District Court overturned the Board's decision and ordered the books returned to unrestricted circulation on the grounds that the restrictions violated the students rights 1st Amendment rights -
Morse v. Frederick
-Public student suspended for displaying a banner at school for drug use
-In 2002, the Olympic Torch Relay took place and both students and teachers attended
-The student with the help of others held up the banner that said “BONG HITS 4 JESUS”
-The principal confiscated the banner and suspended the student
-The student sued the school and principal for violating his rights
