Government: Unit 4A Assignments

Cloze notes 4A: The First Amendment

Freedom of speech and press

v Free Speech and Press guaranteed to protect “unpopular” views

v Limits-NO ONE can do the following:

. : false and malicious used of printed words

. : false and malicious use of spoken words

. speech: advocating or urging of the violent overthrow of the government

v Smith Act of 1940: Crime for anyone to:

v Advocate the overthrow of the government

v Distribute material to over throe the government

v Belong to a group that plots to overthrow the government

Types/Limits of speech

v Prior : government cannot curb or punish ideas before they are expressed

v Symbolic speech: communicating ideas by , gestures, through symbols, or body language

v . speech in United States law is the communication of ideas through spoken or written words or through conduct limited in form to that necessary to convey the idea.

v Clear and danger was a doctrine adopted by the Supreme Court of the United States to determine under what circumstances limits can be placed on First Amendment freedoms of speech, press or assembly. (You can’t yell “Fire!” in a crowded movie theater)

IX Amendment

The Amendment (Amendment IX) to the United States Constitution, which is part of the Bill of Rights, addresses rights, retained by the people, that are not specifically enumerated (expressed, written) in the Constitution.

14^th Amendment

v The Amendment addresses citizenship rights and equal protection of the laws, and was proposed in response to issues related to former slaves following the American Civil War.

v The requires each state to provide equal protection under the law to all people within its jurisdiction. This clause was the basis for Brown v. Board of Education (1954), the Supreme Court decision that precipitated the dismantling of racial segregation, and for many other decisions rejecting irrational or unnecessary discrimination against people belonging to various groups.

Guarantee of Religion Freedom

v Establishment Clause: prohibits an of Religion

v Free Exercise Clause: Government cannot interfere in the free exercise of

v Separation of Church and State

v Houses of religion are exempt from taxes

v Religious leaders often have positions in the military

v Sessions of both houses of Congress open with a prayer

v Public school buses must take children to their school (even a private religious school –see Everson v. Board of Education, 1947)

v Prayers cannot be said in a public school

v Teachers cannot make students pray

v Teachers cannot stop a student from praying if it is NOT disrupting the educational process

The Lemon Test

v The Supreme Court’s standards for giving aid to parochial schools

v The purpose of aid must be clearly secular (no religious or spiritual basis.), not religious

v Its primary effect must neither advance nor restrain religion

v It must avoid “excessive entanglement” of government with religion

v Case originated from Lemon v. Kurtzman

Equal Access Act of 1984

v Any public school that receives funds must allow student religious groups to meet in school on the same terms that it sets up for all other organizations

Freedom of Assembly and Petition

v Assemble: gather with one another (think and )

v Petition [Freedom of Association]: right to promote , economic and other social (the Death Star)

v Restrictions:

v Must be done peacefully!

v Civil : event where a person deliberately, but non-violently, violates the law.

v This is NOT a protected right.

v People taking part know this

v Examples: Civil Rights Movement, Women’s Suffrage

The Ninth Amendment (Amendment IX) to the United States Constitution, which is part of the Bill of Rights, addresses rights, retained by the people, that are not specifically enumerated (expressed, written) in the Constitution.

14^th amendment

The Fourteenth Amendment addresses citizenship rights and equal protection of the laws, and was proposed in response to issues related to former slaves following the American Civil War.

The Equal Protection Clause requires each state to provide equal protection under the law to all people within its jurisdiction. This clause was the basis for Brown v. Board of Education (1954), the Supreme Court decision that precipitated the dismantling of racial segregation, and for many other decisions rejecting irrational or unnecessary discrimination against people belonging to various groups.

Guarantee of Religious Freedom

Establishment Clause: prohibits an Establishment of Religion

Free Exercise Clause: Government cannot interfere in the free exercise of religion

Separation of Church and State

v Houses of religion are exempt from taxes

v Religious leaders often have positions in the military

v Sessions of both houses of Congress open with a prayer

v Public school buses must take children to their school (even a private religious school –see Everson v. Board of Education, 1947)

v Prayers cannot be said in a public school

v Teachers cannot make students pray

v Teachers cannot stop a student from praying if it is NOT disrupting the educational process

Equal Access Act of 1984

v Any public school that receives federal funds must allow student religious groups to meet in school on the same terms that it sets up for all other organizations

Freedom of Assembly and Petition

v Assemble: gather with one another (think protests and rallies)

v Petition [Freedom of Association]: right to promote political, economic and other social causes (the Death Star)

v Restrictions:

v Must be done peacefully!

v Civil disobedience: event where a person deliberately, but non-violently, violates the law.

v This is NOT a constitutional protected right.

v People taking part know this

v Examples: Civil Rights Movement, Women’s Suffrage

v The Amendments: Complete the following chart by using your textbook or smart phones.

Amendment Number	Explanation
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
14

END OF ASSIGNMENT

Anticipation Guide

First Amendment Rights

Directions: Read each statement and decide if it is TRUE or FALSE. At the end of the unit we will come back to this and update our answers.

Before Reading	During Reading	After Reading
	1. The First Amendment provides for freedom of the press, speech, religion, petition, and assembly.
	2. Congress can establish a national religion
	3. Your rights can not be restricted by the government.
	4. Symbolic speech includes picketing, wearing armbands to protest something, and bumper stickers.
	5. Free press allows companies to show whatever they want on TV or print whatever they want in the newspaper.
	6. The people are protected when they gather together and organize groups to influence public policy.
	7. The freedom of petition includes: letters, advertisements, petitions, lobbying, parades, and demonstrations.
	8. Freedom of assembly and petition allows you to have free association, so that you may join whatever groups you want.
	9. The Constitution does allow for unpeaceful assembly.
	10. You can assemble in a privately owned shopping mall to rally about poor working conditions, according to the Constitution.
	11. Students can make up lies about a teacher and distribute information about it in school.
	12. Student newspapers can be censored by the school administration.

Before Reading	During Reading	After Reading
	13. A school coach can lead a team in prayer
	14. Religious groups can use public facilities for their programs; religious student clubs can meet during the school day.
	15. Students may use obscene speech in school as long as it isn’t disruptive.
	16. Students may protest school lunch by not buying it.
	17. Students may assemble at the flag pole for prayer prior to school.
	18. Schools must make reasonable accommodations for students to pray during the school day.
	19. Students can have an assembly as long as they plan it with the approval of the administration.
	20. It is ok to have a non-denominational pastor give an opening prayer at graduation.
	21. Students are not required to say the pledge of allegiance.
	22. Nativity scenes, crosses, menorahs are all allowed inside public school buildings.
	23. You can go to a restaurant and say whatever you want about the government at any time.
	24. You can organize a protest rally in downtown Frederick, as long as you are not disturbing the peace.
	25. The KKK can burn a cross on property with the owner’s permission even if it is meant to intimidate others.

END OF ASSIGNMENT

Dissecting the 1^st Amendment

Although the rights of religion, speech, press, assembly and petition are protected in the First Amendment, they are not without some restrictions. These restrictions are usually based on time, place and manner in which the right is being exercised. Usually the government will take action when one person’s right infringes (interferes with) on another’s, but not always.

Freedom of religion allows for the people to practice their own religion or no religion at all (this is referred to as the free exercise clause). This protection prohibits the government from establishing a religion for everyone in the country (this is known as the establishment clause). Often these two clauses are in conflict with one another. Can a public school teacher in a classroom freely exercise his or her religion by teaching that his or her religion is better than the others? The Supreme Court would say no because the teacher is an employee of the state and therefore would be violating the establishment clause. This would also be a violation of the students’ rights because it infringes on their right to freely practice their own religion, and would outweigh the teacher’s right of free religion.

Speech was a right greatly valued by the founders of the nation, in particular political speech. A democracy is based on the ability of the people to openly discuss and share ideas. If speech were restricted, the democracy would also be restricted. However, speech is not limitless. Slander -- when someone tells lies to harm another person, and libel -- printing lies which harm another, are unprotected forms of speech. Student speech in school was protected by the case of Tinker v. Des Moines School District. In this case, a group of students wanted to protest the Vietnam War so they wore black arm bands to school. The principal told the students to take off the armbands but they refused; the students were suspended. The Supreme Court ruled that students do not “shed their rights at the school house gate” and therefore are entitled to some speech protections as long as the speech does not disrupt the educational environment. The Supreme Court has since refined student speech to be limited in cases of obscene or vulgar speech, and speech that takes place at school sponsored events that are not on school property. The Court gave considerable power to school officials to decide what is considered appropriate.

Press and speech go hand in hand as both are ways to exercise freedom of expression. The protection of the press is almost unlimited. The courts have been unwilling to restrict the press for fear of the misuse of censorship, preventing the publication of undesirable information. Therefore, the only restriction on the press other than libel is national security. The government can ask a court to order the press not to report on a story that would jeopardize national security. This is known as prior restraint. However, the government has to clearly show to a judge that the information in the news story really jeopardizes national security. In schools there are extra limitations on the press. The courts have upheld (Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier) the Principal’s censorship of student newspapers, because they are part of the school curriculum.

Freedom of association is protected in the right of the people to freely petition their government for a “redress of grievances”, and to assemble. Again these rights are limited by time, place and manner. Assembling in the middle of a highway during rush hour to protest traffic congestion is not protected assembly, but having a political meeting at your house is protected. The people can publicly assemble as long as that assembly is peaceful, and if on private property permission has been granted; public property may require a permit to be issued if the group may be large or law enforcement may be needed to keep the peace.

The right of privacy has been inferred in the Constitution. Although not explicitly stated in the text of the Constitution, in 1890 then to be Justice Louis Brandeis extolled (praised) 'a right to be left alone.' This right has developed into a liberty of personal freedom protected by the 14th amendment. The 1^st, 4^th and 5^th Amendments also provide some protection of privacy, although in all cases the right is narrowly defined. The Constitutional right of privacy has developed alongside a statutory right of privacy which limits access to personal information. In all of its forms, however, the right of privacy must be balanced against the state's compelling interests.

Summarizing the First Amendment

Directions: For each right there are responsibilities and limitations. In the chart below list the limitations of the rights in the 1^st Amendment

Right	Limitations in General	Limits on Students
Religion
Speech
Press
Assembly
Petition

Applying the 1^st Amendment Rights

Directions: Read each scenario below and decide whether it is protected or not protected by the 1^st Amendment…don’t forget about the right to privacy. Identify the right involved and check the appropriate box.

Scenario	Right Involved	Protected	Not Protected
1. The coach of the school football team leads the team in prayer before the game.
2. The KKK burns a cross on private property with the permission of the property owner, but for the purpose of harassing a neighboring minority family.
3. A student gives a speech at a school assembly that uses foul language.
4. A student quietly prays in class.
5. Students pass around a petition at lunch to change the cafeteria lunch menu.
6. Students decide to walk out of class in protest of new rules.
7. Person phones in a bomb threat to a public building.
8. Newspaper openly criticizes the government for recent defense decisions.
9. You start a communist party group and meet regularly at your house.
10. You and your group meet at the local shopping mall to march for workers’ rights.
11. Your medical records are accessed without your permission and as a result you are denied a job.
12. A woman may choose to use birth control.
13. A student newspaper was censored by the principal.
14. Students circulated information that was untrue about a staff member.
15. A religious group believes in human sacrifice; you volunteer to be sacrificed.
16. The Ten Commandments are placed in a public building.

END OF ASSIGNMENT

Read Ch. 19, section 3 and complete the following chart regarding court cases
Case	Year	Ruling
Schenck v. United States
Miller v. California
New York Times v. United States

Read Ch. 19, section 3 and complete the following chart regarding court cases
Case	Year	Ruling
Branzburg v. Hayes
Burstyn v. Wilson
Red Lion Broadcasting Co. v. FCC
Thronhill v. Alabama

END OF ASSIGNMENT

Name:

It is important to note the difference between "civil rights" and "civil liberties." The legal area known as "civil rights" has traditionally revolved around the basic right to be free from unequal treatment based on certain protected characteristics (race, gender, disability, etc.) in settings such as employment and housing. "Civil liberties" concern basic rights and freedoms that are guaranteed -- either explicitly identified in the Bill of Rights and the Constitution, or interpreted through the years by courts and lawmakers.

Civil liberties include:

Freedom of speech

The right to privacy

The right to be free from unreasonable searches of your home

The right to a fair court trial

The right to vote

One way to consider the difference between "civil rights" and "civil liberties" is to look at 1) what right is affected, and 2) whose right is affected. For example, as an employee, you do not have the legal right to a promotion, mainly because getting a promotion is not a guaranteed "civil liberty." But, as a female employee you do have the legal right to be free from discrimination in being considered for that promotion -- you cannot legally be denied the promotion based on your gender (or race, or disability, etc.). By choosing not to promote a female worker solely because of the employee's gender, the employer has committed a civil rights violation and has engaged in unlawful employment discrimination based on sex or gender.

Civil liberties are freedoms that provide individuals limited protection from the government (such as freedom of the press or the right to assemble). For example, if a student wore a black t-shirt to silently and peacefully protest the war in Iraq, the student would be permitted to, as this falls under freedom of speech. However, if that student was told to change clothing or risk a punishment, this is a civil liberty being violated.

In your notes, answer the following questions. Be prepared to share.

1) Explain the difference between civil liberties and civil rights.

2) Give an example of a civil liberty you enjoy (don’t just say freedom of speech-give as example!)

3) Give an example of a civil right you have.

END OF ASSIGNMENT

Tinker began on a snowy Saturday, Dec. 11, 1965. A large group of students met at the home of Christopher Eckhardt in Des Moines, Iowa, to make plans for a school protest against the Vietnam War. After long discussion, they decided to wear black armbands to school on Thursday, Dec. 16, and to continue wearing them until New Year’s Day, 1966.

On Dec. 14, the principals of the Des Moines school system, having learned of the students’ plan to wear armbands, adopted a policy that all students wearing armbands to school would be asked to remove them. If they refused, they would be suspended until they were willing to return without the armbands.

Most of the original group of students who had planned to protest backed out when they realized their records and their chances for college entrance and scholarships might be threatened.

On Dec. 16, Christopher Eckhardt, 16, a student at Theodore Roosevelt High, and 13-year-old Mary Beth Tinker, a student at Warren Harding Junior High and family friend, wore their home-made black armbands, complete with peace signs, to school. Mary Beth’s 15-year-old brother, John, wore his the following day to North High School. More than two dozen students wore black armbands on Dec. 16 and 17 in Des Moines high, middle and elementary schools.

“Ultimately, only five Des Moines secondary-school students were singled out for discipline for wearing armbands in December 1965: Christopher Eckhardt, John and Mary Beth Tinker, Roosevelt sophomore Christine Singer, and Roosevelt senior Bruce Clark,” according to John Johnson in The Struggle for Student Rights.

More than two decades later, Christopher Eckhardt remembers what happened as if it were yesterday. “I wore the black armband over a camel-colored jacket.” There were threats in the hallway. “The captain of the football team attempted to rip it off. I turned myself in to the principal’s office, where the vice principal asked if I ‘wanted a busted nose.’ He said the seniors wouldn’t like the armband. Tears welled up in my eyes because I was afraid of violence.

“He called my mom to get her to ask me to take the armband off.” Christopher’s parents were peace activists; his mother refused. “Then he called a school counselor in. The counselor asked if I wanted to go to college, and said that colleges didn’t accept protesters. She said I would probably need to look for a new high school if I didn’t take the armband off.

“The year before, they allowed everyone to wear black armbands to mourn the death of school spirit . . . but on Dec. 15 the gym coaches said that anyone wearing armbands the next day had better not come to gym class because they’d be considered communist sympathizers.”

Winding Through The Courts
A school board meeting was held on December 21, 1965, with 200 in attendance. The armband ban had originated from a unanimous vote of Des Moines high school principals, not the school board. The board meeting was a lively exchange of different viewpoints. The meeting ended in a vote to postpone a decision. The Des Moines Register on Dec. 22 and The New York Times on Dec. 23 carried articles about the armband controversy. At the Jan. 3 meeting, the school board voted 5-2 to uphold the administrative ban.

Christine and Bruce decided to take no further action. Christopher Eckhardt, John and Mary Beth Tinker returned to school without armbands, but each wore black clothing. On March 14, Dan Johnston of the Iowa Civil Liberties Union filed a formal complaint on behalf of Chris, John, Mary Beth and their fathers as “next friends” in the U. S. District Court of the Southern District of Iowa.

They claimed that by suspending them, their schools had infringed on their First Amendment right to free expression. After an evidentiary hearing, the District Court dismissed the complaint, upholding the constitutionality of the schools’ actions, saying that they presented a disturbance of school discipline.

The case went to the U. S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit, where the judges were split and so the District Court’s ruling stood. It finally reached the Supreme Court in Nov. 12, 1968.

On Feb. 24, 1969, the Supreme Court ruled that the Des Moines schools violated the First Amendment rights of the students by suspending them for wearing armbands. But the Court did not say that the schools could never control freedom of expression. It said students are entitled to some First Amendment rights but not necessarily all the First Amendment rights that others would have outside the school context.

The key: “Material and substantial disruption of school activities or invasion of the rights of other students” must be proved if student expression is to be controlled. School officials could censor only when they could show that the expression would disrupt the school environment or invade the rights of other students.

The Supreme Court said this standard had not been met — that by suspending the students for refusing to remove the armbands, the school violated the students’ right to free speech. The Court also held that the act of wearing black armbands was “closely akin to ‘pure speech’ ” and, as such, was protected by the First Amendment.

A Reflection Of The Times
Justice Abe Fortas, writing for the majority in Tinker vs. Des Moines Independent Community School District, declared, “Neither students nor teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate” — thus asserting that students are persons under the Constitution and that states would have to respect their rights in the same way they would citizens in other contexts. This idea became the guiding principle for student free expression rights.

Despite the prevailing climate of free expression in the 1960s, Tinker was the first Supreme Court ruling that specifically provided protection for students’ First Amendment rights.

School press reformers were able to use the Tinker decision to bolster high school journalism. Many faculty advisers interpreted Tinker as a blueprint for keeping school administrators away from school newspapers. Under the Tinker ruling, the advisers believed, students could be prevented from publishing articles in a school newspaper only if the articles were libelous, obscene or “materially and substantially interfered with the requirements of appropriate discipline in the operation of the school.”

Questions For Discussion

When or under what circumstances is wearing an armband protected speech?

Under what circumstances may student speech be limited in school according to the Tinker standard?

Are there any forms of student protest on school grounds that are not protected under the Tinker decision?

Why is protecting the expression of controversial views important? Why do we tolerate hurtful or unpopular expression?

END OF ASSIGNMENT

4A REVIEW SHEET

1. Explain the difference between the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause.

2. Explain the case and verdict of Tinker v Des Moines

3. Explain slander and libel

4. What is seditious speech?

5. What is the purpose of the first amendment?

6. Explain civil liberties v. civil rights

7. Know the limitations of the first amendment, especially with students

8. Know the first, fifth, ninth, and fourteenth amendment

9. Explain Brown v. Board of Ed

10. Explain pure and symbolic speech?

11. American Flag and free speech-Texas vs. Johnson

END OF ASSIGNMENT

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Unit 4A Assignments

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