The First Amendment
Study Guide
Vocabulary
Due Process Clause
Establishment Clause
Free Exercise Clause
Heckler’s Veto
Libel
Slander
Sedition
Prior Restraint
Shield Law
Symbolic Speech
Content Neutral
Ideas and Concepts – General
- Why are schools so often at the center of 1st amendment debates?
- Explain the importance of the following quotations to the concept of individual rights:
- “…free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic.”
- “My right to swing my fist ends where the other man’s nose begins.”
- What is the importance of the 14th amendment?
Ideas and Concepts – Freedom of Religion
- What does the Free Exercise Clause protect?
- What has the Supreme Court interpreted the Establishment Clause to mean?
- What were “religious tests”?
- What is the Supreme Court’s logic on religion in school
- (I pull this topic out separately, not because it is more important, but rather because it is a good topic to represent other religion issues…the logic is often the same)?
- Why/when is it not allowed? Why?
- When is it allowed? Why?
- What does the Supreme Court say about citizens “freedom of belief”?
- Know the importance of the following court cases:
- West Virginia v Barnett
- Westside Schools v Mergens
- Jacobson v Massachusetts
- What is the Lemon Test?
- Office of Faith Based and Community Initiatives
- What is the theory behind the creation of this agency of the government?
- What important Constitutional question must this agency constantly answer?
Ideas and Concepts – Expressive Rights
- What does it mean that the Supreme Court gives “preferred position” to First Amendment rights?
- What is the Court’s reasoning for this?
- What is the “Clear and Present Danger” Rule?
- What are the limitations placed on this category of speech restriction?
- What are “Fighting Words”?
- What are the limitations placed on this category of speech restriction?
- What is the logic behind “Symbolic Speech”?
- What are the restrictions on Obscenity?
- Why is the “Miller Test” and why are obscenity definitions so problematic?
- What are the two opposing positions regarding “shield laws”?
- In what ways can the government restrict one’s right to assemble?
- What Constitutional ideas are conflicting in the idea of a “heckler’s veto”?
- Why can the government restrict free expression on Radio and Television?
- Know the importance of the following court cases:
- Chaplinsky v New Hampshire
- Cohen v California
- Tinker v Des Moines
- Schenck v United States
- Phelps v Snyder
- ACLU v Reno
- Brandenburg v Ohio
Current Events and “Daily Desktop” Concepts
- Law of Diminishing Returns
- BRIC