Week Six: Freedom of Speech
Our seventh series focuses on the US Supreme Court and civil liberties. This week, we use two short videos from C-SPAN to consider questions of free speech. The first video explores limits on free speech when public order is potentially a concern by looking at Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969). The second video considers whether speech can be limited when expression is merely objectionable or offensive using Cohen v. California (1971).
In Brandenburg v. Ohio, the justices overturned the hate speech conviction of Clarence Brandenburg, an Ohio Ku Klux Klan leader, on the grounds that the state law violated the First Amendment. The decision in Brandenburg greatly narrowed the circumstances under which speech could be restricted out of public order concerns from the previous “clear and present danger” standard the Court had set in Scheck v. United States (1919). For the discussion of Brandenburg v. Ohio, play Clip 1 at the link below which runs 3:36
At the time of Cohen v. California, California state law prohibited, "maliciously and willfully disturb[ing] the peace or quiet of any neighborhood or person . . . by . . . offensive conduct.” Cohen was convicted for wearing a jacket with the words "F--- the Draft" in the Los Angeles Courthouse. The Court ultimately held that, absent a specific and compelling reason for its actions, the State may not make the simple public display of this single four-letter expletive a criminal offense. For Cohen v. California (1971), play Clip 2 at the link below which runs 3:30
First Amendment carved into the wall of the (since closed) Newseum.