The First Amendment Rocks!

1. THE FACTS In May 1983, Cathy Kuhlmeier and two other student journalists at Hazelwood East High School filed suit against the Hazelwood school District. Kuhlmeier and the two other staff members did this after the principal, Robert Reynolds, required the deletion of two pages from the school paper on May 13, 1983. The articles […]

Facts: As we finish discussing the first amendment and begin analyzing student speech, it seems fitting to look at a case that combines both: Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School Dist. 393 u.s. 503 (1969).  John F. Tinker and Christopher Eckhardt went to high school in Des Moines, Iowa.  Mary Beth Tinker attended middle school.  […]

Whitney v. California was decided on May 16, 1927. (http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=us&vol=274&invol=357) 1. Facts  Anita Whitney was charged in violation of the Criminal Syndicalism Act (CSA) of the state of California on five counts. The CSA states,” that any doctrine or precept advocating, teaching, or aiding  and abetting the commission of crime sabotage or unlawful acts of […]

1. Situation The United States has been engaged in war in the Middle East for years now. A political group is making an Internet campaign through social media to tell Americans not to support the government and to oppose U.S. involvement in the Middle East. Part of the campaign is directed to convincing Americans not […]

1. Facts of Case The United States v. O’Brien case started in 1966 and was officially settled in 1968. David Paul O’Brien and three others were arrested on March 31st, 1966 by several FBI agents on the steps the South Boston Courthouse. Members of the large crowd that had gathered attacked the three men after […]

Facts of the Case New York Times Co. v. United States (1971) – Link to Case The New York Times and the Washington Post obtained illegally copied secret documents on the Vietnam War referred to as the Pentagon Papers. The U.S. government issued a court order through the United States District Court of New York, […]

Oba Chandler Angels and Demons is a popular feature news story by Thomas French. The story is centered on the murder of three women who went on vacation in Florida in June of 1989. After a long police investigation, Oba Chandler was convicted of the murders and is currently on death row. All three women […]

Will the United States prosecute WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for espionage? Here is an interesting article analyzing the legal issues. As the MSNBC article put it: If the United States seeks to put on trial WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange, what are the implications for freedom of speech, for protection of government secrets and […]

Texas vs. Johnson-1989 Outside the 1984 Republican National Convention, protesters gathered to voice their disproval for the current presidential administration. Mr. Johnson was in attendance as a protester of President Reagan, in his first term, and also a number of Dallas based companies. During a march outside the convention, Johnson burned a United States flag […]

In class, we discussed the documentary movie, The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers. If you can, watch the movie. (It’s an instant download on Netflix, and the BGSU library has it too.) Then consider these questions. The Most Dangerous Man in America Questions to Consider HERO OR TRAITOR? Although […]