United States v. Alvarez

If there can be violence without the presence of hate speech, then there can be hate speech without violence. Most importantly, one’s right to their constitutional freedoms is nonnegotiable. The approach that should be taken is effectively making a distinction between hate speech and acts of hate. Citizens have the right to speak their mind, even if it is disrespectful to many, but that does not allow them or others to physically act upon it and cause harm to other civilians, for which they can and definitely ought to be punished. However, this becomes increasingly difficult as the Court has ruled many times that some non-verbal acts are considered speech, as seen in Johnson v. Texas, and vice versa in that all speech is essentially some act.

Some of the unprotected forms of speech are political forms of speech that are anonymous in nature, this is evident in the case Talley v. California, 362 U.S. 60 were struck down by the court since it wished to block any form of anonymous pamphlets that were bearing political messages (Lieberman, 1999, p. 36). Another form of unprotected form of speech is campaign financing. There were efforts to make collection of funds unlawful that are intended to be used in a political movement. The supreme court on a case; Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U.S 1(1976) it was able to overrule a clause that wanted to instill a restriction on how political parties spent their money since it would be a form of restraining political speech (Lieberman, 1999, p. 42). The other form of unprotected freedom of expression is the activities that cause harm to the national flag.

Should there be restrictions to freedom of speech synonyms, and is there a scarcity of freedom that is given to individuals? Freedom to the people has been Americas greatest accomplishment, yet the checks and balances placed between the lines of freedom are not defined. Obscenity speeches are defined as outside the boundaries of the First Amendment protection. Libel and Slander of public figures must be proven by malice; the reckless disregard for the truth. Commercial speeches can be banned by the government as illegal if the information if deceptive to the readers.

In the passage, “A red light for scofflaws.” Frank Trippett takes issue with Americans who seem oblivious to their minor law breaking. He passionately points out how Americans are giving themselves too much freedom by not abiding the law. Trippett highlights how ordinary Americans are not choosing to abide minor law. These minor laws which tend to break; according to Trippett have the purpose of balancing society. And these minor laws are transgressing are in fact created in order to balance society and make sure there is no disorder.

These include obscenity, child pornography, inciting to riot, libel, false advertising, perjury, contempt of court, harassment, threats, copyright infringement and invasion of privacy. Thus, obscenity is not protected speech but a crime. Although the definition of obscenity is not sufficiently clear, the United States Supreme Court provided a workable attempt in defining what is obscene. In 1973, in the landmark case of Miller v. California the Court held that before any material can be determined obscene, a three-prong test must be met: 1) determine whether the average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find the work taken as a whole appealing to prurient interests; 2) whether the work describes in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law; and 3) whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value. Further, obscenity can manifest itself in different forms.

A: Assuming that it was defamatory, Richard will have to prove the falsehood of the statements made by Dan in court. Defamation is a civil wrong, consisting of statements, oral or written, that injure someone else’s reputation. A defamatory statement that has been said or wrote by a person, can be sued by the person who has been defamed. In general, not every insult or false statement is accusable. Normally, a plaintiff suing for defamation will have to show that the statement was published, not privileged, that the statement was false and harmful to the person.

Even though constituents of civilization may protest about the laws that control their daily lives and dispute in opposition to government power on principle, civilization could not accurately function without laws and without criminal regulation in particular. For centuries many have seen the principle of criminal law and of the government and the legal system collectively, as essential for the “smooth implementation of society and the conservation of order” (Duff, 2008). This view of criminal law considers it as part of the social agreement planned by Thomas Hobbes. Others offer that the criminal law’s reason is to keep society secure from those who cannot obey society’s rules or to penalize those who violate society’s regulations (Duff, 2008). The criminal law can best be viewed, nevertheless, as having the intention to accomplish all of these requirements for society.

St. Paul’s reasoning was that this symbolic speech resonate hatred, and fear. The trial court dismissed the charge because this case was excessively broad, but the State Supreme Court reversed the decision. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled St. Paul’s Bias-Motivated Crime Ordinance was held unconstitutional because it was substantially overbroad and impermissibly content-based. Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in his “the exclusion of ‘fighting words’ from the scope of the First Amendment simply means that, for purposes of that Amendment, the unprotected features of the words are, despite their verbal character, essentially a ‘non-speech’ element of communication.”

The majority took into account the harm and seriousness of his speech, and determined whether the Stolen Valor Act of 2005 was inflicting too much government power over free speech. Although the law was passed to protect those who fought for our country, the context is too broad and invades the protection of free speech granted by the 1st Amendment. 4. The Supreme Court had ruled in favor of the Court of Appeals because it went against the Free Speech clause of the First Amendment. The Sto... ... middle of paper ... ...rain.

Interpretations of the law allow a lot of leeway in order to shape legislation to the needs of the plaintiff or victim. General crime legislation serves the purpose of protecting the public, yet only certain motivations of crimes enable the judiciary to assign additional charges to a defendant guilty of a hate crime. The protected rights of citizens are believed to guarantee peace and tranquility. The most recent additions to everyday crime legislation have challenged this peace and created chaos between the supporters and opposers of these changes. Despite the United States developing hate crime legislation that suffices to maintain justice within the judiciary system, numerous legislative experts strongly believe these most recent changes create unnecessary bias.