Chapter 3: Speech Distinctions

This chapter explains how the courts determine what types of speech and expression deserve what levels of protection. During times of war, the Court tends to become more restrictive when it comes to speech that may harm national security. There has always been some struggle in defining a line between speech that is just angry and speech that is legitimately dangerous.

Lawsuits against the media for causing physical harm are rarely successful. There was a case where a boy was stabbed and killed by another who had just watched the film "The Warriors" from Paramount Pictures. The deceased boy's father sued Paramount, but the court ruled in favor of Paramount because the film itself was fictional and did not advocate violent or unlawful acts.

The only time the court held a book publisher liable was Paladin Press because they published a book that was a how-to guide for hit men to murder people. The court decided that Paladin had encouraged, aided and abetted a crime.

The court has upheld that offensive speech, even hate speech, is protected by the Constitution. Only when speech becomes an act of intimidation or an overt threat is it regulated or punished.

The Tinker case is discussed in this chapter, which we learned and wrote about for class. This was a formative case in whether or not the full extent of the Constitution should be applied to children or not.

In the Fraser case, a student gave a speech to 600 students, some of them as young as 14, who were required to be there. The speech contained profanity, and the school suspended the student. He challenged the school, but the court upheld the school's decision because it was a school-sponsored event so they were allowed to protect their educational purpose.

The Hazelwood case involved a high school student newspaper that attempted to publish two stories that were ultimately pulled from printing by the principal. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the school because they were the ones in control of the paper, so they had the right to pull any stories they felt did not promote a positive educational environment.

These three cases are considered "tests" for whether or not students' speech is protected under the Constitution. University student speech is generally more protected, but many universities have "speech codes" that restrict the free speech of students.