Shouting Fire! In A Crowded Theater

The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theater, and causing a panic

Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes

Fighting Words

Resort to epithets or personal abuse is not in any proper sense communication of information or opinion safeguarded by the Constitution

Justice Frank Murphy

Violent Speech

The offense known as breach of the peace embraces a great variety of conduct destroying or menacing public order and tranquility

It includes not only violent acts but acts and words likely to produce violence in others

Chief Justice Fred Vinson

Hate Speech

The mere abstract teaching of the moral propriety for a resort to force or violence is not the same as preparing a group for vilent action

A statute which fails to draw this distinction impermissibly intrudes upon the freedoms guaranteed by the First and Fourteenth Amendments

Per Curiam

Symbols of Hate

Let there be no mistake about our belief that burning a cross in someone's front yard is reprehensible

But St. Paul has sufficient means at its disposal to prevent such behavior without adding the First Amendment to the fire

Justice Antonin Scalia

Filthy Words

To say that one may avoid further offense by turning off the radio when he hears indecent language is like saying that a remedy for an assault is to run away after the first blow

One may hang up on an indecent phone call, but that option does not give the caller a constitutional immunity or avoid a harm that has already taken place

Justice John Paul Stevens

The Right To Read

The right to receive ideas follows ineluctably from the sender's First Amendment right to send them

Justice William Brennan

Offensive Speech

If there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that the Government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable

Justice William Brennan

Street Speech

It is clearly unconstitutional to enable a public official to determine which expressions of view will be permitted and which will not or to engage in invidious discrimination among persons or groups

Justice Arthur Goldberg

Unwanted Speech

Individuals are not required to welcome unwanted speech into their own homes and the government may protect this freedom... The visitor [cannot] insert a foot in the door and insist on a hearing

Justice Sandra Day O'Connor

Protest Speech

A law prohibiting destruction of Selective Service Certificates no more abridges free speech than a motor vehicle law prohibiting the destruction of drivers' licenses

Chief Justice Earl Warren

Schoolhouse Speech

It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate

Justice Abe Fortas

Vulgar Speech

While the particular four letter word being litigated here is perhaps more distasteful than most others of its genre, it is nevertheless often true that one man's vulgarity is another man's lyric

Justice John Marshall Harlan

U.S. Constitution

Bibliography

Index