Freedom of Expression Final Exam

Concepts

Common Law

Dispute between two parties; seen in really simple disputes (I.e., party A vs. party B, the state vs. party C, etc.)

(Big C) Civil Law

Based on ancient roman law; relies on written down codes

Constitutional Law

Federal Law will supersede State Law; compared to other places, it is very short (can be pocket sized); sets up a structure of how our government should function

Statutory Law

Laws passed by legislative bodies (I.e., federal law passed by Congress, state law passed by State Houses, ordinances passed by a City Council); written down (I.e., copyright laws, freedom of information); used to codify common law

Administrative Law

Involved agencies both at the federal and state levels; Congress creates these agencies by passing an “organic statute”

Executive Orders

Presidents, when getting into office, will sign orders to direct government agencies, within the executive branch, to follow a certain practice; presidents get to decide what records will be classified

Law of Equity

Equity, as a legal term, involves a judge ruling on a dispute in a way that does not involve money damages

Criminal Law

Involves a person’s dispute against the state; state will determine, both through common law and through state law, what sorts of activities/behaviors are deserving of punishment exactly by the state

(Small C) Civil Law

Small C: involves disputes between two private parties, grounds that you can sue from come from common law and statutory law

Self-Governance

At such meetings, there is a goal of passing one “law” or rule, and that is the focus; there is someone who must create the agenda, and Congress is the one who typically must do this (I.e., town hall meeting, school board meeting, etc.)

Content/Viewpoint Neutrality Doctrine

Can’t discriminate based on content or viewpoint of the speech

Time, place and manner regulations Doctrine

Can only stay for as long as place is open, keep the space clean, reserve time/notify people running the space so that there is order among the people trying to use it

Traditional Public Forums

Typically a large outdoor area in which speech is a rather common activity/feature; speech is not the only function, but the primary one; people/taxpayers own it; any regulation must be neutral; must apply for a permit; must abide by time, place, and manner restrictions (I.e., national mall, Iowa City Park, Iowa City ped mall, Pentacrest, etc.)

Designated Public Forums

Not traditional, government has made explicit statement saying that this is a public forum; must abide by time, place, and manner restrictions; government can take away the forum is space is abused (I.e., meeting rooms in IMU)

Limited Purpose Public Forums

Space is publicly owned, but the function of the space is educational within the context of history (I.e., history department at a university has a public display of black history month in a display case)

Non-Public Forums

Public spaces paid for with taxpayer dollars (prisons, airports, military bases), function has very small connection to speech and expression (I.e., inmate at prison wants to bring people in to stage a protest on the living conditions in prison, the prison says no)

Heckler’s Veto Doctrine

A private citizen (usually in a crowd) is leveraging state action in the form of law

Fighting Words Doctrine

Words said in someone’s face with the intent to provoke an immediate physical response (fighting)

Indecency Doctrine

Language or material that, in context, depicts or describes, in terms patently offensive as measured by contemporary community standards for the broadcast medium, sexual, or excretory organs or activities

Safe Harbors Doctrine

Between the hours of 10pm-6am, there is the ability to play content with what ever (in)decency you so desire

Strict Scrutiny Test (Content/Viewpoint Discrimination)

Compelling government interest, narrowly tailored: government must have a really good reason to punish this speech; government only punishes under least restrictive means possible

Intermediate Scrutiny (Content Neutrality)

Must be substantial government interest; interest is unrelated to suppression of expression; law burdens no more speech than necessary to achieve that interest; ample alternative channels

Incitement (Brandenburg Test [evolution from bad tendency to clear and present danger to imminent lawless action])

Dichta (unspoken rule), bad tendency test (speech had bad tendency to have bad outcome), danger, clear and present

Miller Test (Obscenity)

When the average person, applying contemporary community standards would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to prurient interest; whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law; whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value

Fair Use Test for copyright

Nature of the new work, nature of the original work, amount or substantiality of the use, effect on the market

En Banc Hearing

On the bench hearing

Mens Rea

Criminal mind/guilty mind