[Infowarrior] - Exceptions to the First Amendment

[Richard Forno]

Exceptions to the First Amendment
By Michael Hampton
Posted: May 24, 2007 6:45 am
http://www.homelandstupidity.us/2007/05/24/exceptions-to-the-first-amendment
/

³Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech, or of the
press . . .²

Unless, of course, it wants to.

This is the topic of a recent report from the Congressional Research Service
titled, ³Freedom of Speech and Press: Exceptions to the First Amendment.²

The First Amendment had exceptions? Where¹s my copy of the Constitution?
I¹ve got to see this.

Now, if you actually go and read the First Amendment, you won¹t find any
exceptions listed. But if you intend to do any public speaking, or perhaps
operate a Web site, you might want to become familiar with the exceptions,
and perhaps where they came from.

    This report provides an overview of the major exceptions to the First
Amendment ‹ of the ways that the Supreme Court has interpreted the guarantee
of freedom of speech and press to provide no protection or only limited
protection for some types of speech. For example, the Court has decided that
the First Amendment provides no protection to obscenity, child pornography,
or speech that constitutes ³advocacy of the use of force or of law violation
. . . where such advocacy is directed to inciting or producing imminent
lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action.²

    The Court has also decided that the First Amendment provides less than
full protection to commercial speech, defamation (libel and slander), speech
that may be harmful to children, speech broadcast on radio and television,
and public employees¹ speech. Even speech that enjoys the most extensive
First Amendment protection may be subject to ³regulations of the time,
place, and manner of expression which are content-neutral, are narrowly
tailored to serve a significant government interest, and leave open ample
alternative channels of communication.² And, even speech that enjoys the
most extensive First Amendment protection may be restricted on the basis of
its content if the restriction passes ³strict scrutiny,² i.e., if the
government shows that the restriction serves ³to promote a compelling
interest² and is ³the least restrictive means to further the articulated
interest.² ‹ Freedom of Speech and Press: Exceptions to the First Amendment

That¹s right, if the government says it has a compelling interest in
restricting your speech, then it will do so, and the courts will look the
other way. As the computer people say, this isn¹t a bug; it¹s a feature. The
common law legal system used in the U.S. provides that the law is whatever
judges decide it is. These decisions then pile up and become case law, which
you¹re expected to know in addition to the millions of pages of actual
written laws on the books. This is why the First Amendment is said to not be
absolute: because judges in the past have ruled that the government may
restrict speech, regardless of what¹s written on the piece of paper.

CRS reports are not routinely released to the public. They¹re prepared for
members of Congress and CRS has said it intends to keep it that way. This
report was obtained by the Federation of American Scientists.

Link: http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/95-815.pdf