Topics: Legal Terms and Concepts Related to Speech, Press, Assembly, or Petition

• Actual Malice

  Actual malice is the legal standard the Supreme Court uses to protect the media in libel cases in determining when public officials or figures may win damages...

• Ad Hoc Balancing

  In First Amendment law, ad hoc balancing involves judging cases on their unique facts, rejecting formulaic tests to determine whether speech is protected or not...

• Advocacy of Illegal Conduct

  Mere advocacy of illegal conduct was not protected by the First Amendment until Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969), which created the incitement to imminent lawless...

• Anonymous Speech

  The Supreme Court has protected anonymity under the First Amendment, but it has balanced this protection against competing interests, notably in the area of...

• Bad Tendency Test

  The bad tendency test became the most influential standard used by courts to determine whether criticism of the government during World War I was protected by...

• Captive Audience

  The captive audience doctrine protects people in certain places and circumstances from unwanted speech. It is an exception to the First Amendment rule...

• Central Hudson Test

  The Supreme Court developed the Central Hudson test for determining when government could limit commercial speech without violating the First Amendment...

• Chilling Effect

  Chilling effect is the concept of deterring First Amendment free speech and association rights through laws or regulations that appear to target expression...

• Clear and Present Danger Test

  In the 20th century, the Supreme Court established the clear and present danger test as the predominate standard for determining when speech is protected by the...

• Commercial Speech

  Commercial speech is a form of protected communication under the First Amendment, but it does not receive as much free speech protection as forms of...

• Community Standards

  In 1973, the Supreme Court said that community standards must be taken into account in determining whether something was obscene or could be protected by the...

• Contempt of Court

  Civil contempt of court can be fixed by obeying court orders. Criminal contempt involves violating the dignity of the court and is more likely to raise First...

• Content Based

  A content-based law discriminates against speech based on the substance of what is communicated. In contrast, a content-neutral law applies without regard to...

• Content Neutral

  In First Amendment free speech cases, laws that are content neutral apply to all expression without regard to any particular message or substance...

• Corporate Speech

  Corporate speech refers to the rights of corporations to advertise their products and to speak to matters of public concern, including by spending money in...

• Counterspeech Doctrine

  The counterspeech doctrine, first articulated by Louis Brandeis in First Amendment jurisprudence in 1927, posits that the remedy for false speech is more speech...

• Criminal Libel

  In the United States, courts have based decisions regarding slanderous or libelous statements on the First Amendment rights of free speech and freedom of the...

• Defamation

  Defamation lawsuits can have a chilling effect on free speech. The Supreme Court first applied First Amendment protection from state libel laws in 1964 in New...

• Exacting scrutiny

  Exacting scrutiny is a form of close judicial review used by the U.S. Supreme Court to evaluate restrictions on speech in campaign finance, election law and...

• Express Advocacy

  Express advocacy is the use of words like "vote for" in political communications. It's protected by the First Amendment, but the spending of money on such...

• Expressive Conduct

  Expressive conduct is behavior designed to convey a message; its function as speech means that it has increasingly been protected by the First Amendment...

• Fair Report Privilege

  The fair report privilege is a state-law defense to defamation claims used by journalists, although the level of protection may vary by state. Under the...

• Fair Use

  Fair use allows copyrighted works to be used in ways that would infringe on the copyright. Fair use is a way of preventing copyright from violating of the First...

• False Light

  False light invasion of privacy, portraying an individual unflatteringly in words or pictures as someone that person is not, is not protected by the First...

• False Speech

  Because the First Amendment is designed to further the truth, it may not protect individuals who engage in libel. Generally, the government does not stand as...

• Fighting Words

  The fighting words doctrine, an exception to First Amendment-protected speech, lets government limit speech when it is likely to incite immediate retaliation by...

• Government Speech Doctrine

  Under the government speech doctrine, the government has its own rights as speaker that can assert its own messages, immune from challenges of viewpoint...

• Gravity of the Evil Test

  The gravity of the evil test is a refinement of the clear and present danger test to determine when First Amendment free speech may be subject to criminal...

• Group Libel

  Since the 1900s, group libel, the defamation of an entire group of people, has coexisted uneasily with the First Amendment’s emphasis on individual speech...

• Heckler's Veto

  A heckler’s veto occurs when the government restricts speech because of the reactions of opponents of the speech. Courts have said hecklers' vetoes violate...

• Hicklin Test

  The Hicklin Test, an obscenity standard originating in England, was initially used in America but did not survive constitutional challenges based on the First...

• Incitement to Imminent Lawless Action

  Many Supreme Court cases upholding restrictions on subversive speech have relied on the idea that such speech is forbidden because it incites violence or...

• Libel and Slander

  Libel and slander lawsuits can have a chilling effect on free speech. The First Amendment rights of free speech and free press often clash with the interests...

• Libel-Proof Plaintiff Doctrine

  The libel-proof plaintiff doctrine is a concept that insulates a defendant from defamation liability for statements made about someone who has no good...

• Marketplace of Ideas

  The marketplace of ideas refers to the belief that the test of the truth or acceptance of ideas depends on their competition with one another and not on the...

• Miller Test

  The Miller Test is the primary legal test for determining whether expression constitutes obscenity.  It is named after the Supreme Court’s decision in Miller...

• Misappropriation

  Appropriation is the unauthorized use of a person’s likeness for financial gain. Although appropriation may involve speech, it is not protected by the First...

• Narrowly Tailored Laws

  The term "narrowly tailored" refers to laws regulating First Amendment rights. These must be written to place as few restrictions as possible on First Amendment...

• Neutral Reportage Privilege

  Neutral reportage protects from libel claims media that accurately and objectively report newsworthy charges against public figures as part of an ongoing...

• Neutrality, Speech

  Laws restricting speech are subject to strict scrutiny to ensure they are neutral under the First Amendment. They can not discriminate against speech the...

• Noerr-Pennington Doctrine

  The Noerr-Pennington doctrine is a judicially created defense against certain business torts (wrongful acts) for activity that implicates the First Amendment...

• Overbreadth

  Overbreadth provides that a regulation of speech can sweep too broadly and prohibit speech protected by the First Amendment as well as non-protected speech...

• Perjury

  Perjury is not protected by the First Amendment because it undermines the ability of courts to obtain truthful testimony and to effectively administer justice...

• Pickering Connick test

  The Pickering Connick test refers to a longstanding test in First Amendment law used by courts to determine whether a public employer violated an employee’s...

• Press Access

  The First Amendment appears to provide a special right for the press, however the Supreme Court has taken a narrow view of the "press clause" and held that the...

• Prior Restraint

  Prior restraint allows the government to review the content of printed materials and prevent their publication. Prior restraint usually violates the First...

• Professional Speech Doctrine

  The professional speech doctrine is a concept used by lower courts in recent years to define and often limit the free-speech rights of professionals when...

• Public Figures and Officials

  To promote First Amendment freedom of speech, libel plaintiffs who are public figures or officials must show a publisher acted with actual malice to collect...

• Public Forum Doctrine

  The public forum doctrine is an analytical tool used in First Amendment jurisprudence to determine the constitutionality of speech restrictions implemented on...

• Qualified Immunity

  Under the qualified immunity doctrine, government officials could violate a person’s First Amendment rights, but not face liability because the law was not...

• Rhetorical Hyperbole

  Rhetorical hyperbole is a First Amendment-based doctrine that the Court has used to provide protection to exaggerated, over-the-top speech in defamation cases...

• Right of Publicity

  The right of publicity is a right to legal action, designed to protect the names and likenesses of celebrities against unauthorized exploitation for commercial...

• Right to Receive Information and Ideas

  The United States Supreme Court has recognized that the right to receive information and ideas flows from the First Amendment protection of free speech...

• Right to Respond and Right of Reply

  The FCC's right to respond and reply allowed those criticized on radio and TV broadcasts time to share their viewpoint on air to foster First Amendment...

• Safety Valve Theory

  Under the safety valve theory of the First Amendment theory, the ability of citizens to freely protest about government deters them from undertaking violent...

• Scarcity Rationale

  The scarcity rationale is a legal reasoning that provides for more government regulation and limited recognition of First Amendment freedoms for broadcasters...

• Secondary Effects Doctrine

  The secondary effects doctrine is used when content-based laws are aimed at the secondary effects of protected expression. The laws can more easily pass First...

• Self-government Rationale

  The self-government rationale justifies free speech protections of the First Amendment by reasoning that self-government depends on a free and robust democratic...

• Substantial Disruption Test

  The substantial disruption test is the standard developed by the Supreme Court to determine when public school officials may discipline students for their...

• Substantial Truth Doctrine

  The substantial truth doctrine, stemming from the First Amendment, allows individuals to avoid liability in libel claims if the gist of the statement was...

• Symbolic Speech

  Symbolic speech consists of nonverbal, nonwritten forms of communication. It is generally protected by the First Amendment unless it causes a specific, direct...

• Time, Place and Manner Restrictions

  Time, place and manner restrictions are content-neutral limitations imposed by the government on expressive activity. These restrictions do not usually violate...

• True Threats

  A true threat is a statement meant to frighten people into believing they will be seriously harmed by the speaker. True threats are not protected by the First...

• Vagueness

  Courts in the United States give particular scrutiny to vague laws relative to First Amendment issues because of their possible chilling effect on protected...

• Watts Factors

  The Watts factors refers to three factors the Supreme Court identified in its true-threat decision to distinguish between speech protected by the First...