Year |
Events |
1798 |
Sedition Act makes it a crime to criticize the government in speech or writing. The law is not renewed after the election of 1800.
|
1918 |
Sedition Act, added to Espionage Act of 1917, passed; prohibits speech, writing, or publishing critical of the form of government in the U.S.
|
1919 |
Supreme Court rules that sending written material to eligible men urging them to resist the draft is unlawful because it creates a “clear and present danger” to national security.
|
1925 |
Supreme Court rules that 14 th Amendment's Due Process Clause incorporates the 1 st Amendment's guarantees of freedom of speech and press. (Schenck v. United States)
|
1951 |
Supreme Court upholds the Smith Act of 1940 and rejects challenge by 11 Communist Party leaders convicted of conspiring to teach and advocate violent overthrow of government. (Dennis v. United States)
|
1969 |
Supreme Court decides that the Constitution protects students who wear armbands in school to protest the Vietnam War. (Tinker v. Des Moines School District)
|
1971 |
Government tries to stop the New York Times publication of the “Pentagon Papers” about the Vietnam War. The Supreme Court upholds the paper's right to do so. (New York Times v. United States)
|
1989 |
Supreme Court rules that burning an American flag as a political protest is “symbolic speech,” protected by the 1 st and 14 th Amendments. (Texas v. Johnson)
|
2003 |
Supreme Court rules that Congress can require public libraries that receive federal funds to use filters that block access to Internet pornography. (United States v. American Library Association)
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