First Amendment and Violence
Overview of Court Precedent
The First Amendment provides that “Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech,” but the Supreme Court allows various exceptions to this prohibition. Obscenity, for example, is not protected by the First Amendment, but most sexually oriented material has not been judged to be obscene and is protected by the First Amendment. Even a statute that restricts protected speech on the basis of its content may be constitutional, but the Supreme Court generally will uphold such a statute only if it passes “strict scrutiny.” This means that, to be found constitutional, the statute must be necessary “to…
