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Free Essay: The Law And Free Speech

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The Law and Free Speech Freedom of speech is protected by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. However, not all speech is protected equally, and some forms of speech may be illegal. In some situations, states enact law in an effort to minimize offensive forms of speech, and in doing so violate the First Amendment. While the intentions of such laws are not to infringe on the rights of citizens, oversights of the intricacies of law do occur. Such is the case with the established Breach of Peace – Incitement law, at least in part. This essay will evaluate the elements of both sections of the law to determine its constitutionality, make relevant associations with established laws, and finally provide an analysis of such law.
Breach of Peace – Incitement Section (a) The first section of Breach of …show more content…

Additionally, this type of speech is considered to be “fighting words” and has a high potential to cause “imminent lawless action.” Therefore, section (b) would be considered to be a constitutional law.
Associated Laws Both sections of the Breach of Peace – Incitement law are governed by the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution. However, each section also has established case precedence that assists in determining constitutionality. Cases that can be associated with the law are: Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire (1942), Brandenburg v. Ohio (1968), Cohen v. California (1971), and Virginia v. Black (2003). Further, specifically regarding section (a), Cohen v. California (1971) is extremely important.
Analysis of Enacted

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