Court Decisions

Library of Court Decisions for
Freedom of Speech in the United States

Part I: Historical Development

• Magna Carta (1215)
• John Milton, Areopagitica (1644)
• Sir William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765-1769)
• John Stuart Mill, On Liberty (1869)

• Declaration of Independence (July 4, 1887)
• United States Constitution (1787)
• Sedition Act of 1798

Part II: Controls upon the Content of Speech

Chapter 3:
Political Heresy:

• Espionage Act of 1917
• Smith Act of 1940
• Schenck v. United States (1919)
• Abrams v. United States (1919)
• Gitlow v. New York (1925)
• Whitney v. California (1927)
• Fiske v. Kansas (1927)
• DeJonge v. Oregon (1937)
• Dennis v. United States (1951)
• Yates v. United States (1957)
• Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969)

• Beauharnais v. Illinois (1952)
• New York Times v. Sullivan (1964)
• Curtis Publishing Co. v. Butts (1967)
• Rosenbloom v. Metromedia (1971)
• Gertz v. Welch (1974)
• Philadelphia Newspapers v. Hepps (1986)
• Milkovich v. Lorain Journal (1990)
• Masson v. New Yorker Magazine (1991)

• Time Inc. v. Hill (1967)
• Dietemann v. Time Inc. (9th Cir. 1971)
• Gallela v. Onassis (2nd Cir. 1973)
• Cox Broadcasting Co. v. Cohn (1975)
• Zacchini v. Scripps-Howard Broadcasting Co. (1977)
• Florida Star v. B.J.F. (1989)
• Hustler v. Falwell (1988)
• Bartnicki v. Vopper (2001)

Blasphemy and "Immoral" Ideas

• Burstyn v. Wilson (1952)
• Kingsley International Pictures v. Regents (1959)
• Epperson v. Arkansas (1968)

Obscenity

• Roth v. United States (1957)
• Ginzburg v. United States (1966)
• Stanley v. Georgia (1969)
• Miller v. California (1973)
• Paris Adult Theatre I. v. Slaton (1973)
• New York v. Ferber (1982)
• American Booksellers Association v. Hudnut (7th Cir. 1985)
• Alexander v. United States (1993)
• Ashcroft v. ACLU (I) (2002)
• Ashcroft v. ACLU (II) (2004)

• Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire (1942)
• Terminiello v. Chicago (1949)
• Feiner v. New York (1951)
• Cohen v. California (1971)
• Gooding v. Wilson (1971)
• R.A.V. v. St. Paul (1992)
• Wisconsin v. Mitchell (1993)

• Valentine v. Chrestensen (1942)
• Bigelow v. Virginia (1975)
• Virginia State Board of Pharmacy v. Virginia Citizens Consumer Council (1976)
• Bates v. State Bar of Arizona (1977)
• Central Hudson Gas and Electric Co. v. Public Service Commission (1980)
• Posadas de Puerto Rico Associates v. Tourism Company of Puerto Rico (1986)
• Board of Trustees of the State University of New York v. Fox (1989)

Part III: Special Issues

• Near v. Minnesota (1931)
• Lovell v. Griffin (1938)
• Freedman v. Maryland (1965)
• New York Times v. United States (1971)
• United States v. Progressive (W.D. Wis. 1979)

Free Press, Fair Trial, and Courtroom Access

• Irvin v. Dowd (1961)
• Sheppard v. Maxwell (1966)
• Gannett Co. v. DePasquale (1979)
• Richmond Newspapers, Inc. v. Virginia (1980)
• Chandler v. Florida (1981)
• Press-Enterprise Co. v. Superior Court (I) (1984)
• Press-Enterprise Co. v. Superior Court (II) (1986)
• Rice v. Paladin Enterprises (4th Cir. 1997)

Protection of Sources and Notes

• Branzburg v. Hayes (1972)
• Nebraska Press Association v. Stuart (1976)
• Zurcher v. Stanford Daily (1978)

• Hague v. Committee for Industrial Organization (1939)
• Jamison v. Texas (1943)
• United States v. O'Brien (1968)
• Grayned v. Rockford (1972)
• Perry Education Association v. Perry Local Educators' Association (1983)
• Texas v. Johnson (1989)
• Schenck v. Pro-Choice Network of Western New York (1996)

Schools

• Keyishian v. Board of Regents (1967)
• Pickering v. Board of Education (1968)
• Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (1969)
• Island Trees Union Free School District v. Pico (1982)
• Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier (1988)
• Doe v. Michigan (E.D. Mich. 1989)
• Rosenberger v. Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia (1995)
• Morse v. Frederick (2007)

Military

• Parker v. Levy (1974)

Prisons

• Procunier v. Martinez (1974)
• Pell v. Procunier (1974)

Part IV: Technology and Freedom of Speech

• Wheaton v. Peters (1834)
• Harper and Row Publishers, Inc. v. Nation Enterprises (1985)
• Salinger v. Random House, Inc. (2nd Cir. 1987)
• Basic Books, Inc v. Kinko's Graphics Co. (S.D. N.Y. 1991)
• Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music (1994)
• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios v. Grokster (2005)
• Reno v. ACLU (1997)

• National Broadcasting v. United States (1943)
• Red Lion Broadcasting Co. v. FCC (1969)
• Miami Herald Publishing Co. v. Tornillo (1974)
• FCC v. Pacifica Foundation (1978)
• CBS, Inc. v. FCC (1981)
• Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. v. FCC (1997)

Part V: Conclusion

Thomas L. Tedford and Dale A. Herbeck Freedom of Speech in the United States, 9th ed. State College, PA: Strata Publishing, Inc., 2024 http://tedford-herbeck-free-speech.com