Is the speech being regulated (what the person is saying) or being stopped because of state action?

When looking at a situation where you are asked to determine if the speech is protected speech or not constitutionally, the following steps are instructive:

Is the speech being regulated (what the person is saying) or being stopped because of state action? (State actors include schools, police departments, postal department, federal agencies, etc.) If there is NO state action, the speech can probably be stopped.
Is there IS state action, then ask, who is making the speech? If a child or someone in high school is the speaker, then probably the speech can be regulated.
IF the speaker is an adult, then we ask, in what situation is the speech being made? (Time, place and manner.) If the speech is made in manner which is inappropriate for the time, place or manner in which it is made (For example, in a courtroom, in the middle of the street, in line at airport security, etc.) Then, it is usually permissible for the government to regulate the speech.
Finally, look at the content of the speech. If the content is defamatory, commercial, obscene, hate speech or untrue, then the government has a compelling interest in regulating such speech, then it’s usually permissible to regulate and even prevent the speech. On the other hand, it the speech is being regulated purely because the government doesn’t like the CONTENT of the speech, that would probably be unconstitutional and not allowed.
ASSIGNMENT #1: (20 points)

After having read the chapter, reviewed my notes and applied the rules above, I want you to find a story from the news where someone’s First Amendment rights are being stopped by the government and write a one page paper summarizing the facts of the case. You must provide your opinion about whether or not it is a First Amendment violation (it’s OK if you find there was NO First Amendment violation) by applying your understanding of the law that you have learned this week. In your paper, you need to include the link to the article. Please try to focus on credible news sources within the last 5 years. Papers with more analysis will earn higher grades on this assignment.

To be clear, the Colin Kaepernick situation (the NFL player who took a lot of heat for refusing to stand for the National Anthem is NOT a First Amendment issue because the government isn’t telling him to stop doing something – it’s the NFL.( His lawsuit was based on another legal theory.) And in this case, a team could tell him to stand or be fired, even though doing so could mean the team would also get some bad press or eventually lose the player to another team. A better example is the woman who was arrested a few years ago for making threats on her Facebook page. This IS a First Amendment issue because the police (a government actor) arrested her for making threatening online posts. This is an example of one of the types of speech that CAN be regulation by the government because her speech posed a potential threat.

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