Constitution and Bill of Rights: Discussion Questions

1. Could the Framers of the Bill of Rights have conceived of pornography as “speech” that would be protected by the First Amendment? What is the rationale for granting this type of expression a degree of constitutional protection? Examination of the arguments over the first amendment say the sole intent of the amendment was to insure a person could speak out against the government and support the political party of their choice without fear of retribution. The Supreme Court extended freedom of speech to include non-political issues. Prior to those decisions in the 1960's, for 200 years freedom of speech was mainly for political content only. It’s a living document because there are many things they could not have conceived that exist today- cars, computers, internet, etc. 2. What is meant by the term hate speech? Does it fall within the protections of the First Amendment? Does the First Amendment give a person the right to use racial and ethnic slurs in public? Hate speech is defined as speech that attacks, threatens, or insults a person or group on the basis of national origin, ethnicity, color, religion, gender, secual oorientation, or disability. Unless hate speech crosses the line into incitement to imminent lawless action or true threats, the speech receives protection under the First Amendment. First Amendment of the constitution protects freedom of expression, thereby guaranteeing protection for hate speech unless it presents a clear and present danger, is obscene, libelous, slanderous, or an imminent, "true" threat. 3. To what extent does the First Amendment apply to the Internet? Does the First Amendment protect someone’s right to put up a website devoted to propagating hatred against minorities? What if the site advocates violence against specific types of people and suggests means whereby such violence might be carried out? I think that on the Internet, the First Amendment is just a local ordinance. I did find these