Speech Rights in the United States

Free Speech Rights Cases in California

by Erwin Chemerinsky

One case which attracted significant media attention in 2010 involves a California law that prohibits the sale or rental of violent video games to minors. The law also requires the labeling of such games. Both the federal district court and the Ninth Circuit found that the law violated the First Amendment. In Schwarzenegger v. Entertainment Merchants Ass’n, the Court considered the ability of the government to regulate violent speech and, for the first time, deal with the medium of video games (556 F.3d 950 (9th Cir. 2009), cert. granted, 130 S. Ct. 2398 (2010)).

Another high-profile case concerned protests at military funerals. At issue is whether a tort suit for intentional infliction of emotional distress by such behavior violates the First Amendment (Snyder v. Phelps, 580 F.3d 206 (4th Cir. 2009), cert. granted, 130 S. Ct. 1737 (2010)).
In 2006 Matthew Snyder, a Marine lance corporal, was killed in the line of duty in Iraq. The members of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas – including its founder, Fred W. Phelps Sr. – picketed Snyder’s funeral, as they had done at other military funerals, to communicate their message that God hates America because of its tolerance for homosexuals. Phelps and the other defendants also posted on the church’s website a statement criticizing Snyder’s parents for “rais[ing] him for the devil.”

Snyder’s father sued and won on claims of intentional infliction of emotional distress and intrusion upon seclusion. The jury awarded $2.9 million in compensatory damages and $8 million in punitive damages (later reduced to $2.1 million). The Fourth Circuit reversed the award on First Amendment grounds. The case presented a difficult question of how to balance freedom of speech against the desire to protect the privacy of mourners.

Employee Speech Rights (Private)

United States Constitution

According to the Encyclopedia of the American Constitution, about its article titled EMPLOYEE SPEECH RIGHTS (Private), employees in the private sector enjoy first amendment rights like any other citizens. But those constitutional rights run only against the government-against state action-and not against the private employer, who poses the chief threat to employees’ freedom of speech.

Speech Rights

Speech Rights in the United States

Free Speech Rights Cases in California

Employee Speech Rights (Private)

United States Constitution

Resources

See Also