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COMMUNICATIONS DECENCY ACT -- RENO V. ACLU

FLAG BURNING -- TEXAS V. JOHNSON

CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER -- SCHENCK V. UNITED STATES

ACTUAL MALICE -- NEW YORK TIMES V. SULLIVAN

IMMINENT LAWLESS ACTION -- BRANDENBURG V. OHIO



Clear and Present Danger
Schenck v. United States

In the 1919 case Schenck v. United States the Supreme Court held that an anti-war activist did not have a First Amendment right to speak out against the draft.

The question in every case is whether the words used are used in such circumstances and are of such a nature as to create a clear and present danger that they will bring about the substantive evils that the United States Congress has a right to prevent. It is a question of proximity and degree. When a notion is at war, many things that might be said in time of peace are such a hindrance to its effort that their utterance will not be endured so long as men fight, and that no Court could regard them as protected by any constitutional right.-- Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes