Censorship And The First Amendment: The American Citizen's Right To Free Speech

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freely represent individual
thoughts, feelings, and views, in order to protect their families as well as
others. These groups, religious or otherwise, believe that publishing
unorthodox material is an abuse of free expression under the First Amendment.
As we will come to find, our Supreme Court system plays an exceedingly important
role in the subject of free speech and expression. As well as, understanding
that the court system is the nucleus of the construing our First Amendment
rights.
First we must focus on the motivation and foundations behind these
individuals attempting to challenge the right to free speech. There are various
reasons given for censorship: in a classroom or library they may restrict or ban
a book or other learning resource because it includes social, political, or
religious views believed to be inappropriate or threatening. A movie or
television program may be considered violent, or obscene because of nudity or
indecent behavior. A song or speech may ...

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indecent
or improper material in their communities.
Shifting to the opposite view on this topic, there are those individuals
that oppose the power to censor. There are members of society that believe in
the freedom to speak publicly and to publish. This is a basic belief in the
freedom of expression and is to be protected by the First Amendment to the
Constitution. On the eve of the bicentennial of the Bill of Rights, the first
wave of a nationwide survey, comprising more than 1,500 citizens was conducted.
Through this survey it was found that Americans rate free speech as their second
most precious First Amendment right and regard a free press highly in the
abstract (Wyatt 87). ...

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