Freedom of Speech · Module 4
Disfavored Categories of Speech, Part I: Incitement, Fighting Words and True Threats
The categories the Court has been willing to leave outside full protection, and how narrow each one turned out to be: Brandenburg's imminence requirement, Chaplinsky's shrinking fighting-words rule, and the mental state a true threat requires.
Assigned reading
Chemerinsky, Constitutional Law (7th ed. 2023) — 1173–1227.
The casebook is the assigned text for this course. This page is the map: what the Module is doing, in what order, and what goes with it.
Topics
Incitement, from Schenck to Brandenburg. Fighting words, group libel and hate speech. True threats and the mental state the First Amendment requires.
Reading list
0 of 9 readings published · the rest are in preparation and will appear here as they are edited
- Opinion Schenck v. United States
- Opinion Abrams v. United States
- Opinion Whitney v. California
- Opinion Dennis v. United States
- Opinion Brandenburg v. Ohio
- Opinion Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire
- Opinion R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul
- Opinion Virginia v. Black
- Opinion Counterman v. Colorado
Classroom visuals
This module in Canvas
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How to read this list
A case named without a marker is assigned as an opinion and is to be read in its entirety. Opinion (edited) means the Professor has cut it for length; the text on this site is the assigned text. Note means the case is not assigned as an opinion at all — its holding, its facts to the extent they matter, and its place in the doctrinal line are given in a note written for this course, and you are responsible for that note exactly as you are responsible for an assigned opinion. Most modules close with a Current case, a recent decision chosen because it shows the doctrine you have just read being applied at its live edge; current cases are assigned as opinions. You are responsible for all assigned required materials, including the notes, questions, problems and commentary that accompany the cases, whether or not we discuss them in class.