True/False
1. In 2014, Apple added strong enough encryption to their iPhones so that the company could not
read what was on customer phones, even if they wanted to.
2. The First Amendment to the Constitution states that Congress or the president may limit free
speech when it is in “the best national interest” to do so.
3. Under the Alien and Sedition Laws of 1798, writers could be sent to jail or deported for
criticizing the government.
4. The USA PATRIOT Act allows the FBI to examine individual’s health care records, Internet
use, and library records.
5. To be libelous, a statement must be published or broadcast and seen by someone other than the
author and the person who was defamed.
6. Privilege is the legal notion that public figures and government officials have the right (or
privilege) to sue journalists for reporting on their private lives.
7. The press has the right to use embarrassing photographs of ordinary people, even if they are
not newsworthy.
8. French law requires people suing for invasion of privacy to prove they have been harmed by
the revelation.
9. Germany and Spain both have strong laws protecting the privacy of public figures and
government officials.
10. The Supreme Court ruled in 2011 that the Phelps family (also known as the Westboro Baptist
Church) had the right to picket funerals as long as they followed local regulations.
11. Journalists have an unconditional right to bring still and video cameras into all trials in the
United States.
12. The case of Near v. Minnesota established that the government could ban the publication of
material that was “annoying and offensive to the public at large.”
13. Shield laws are designed to keep journalists from having to testify about their work in court
under certain circumstances.
14. The Supreme Court ruled in the case of Citizens United that Congress can regulate the
amount of money super PACs can collect and spend on elections.
15. According to the Roth and Miller cases, the decision about whether a particular book or
movie is obscene should be made using national standards that are consistent across the entire
country.
16. According to Roth v. the United States, not all sexually explicit material is considered
obscene.
17. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act makes it illegal to break the copy protection on
DVDs.
18. The V-chip blocks a TV from showing a program with a particular content rating.
19. The laws applying libel law to writers on social media are mostly the same as those applied
to legacy (or “mainstream”) media.
20. Members of the Westboro Baptist Church picketed the funeral of Supreme Court Justice
Antonin Scalia because the justice had voted against their right to protest.
21. European Union “right to be forgotten” laws force search companies such as Google to omit
information from search results that people say are “irrelevant” or “out-of-date.”
22. European Union “right to be forgotten” laws force U.S. newspapers and other news sites to
take down stories that EU citizens consider “irrelevant” or “out-of-date.”
1. In addition to freedom of speech and the press, what three rights are protected by the First
Amendment?
2. What did President Thomas Jefferson do to all the people charged under the Alien and
Sedition Acts?
3. Wartime limits on free speech change the balance between ______.
4. What are the three elements that have to be present in order for libel to have taken place?
5. What does the concept of journalistic privilege protect?
6. What are the four forms of invasion of privacy in the United States?
7. In media law, what is prior restraint?
8. Name two ways in which high school students have limited free speech rights.
9. What do shield laws do?
10. In the case of Miller v. California, what is the LAPS test?
11. What is the major challenge faced by United States obscenity law in the twenty-first century?
12. In a brief essay, explain the major changes that took place to copyright law in 1976.
13. In a brief essay, explain what New York Times Co. v. Sullivan was about and what the long-
term impact of the case has been.
14. There is a continual tension between the constitutional protection of a fair trial and the
constitutional protection of freedom of the press. In a brief essay, discuss how the courts have
said this balance should be maintained.
15. In a brief essay, explain what prior restraint is, provide an example of how it has been used in
the United States, and explain why it is difficult to enforce in the twenty-first century.
16. In a brief essay, explain who owns the material you post on social media and why that is.
17. In a brief essay, explain why Apple resisted FBI efforts to hack the smartphone of the
married couple who killed 14 people in an attack in San Bernardino in 2016. Do you support or
oppose what Apple did? Explain why.