Instructor Resource
Trager, The Law of Journalism and Mass Communication 6e
CQ Press, 2018
Chapter 3: Speech Distinctions
Test Bank
Multiple Choice
1. Fighting words ______.
a. are words said in the heat of the moment
b. threaten to immediately disturb the peace
c. are not part of the exchange of ideas
d. are legally obscene
2. Categorical balancing ______.
a. balances different categories of speech against each other to create a
hierarchy of speech rights
b. establishes that speech rights always outweigh competing interests
c. distinguishes the protection of speech based on the identity of the speaker
d. examines where speech occurs as the basis for protection
3. The First Amendment’s protection of disruptive speech ______.
a. is variable and uncertain
b. is stable regardless of political, economic, or social conditions
c. is greatest when the U.S. Supreme Court applies the clear and present danger
test
d. is variable and uncertain and is greatest when the U.S. Supreme Court applies
the clear and present danger test
4. Laws that protect national security by punishing speakers who incite violent
actions are ______.
a. always unconstitutional
b. always constitutional
Instructor Resource
Trager, The Law of Journalism and Mass Communication 6e
CQ Press, 2018
c. unconstitutional even when the speech incites extreme and immediate violent
acts to overthrow government
d. constitutional if they pass the Brandenburg test
5. The clear and present danger test ______.
a. was adopted by the U.S. Supreme Court after it found the bad tendency test
allowed government to punish too much harmless speech
b. was abandoned and replaced by the bad tendency test
c. was influential but was never adopted by the full U.S. Supreme Court or used
to decide any cases
d. was adopted by the U.S. Supreme Court after it found the bad tendency test
allowed government to punish too much harmless speech and was abandoned
and replaced by the bad tendency test
6. Chilling effect is the name used to describe ______.
a. a policy to segregate political protestors to avoid violence
b. the tendency for unclear government regulations to discourage the exercise of
constitutionally protected rights
c. the tendency for forceful speakers to shut out alternative views
d. the tendency for open debate to move people from sharp disagreement toward
consensus
7. The explicit text of the U.S. Constitution ______.
a. establishes that First Amendment rights are not equal for children and adults
b. establishes government authority to control all expression within public schools
c. establishes public universities as public forums where the content of speech
may not be regulated
d. says nothing about different First Amendment rights for children and adults
Instructor Resource
Trager, The Law of Journalism and Mass Communication 6e
CQ Press, 2018
8. The Supreme Court has found that public schools may regulate student
expression when it ______.
a. disrupts education
b. is lewd or obscene
c. is sponsored by the school or is likely to be understood to represent the school
d. all of these
9. The First Amendment ______.
a. protects the right of citizens to assemble in non-violent gatherings
b. protects the right of citizens to assemble and disrupt the peace
c. provides protection for unlicensed assemblies
d. says nothing about public assemblies
10. The U.S. Supreme Court has said the First Amendment requires particularly
sensitive or vulnerable individuals ______.
a. to be protected from offense, upset, and disquiet
b. to be forewarned of any potentially offensive expression
c. to avert their eyes and ignore most offensive expression
d. to be given equal time in any public forum to respond to offensive expression
11. Laws that make viewpoint-based discriminations are ______.
a. especially objectionable to the First Amendment
b. reviewed under rational review
c. content-neutral
d. generally constitutional
12. XYZ television network presents a movie showing two 10-year-old boys
playing with a gun owned by one of the children’s parents. The gun accidentally
fires, severely injuring one of the boys. Shortly after the movie runs, two young
brothers find a gun in their house. While playing with the gun, the gun fires and
Instructor Resource
Trager, The Law of Journalism and Mass Communication 6e
CQ Press, 2018
kills one of the boys. The brothers’ parents sue XYZ television network. The
parents will ______.
a. lose because XYZ television network could not have foreseen that those
children would watch the movie and try to imitate what they saw
b. lose because XYZ television network did not know a rifle can be dangerous
c. win because XYZ television network intended to harm a viewer
d. win because XYZ television network owed a duty to the dead child and
breached the duty
13. A newspaper published a classified advertisement that said, “Having trouble?
Need to remove someone? Contact me to get rid of your problems. Bill.” Dick
hired Bill to kill his golfing partner, Frank. Frank’s family sued the newspaper. A
court likely would find ______.
a. a reasonable person could not understand the advertisement meant “murder
for hire”
b. the newspaper’s free speech rights protect all the ads it runs
c. a reasonable person should have known the advertisement had a substantial
likelihood of causing harm
d. the newspaper is not responsible for the ad even if it could be understood as
meaning “murder for hire”
14. A pharmacist wrote a book about drugs people can buy without a
prescription. The author said Drmxz, an over-the-counter cold medication, had no
side effects. However, Drmzx can cause serious problems in people who have
liver problems. Cheryl, who has liver trouble, read the book, bought and took
Drmzx, and suffered severe symptoms. Cheryl sued the book publisher for
causing her injuries. Cheryl likely will ______.
a. win, because publishers are responsible when they distribute a book with a
mistake
b. win, but only if the medication came close to killing Cheryl
c. win, but only if the pharmacist is an expert on cold medications and liver
problems
d. lose, because courts say book publishers cannot verify all the information in
every book they publish
15. In a physical harm lawsuit, a direct relationship between the plaintiff’s action
and the defendant’s injury is called ______.
a. proximate cause
b. factual cause
c. negligence
d. intentional injury
16. Sybil often played the video game “Die Now.” One afternoon, Sybil
deliberately ran her car into James’s car. James sued the makers of “Die Now,”
claiming the game caused Sybil to become aggressive and cause James’s
injuries. If a court applies the incitement test to determine if the “Die Now”
manufacturer was responsible for James’s injury, James must prove the
manufacturer ______.
a. should have done more testing to determine the game’s effects
b. should have foreseen that playing the game could cause someone to injure
another person
c. was negligent in manufacturing the game
d. intentionally meant for game players to become aggressive and cause harm
17. The Supreme Court’s categories of speech provide ______.
a. clear and consistent decision-making
b. fuzzy boundaries with decisions that rely heavily on the circumstances and the
consequences of the specific speech act
c. an alternative to categorical balancing
d. none of these
18. The types of speech that threaten national security ______.
a. vacillate with the political and social climate of the times
b. are clearly defined in one federal statute
c. are clearly defined in one Supreme Court ruling
d. are established through international treaties and agreements
19. Wars generally, and the current “war on terror” specifically, ______.
a. increase the willingness of Congress and the Supreme Court to accept laws
that punish speech that might undermine national security and international
effectiveness
b. increase the willingness of Congress and the Supreme Court to
counterbalance the tendency to stifle speech during times of heightened anxiety
c. have no demonstrable effect on First Amendment jurisprudence
d. decrease the willingness of Congress and the Supreme Court to accept laws
that target dissent and association
20. The “chilling effect” occurs when ______.
a. the Supreme Court strikes down federal statutes designed to protect national
security and tranquility
b. Congress criticizes the actions of either of the other two branches of federal
government
c. laws do not clearly define the illegal conduct they punish
d. you get a headache because you eat ice cream too rapidly
21. If a court uses the incitement test when a mass medium is sued for causing
physical harm, the plaintiff ______.
a. has to prove only that s/he was harmed by the medium
b. almost always wins
c. usually wins if the damage is physical
d. rarely wins
22. Research shows a real but uncertain link between media depictions of
violence and violent actions by viewers. As a result, ______.
a. media are required by law to limit the amount and degree of violent content in
all their products
b. successful lawsuits for media negligence must show the media were the
proximate cause of the harm they could reasonably foresee
Instructor Resource
Trager, The Law of Journalism and Mass Communication 6e
CQ Press, 2018
c. media defendants almost always lose when sued for physical harm
d. courts presume that media are the proximate cause of viewer violence
23. Under the Supreme Court’s decision in Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire,
government may punish fighting words when speech ______.
a. has a bad tendency
b. generally inflames and angers individuals
c. is directed at an individual and prompts immediate violence or inflicts
emotional harm
d. contributes little of value to democratic debate and encourages dislike of
historically discriminated groups
24. Although the Supreme Court’s decision in Elonis v. United States did not
clearly define them, the Court previously established that true threats may be
punishable when ______.
a. the average person applying reasonable standards would perceive a possible
threat
b. a reasonable listener might feel threatened
c. a sensitive listener might feel threatened
d. the speaker intends to threaten physical harm or to create pervasive fear in a
targeted individual or group
25. Symbolic speech exists when ______.
a. actions are closely related to speech and are intended to send a message that
others will understand
b. symbols other than the alphabet convey messages
c. actions convey any meaning to another person regardless of intent or context
d. none of these
25. The U.S. Supreme Court’s speech distinctions establish ______.
Instructor Resource
Trager, The Law of Journalism and Mass Communication 6e
CQ Press, 2018
a. unclear and confusing categories of speech with differing levels of protection
under the First Amendment
b. clear and consistent categories of speech that relate to explicit language in the
First Amendment
c. clear categories with clear reasoning for lower courts to follow
d. none of these
26. Supreme Court decisions establish clearly that students in public schools (K–
12) ______.
a. enjoy the same protection of school-related speech as do university students
b. may have their school-related speech restricted to serve other important
government interests
c. may never have their school-related speech restricted by school authorities
d. enjoy no freedom of speech in school
1. When a law is challenged as applied, courts judge the law’s constitutionality
based entirely on the language of the law.
2. The U.S. Supreme Court struck down the anti-hate ordinance at issue in
R.A.V. v. St. Paul in part because the law was underinclusive.
3. Students in all public educational institutions, whether primary schools or
universities, enjoy the same protection from regulation of their speech.
4. When the court weighs different categories of speech against competing
interests, it is using ad hoc balancing to determine First Amendment protections.
5. In Tinker v. Des Moines Independent School District, the U.S. Supreme Court
ruled that public schools may punish disruptive student protests that disturb
educational activities.
6. The doctrine of the heckler’s veto protects the free speech rights of minorities
by giving lone dissenters equal rights to speak as individuals chosen as part of
an organized speech activity.
7. The doctrine that permits government to restrict First Amendment rights when
restrictions are needed to prevent an extremely serious and imminent harm is
called the clear and present danger standard.
8. Given the role of the schools in inculcating values and teaching social
responsibility, the U.S. Supreme Court in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent
School District said school officials may prohibit student speech that might
potentially disrupt school activities.
9. Hate speech is a legally defined category that the U.S. Supreme Court has
ruled does not deserve First Amendment protection.
10. In Brandenburg v. Ohio, the U.S. Supreme Court said the advocacy of
violence is protected speech unless it is intended to and likely to incite imminent
violence or illegal activity.
11. Incorporation is the name of the concept that the Fourteenth Amendment
extends the reach of the Bill of Rights to apply equally to state governments.
12. The First Amendment protects an individual’s right not to speak and limits the
power of government to force individuals to sign oaths or join particular groups.
13. True threats, which are directed at an individual with the intent and likelihood
of causing the listener to fear bodily harm, are one category of punishable
speech.
14. The First Amendment favors underinclusive laws because they target only a
subset of a natural group of expression for regulation.
15. In both R.A.V. v. St. Paul and Virginia v. Black, the U.S. Supreme Court held
that cross-burning is such a harmful category of speech that it may be banned or
punished by government.
16. The U.S. Supreme Court generally has found university speech codes
constitutional because they advance the educational interests of university
administrators.
17. If speech and action are mixed together, such as in the symbolic act of
burning a flag, the speech deserves no greater protection from regulation than
would a nonsymbolic action, such as burning trash.
18. First Amendment protections are not absolute.
19. National security and the education and protection of immature children are
sufficiently important government interests that laws to advance these interests
may infringe upon First Amendment rights without violating the Constitution.
20. Since the Supreme Court’s ruling in R.A.V. v. St. Paul, anti-hate speech
ordinances are presumptively constitutional.
21. Under the symbolic speech doctrine, the First Amendment provides no
protection from government regulation of actions intended to convey messages.
22. An as-applied challenge to a law generally occurs before a law takes effect.
23. Hate speech is not a legally defined category.
24. Under the Supreme Court’s ruling in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent
School District, school administrators may punish student speech that does not
disrupt school.
25. Words directed at an individual with an intention to inflict injury or incite
immediate illegal actions are called fighting words.
26. The tendency of the government to suppress speech increases during
periods of increased national fear and instability.
27. The Supreme Court has held that student speech rights must be balanced
against the needs of the schools.
28. The Supreme Court currently uses the clear and present danger test to
decide when the First Amendment allows government to punish disruptive
speech.
29. Only when media intentionally and directly harm an individual will they be
found negligent.
1. Discuss the test developed by the U.S. Supreme Court in Brandenburg v.
Ohio, explain how it relates to the bad tendency and clear and present danger
tests, and describe its role in U.S. Supreme Court decision-making.
2. When can school administrators regulate the content of student speech in
public schools, and how does the Court justify permitting such infringements of
free speech?
3. Using the case of Frederick v. Morse as one example to illustrate your points,
discuss how the U.S. Supreme Court views the power of government to regulate
off-campus or online speech by public school students.
4. Supreme Court decisions have developed numerous categories of speech in
an effort to establish clearly when speech that may harm, frighten, intimidate,
offend, or infringe the civil liberties of others is/is not protected under the First
Amendment. Use the category of speech incitement to discuss the ways in which
speech categories do not always succeed in clarifying the boundaries of
protected speech.
5. Many of the speech harms identified by Congress and reviewed by the
Supreme Court either implicitly or explicitly incorporate the notion of a reasonable
person. Critique this reasonable person standard given the First Amendment’s
apparent assumption that laws should not unnecessarily abridge the freedom of
speech.
Instructor Resource
Trager, The Law of Journalism and Mass Communication 6e
CQ Press, 2018