Kanovitz, Constitutional Law for Criminal Justice, 14th Edition
Multiple-Choice Examination and True/False Questions
Chapter 2: Freedom of Speech
Multiple-Choice Questions
1. The First Amendment protects the following right or rights in addition to freedom of speech.
a. freedom of religion
b. the right to petition Congress for a redress of grievances
c. the right to peaceably assemble
d. all of the above
2. Several categories of speech lack First Amendment protection. They include:
a. commercial speech
b. deliberate lies
c. speech that is likely to arouse anger, resentment, or alarm in others based on race,
religion, gender, or sexual orientation
d. none of the above
3. The Supreme Court has given the following explanation for excluding several categories of
speech from First Amendment protection:
a. These categories of speech are of such slight social value that any benefit derived from
them is outweighed by society’s interest in order and morality.
b. These categories of speech were considered punishable when our nation was founded.
c. Excluding any categories of speech from the protection of the First Amendment is a
mistake, but since this mistake was made long ago, the doctrine requiring courts to stand
by their precedents prevents the Supreme Court from overruling them.
d. These categories of speech are more offensive than any others.
4. Which of the following is NOT a protected form of speech?
a. wearing a Nazi uniform
b. refusing to recite the Pledge of Allegiance
c. ritual use of drugs in a religious ceremony
d. burning a cross at a KKK rally
5. In Texas v. Johnson, the Court determined that a law prohibiting which of the following acts
was unconstitutional?
a. flag burning
b. burning a draft card
c. burning a cross
d. displaying a swastika
6. The Miller test includes all the following criteria for determining whether a work is obscene
EXCEPT:
a. it appeals to the prurient interests of the average person
b. it depicts “hard–core” sexual acts, previously defined by applicable state law, in a patently
offensive way
c. it contains pictures of live subjects, not computer generated images
d. it lacks any serious literary, artistic, political, scientific or other value
7. The Brandenburg Test applies to which of the following:
a. incitement of illegal action
b. child pornography
c. restrictions on use of public forums
d. symbolic speech
8. Which of the following would be considered a nonpublic forum:
a. a municipal auditorium
b. a sidewalk
c. a post office
d. a park
9. Which of the following constitutes a valid time, place, or manner restriction on speech in a
public forum?
a. prohibiting expressive activity within 35 feet of entrances to abortion clinics
b. requiring 30 days advance notice before holding a rally in a park
c. banning noisy activities in front of a school while the school is in session
d. requiring a permit to distribute leaflets
10. There are three kinds of statutes that police should never use to make an arrest in a speech
context, even when speaker’s conduct is not protected. Which of the following is NOT
among them?
a. statutes authorizing arrests for “disturbing,” “annoying,” or “offensive” conduct
b. statutes authorizing arrests for blocking the public passage
c. statutes authorizing arrests for loitering
d. statutes authorizing arrests for disobeying an order to move on that fail to provide
objective standards when such orders may be issued
11. The defendant walked up to two men sitting on a park bench holding hands and said: “You
goddamn faggots! Hell is full of cock-suckers like you. God hates faggots.’” The defendant
can be arrested under a statute that criminalizes:
a. profanity
b. fighting words
c. hate speech
d. none of the above
12. Which of the following activities are regarded as “speech”?
a. begging
b. burning a cross at a Ku Klux Klan rally
c. refusing to pledge allegiance to the flag
d. all of them
13. Six anti-war protestors climbed up the fire escape onto the roof of an Armed Services
Recruiting Station where they lowered the flag flying over the building, soaked it in
kerosene, and ignited it. They were convicted of criminal trespass and malicious destruction
of government property. They appealed contending that their conviction violated the First
Amendment. The appeals court should:
a. overturn their conviction on the grounds that flag burning is constitutionally protected
symbolic speech
b. overturn their conviction on the ground that the location of the demonstration was a
public forum
c. affirm their conviction because the conduct for which they were convicted is not
protected by the First Amendment
d. affirm their conviction because their conduct posed a clear and present danger of starting
a fire
14. All of the following categories have been excluded First Amendment protection EXCEPT:
a. curse words
b. speech integral to criminal conduct
c. fighting words
d. incitement to immediate unlawful action
15. The test currently used to determine whether literary works are obscene was established by
the Supreme Court in:
a. Miller v. California
b. Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire
c. Grace v. United States
d. Brandenburg v. Ohio
16. To be outlawed as child pornography, materials must:
a. appeal to the prurient interest of the average person
b. visually depict real children engaged in sexual activity
c. lack serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value
d. all of the above
17. Which of the following situations justify an arrest for using “fighting words”?
a. calling an absent political opponent a “fascist pig” during a campaign speech
b. shouting “fuck you, you goddamn nigger” while driving at a rapid speed past a man
seated on his front porch
c. uttering “you stupid son-of-a-bitch” to a police officer after receiving a citation for a
traffic violation
d. none of the above
18. In Brandenburg v. Ohio, the Supreme Court established the test that controls when speech
can be punished as:
a. “fighting words”
b. hate speech
c. obscenity
d. incitement to violence or other unlawful acts
19. Municipal auditoriums are examples of:
a. traditional public forums
b. public forums by designation
c. nonpublic forums
d. limited public forums
20. Which of the following locations is not a public forum?
a. a municipal park
b. a corporate mall shopping center parking lot
c. a municipal auditorium
d. The sidewalk in front of a public school
21. The “marketplace of ideas” is
a. another name for a public forum
b. the title of the book found obscene in Miller v. California
c. was rejected in United States v. Stevens
d. is a metaphor used to explain why truth is more likely emerge in a society that tolerates
the expression of ideas that are repulsive, hateful, and offensive as well as ideas that have
value
True/ False Questions
22. Anti-litter laws are constitutional, but enforcement efforts must be directed at people who
drop handbills and produce litter, not against the people who distribute them.
a. True
b. False
23. Local governments cannot prohibit beggars from soliciting contributions in public forums.
a. True
b. False
24. Permits may be required only for gatherings large enough to create traffic, public safety, or
competing use concerns that make advance notice necessary.
a. True
b. False
25. The First Amendment prohibits legislatures from providing increased punishments for crimes
motivated by hatred of the victim because of the victim’s race, religion, ethnicity, or sexual
orientation.
a. True
b. False
26. To constitute a true threat, the speaker must intend to commit an unlawful act of violence
against a particular person or group of persons and must his statement to be understood as a
serious threat of imminent harm.
a. True
b. False