Instructor Resource
Trager, The Law of Journalism and Mass Communication 6e
CQ Press, 2018
Chapter Overview
Chapter 2: The First Amendment
This chapter is challenging for those students who want and expect the law to be clear, clean,
determinate, and fixed. Some students also will begin to be troubled by the density of legal
language, the need for clear sequential thinking, the myriad of tests and categories that are
being introduced, and, essentially, the alien contours of legal thinking. Rather than view these
issues as problematic, students’ unease with the uncertainty inherent in First Amendment
interpretation and application may provide a highly useful pedagogical opportunity for critical
thinking exercises.
This chapter first introduces students to what the First Amendment means based on different
approaches to its interpretation, its history, and the values it protects. It then moves on to
explore how radical and ongoing changes in both media and communication (all professional
fields) challenge the application of established Supreme Court understandings of the First
Amendment’s protection of speech and of “the press.” Despite these and other complexities, it
is clear the First Amendment prohibits government censorship (prior restraint) of speech. Yet
there are numerous ways in which laws do appear to restrain speech.
Instructor Resource
Trager, The Law of Journalism and Mass Communication 6e
CQ Press, 2018
own ability to speak, and the right to speak anonymously round out this important section of
rapidly shifting law.
Students may be encouraged to critically evaluate the operation of the tests and the basic
assumptions of the Court that led to such a complicated, multifaceted system of interpretation
and application of the First Amendment’s fundamental constitutional protections. For example,
does this complex and seemingly ever-shifting set of strategies fulfill the objectives of the rule
of law laid out in Chapter 1? When the Court balances interests, for example, is the scale
skewed in one direction? How do the Court’s two decisions excerpted with this chapter clarify
or muddy the parameters of First Amendment protections?
Outline
I. What the First Amendment Means
II. Where the First Amendment Came From
a. Foundations of First Amendment Theory
Instructor Resource
Trager, The Law of Journalism and Mass Communication 6e
CQ Press, 2018
III. Why We Value the First Amendment
IV. When “the Press” Changes
V. How Government Restrains First Amendment Freedoms
VI. How the Supreme Court Reviews Laws Affecting First Amendment Rights
a. Content-Based Laws
b. Content-Neutral Laws
VII. Speaking Politics
VIII. Speaking for and as the Government
IX. Political Campaigning and Financing Elections
X. Speaking Anonymously
XI. Assembling and Speaking in Public and Nonpublic Places
a. Private Property as a Public Forum
b. Virtual Forums and Government Speakers
XII. Requiring Speech