1780's 1790's       1940's   1960's   2000's
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Signing of the Constitution Sedition Act       Chaplinsky vs.NH   Vietnam War   MySpace
 
1780's

Imagine you live in a time when there is no electricity, radio, television, or Internet. The American Revolution is over. The British government is no longer in control. To say negative things about the government out loud or in newspapers was a very serious crime when the British were in charge. You hear that the men who wrote the U.S. Constitution have just written the First Amendment to protect everyone’s freedom of speech: “Congress shall make no law...abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press…”

Issue History: Student Free Speech