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Handout C: Speech Scenarios

Handout C: Speech Scenarios

Directions: After the group activity has ended, complete the following chart for each speech scenario. In one or two sentences, explain whether you think each scenario is an example of protected speech. Use the information in Handout A: Background Essay to support your reasoning.


Scenario Protected Speech? Reasoning?
1. A group who opposes the president
meets in front of the White House
and gives speeches calling him a
liar and an idiot. Its members also
pass out voter registration forms,
encouraging people to vote for
someone new next fall.
2. A man organizes a protest outside
of a big corporation’s headquarters
to protest its use of child-labor in
another country. During his speech,
he tells the protestors to throw
rocks and bottles at the company’s
building.
3. An anti-government organization
hands out pamphlets at a local
festival. The literature states the
group’s mission is to change the
structure of American society, and
that its eventual goal is to overthrow
the government.
4. A small group of students, upset
about their school’s new dress code
policy, intentionally [on purpose]
wear clothes to the lunchroom
that violate it. They try to convince
passing students to join their cause,
and hand out a small pamphlet
explaining what they believe to be
the unfairness of the new school
policy.
5. Eventually, the students get angry
that no one’s paying attention to
them or their message. One of
the students calls a bomb threat
in to the school. He’s hoping the
students and staff in the cafeteria
will be forced to listen to them
while they’re all in lock-down.
6. A young man wears a jacket into
a courthouse. On the back of the
jacket is the phrase “[Bad word]
the Draft. Stop the War.” [A draft
is when the government forces
citizens to join the army, even
though they don’t want to.] He is
arrested for disturbing the peace
through offensive conduct.