From Deep Throat to Bong Hits 4 Jesus

Questions

1. What type of speech were the Framers thinking about when they wrote the First Amendment?
2. Why are "fighting words" not protected by the First Amendment?
3. How has the court generally dealt with First Amendment cases dealing with obscenity?
4. What is the main issue with defining free speech for students?
5. What do people mean by the "original meaning" of the Constitution?

Answers

1. They were almost certainly thinking about political speech—which is why the courts put it in a special category.
2. Because they're non-political words which are "likely to provoke the average person to retaliation"—in other words, the person who said them is asking for it.
3. While obscenity does not receive full protection under the First Amendment, it protects other forms of expression, and the rulings on obscene material generally tend to define the different forms of protected expression.
4. The courts have to wrestle with whether students are citizens or children: whether being in an educational framework trumps the Constitution
5. The "original meaning" of the Constitution is what the Framers had in mind when they wrote it. It is not necessarily obvious, or helpful.