The First Amendment protects American people from government censorship. But the First Amendment’s protections are not absolute, leading to Supreme Court cases involving the question of what is protected speech and what is not. When the government engages in censorship, First Amendment freedoms are implicated.

The right to protest may be a manifestation of the right to freedom of assembly, the right to freedom of association, and the right to freedom of speech. Protesting, however, is not necessarily violent or a threat to the interests of national security or public safety.

“Free Speech Zone” at UNLV? There is no “free speech zone” or designated space that limits where expression can take place on UNLV’s campuses. However, the university retains the discretion in regulating time, place and manner for such activities.

Canada. In Canada, advocating genocide against any “identifiable group” is an indictable offence under the Criminal Code and it carries a maximum sentence of five years’ imprisonment. There is no minimum sentence. Publicly inciting hatred against any identifiable group is also an offence.

In the context of this document, the term hate speech is understood as any kind of communication in speech, writing or behaviour, that attacks or uses pejorative or discriminatory language with reference to a person or a group on the basis of who they are, in other words, based on their religion, ethnicity, nationality …

1937

The highest law in our land is the U.S. Constitution, which has some amendments, known as the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights guarantees that the government can never deprive people in the U.S. of certain fundamental rights including the right to freedom of religion and to free speech and the due process of law.

The Court generally identifies these categories as obscenity, defamation, fraud, incitement, fighting words, true threats, speech integral to criminal conduct, and child pornography. The contours of these categories have changed over time, with many having been significantly narrowed by the Court.

To be sure, free speech is an immutable right protected by the First Amendment, which provides that “Congress shall make no law… The First Amendment does not prohibit private individuals, companies and employers from restricting speech.

Private universities are not directly bound by the First Amendment, which limits only government action. However, the vast majority of private universities have traditionally viewed themselves—and sold themselves—as bastions of free thought and expression.

Federal Election Commission (2010): Buckley ruled that political spending is protected by the First Amendment right to free speech, while Citizens United ruled that corporate political spending is protected, holding that corporations have a First Amendment right to free speech because they are “associations of citizens …

No, the First Amendment does not limit private employers. The Bill of Rights — and the First Amendment — limit only government actors, not private actors. This means that private employers can restrict employee speech in the workplace without running afoul of the First Amendment.

—The Fourteenth Amendment, by its terms, limits discrimination only by governmental entities, not by private parties.

Certain powerful private entities—particularly social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and others—can limit, control, and censor speech as much or more than governmental entities.

The First Amendment only protects your speech from government censorship. It applies to federal, state, and local government actors. This is a broad category that includes not only lawmakers and elected officials, but also public schools and universities, courts, and police officers.