What Is Symbolic Speech Definition and Examples

Symbolic speech is a type of nonverbal communication that takes the form of an action in order to communicate a specific belief. Symbolic speech is protected under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, but there are some caveats. Under the First Amendment, â€Å"Congress shall make no law†¦ prohibiting free speech. The Supreme Court has maintained that symbolic speech is included within â€Å"free speech,† but it may be regulated, unlike traditional forms of speech. Requirements for regulations were laid out in the Supreme Court decision, United States v. O’Brien. Key Takeaways: Symbolic Speech Symbolic speech is the communication of a belief without the use of words.Symbolic speech is protected under the First Amendment, but may be regulated by the government in some situations. Symbolic Speech Examples Symbolic speech has a wide variety of forms and uses. If an action makes a political statement without the use of words, it falls under symbolic speech. Some of the most common examples of symbolic speech are: Wearing armbands/clothingSilently protestingFlag burningMarchingNudity OBrien Test In 1968, United States v. O’Brien redefined symbolic speech. On March 31, 1966, a crowd gathered outside the South Boston Courthouse. David O’Brien climbed the steps, pulled out his draft card, and set it on fire. FBI agents who observed the event from the back of the crowd took O’Brien into the courthouse and arrested him. O’Brien argued that he knew he had broken federal law, but that the act of burning the card was a way for him to oppose the draft and share his anti-war beliefs with the crowd. The case eventually made its way to the Supreme Court, where the justices had to decide if the federal law, which prohibited burning the card, infringed on OBriens First Amendment right to freedom of speech. In a 7-1 decision delivered by Chief Justice Earl Warren, the court found that symbolic speech, such as burning a draft card, may be regulated if the regulation followed a four-prong test: It is within the constitutional power of the Government;It furthers an important or substantial governmental interest;The governmental interest is unrelated to the suppression of free expression;The incidental restriction on alleged First Amendment freedoms is no greater than is essential to the furtherance of that interest. Symbolic Speech Cases The following examples of symbolic speech cases further refined U.S. federal policy on speech. Stromberg v. California (1931) In 1931, the California Penal Code banned public displays of red flags, badges, or banners in opposition to the government. The penal code was broken into three parts. Displaying a red flag was prohibited: As a sign, symbol, or emblem of opposition to organized government;As an invitation or stimulus to anarchistic action;As an aid to propaganda that is of a seditious character. Yetta Stromberg was convicted under this code for displaying a red flag at a camp in San Bernardino which had received funding from Communist Organizations. Strombergs case was eventually heard at the Supreme Court. The Court ruled that the first part of the code was unconstitutional because it violated Stromberg’s first amendment right to free speech. The second and third parts of the code were upheld because the state had a countervailing interest in prohibiting acts that incited violence. Stromberg v. California was the first case to include symbolic speech or expressive conduct under First Amendment protections for freedom of speech. Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (1969) In Tinker v. Des Moines, the Supreme Court addressed whether wearing armbands in protest was protected under the First Amendment. Several students had chosen to protest the Vietnam War by wearing black armbands to school. The court held that the school could not restrict the students speech simply because the students were on the schools property. Speech could only be restricted if it materially and substantially interfered with school activities. Armbands were a form of symbolic speech that did not meaningfully interfere with school activities. The court ruled that the school violated the students freedom of speech when they confiscated the bands and sent the students home. Cohen v. California  (1972)   On April 26, 1968, Paul Robert Cohen walked into the Los Angeles Courthouse. As he moved down a corridor, his jacket, which prominently read â€Å"f*ck the draft† caught the attention of officers. Cohen was promptly arrested on the basis that he’d violated California Penal Code 415, which prohibited, â€Å"maliciously and willfully disturb[ing] the peace or quiet of any neighborhood or person . . . by . . . offensive conduct.† Cohen maintained that the goal of the jacket was to depict his feelings about the Vietnam War. The Supreme Court ruled that California could not criminalize speech on the basis that it was â€Å"offensive. The state has an interest in ensuring that speech does not compel violence. However, Cohen’s jacket was a symbolic representation that did little to inspire physical violence as he walked through the corridor. Cohen v. California upheld the idea that a state must prove that symbolic speech is intended to incite violence in order to prohibit it. The case drew upon Tinker v. Des Moines to show that fear itself cannot provide a reason to violate someone’s First and Fourteenth Amendment rights.   Texas v. Johnson  (1989), U.S. v. Haggerty (1990), U.S. v. Eichman  (1990) Only a year apart, all three of these cases asked the Supreme Court to determine whether the government could prohibit their citizens from burning the American flag. In all three cases, the court held that burning the American flag during the course of a protest was symbolic speech and was therefore protected under the First Amendment. Similar to their holding in Cohen, the Court found that the offensiveness of the act did not offer the state a legitimate reason to prohibit it. U.S. v. Eichman, argued in conjunction with U.S. v. Haggerty, was a response to Congress passage of the Flag Protection Act in 1989. In Eichman, the Court focused on the specific language of the act. It allowed for the disposal of flags through a ceremony but not the burning of flags through political protest. This meant that the state sought to only prohibit the content of certain forms of expression. Sources United States v. OBrien, 391 U.S. 367 (1968).Cohen v. California, 403 U.S. 15 (1971).United States v. Eichman, 496 U.S. 310 (1990).Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397 (1989).Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, 393 U.S. 503 (1969).Stromberg v. California, 283 U.S. 359 (1931).

Interviews on Human Development Through Three Generations

The research project given in psychology class was to pick a topic and interview three generations on the subject of my choice. In this paper I will talk about the following; each person I interviewed, their responses to the questions, the difficulties I faced, the stages of development each generation is experiencing, relating each generation to a theory, compare the similarities and differences each generation is experiencing in their stage of development, and what I learned from this experience. The topic I explored for each generation was music. Music can be a emotional experience, bring out feeling that we may be experiencing at that time, bring people together, and memories of the past. The three generations I picked to interview was an adolescence, early adulthood, and middle adulthood. The interview process started with the youngest age group and ended with the eldest age of the group. I had a series of interview questions and based on the age groups all the questions were the same for each generation. The following research questions were asked to all three generations: 1. What kind of music did you listen to when you were younger and has your music style changed over the years? 2. How did you buy your music and where? 3. What kind of device did you listen to your music on? 4. Does your mood determine the kind of music you listen too? Give me an example. 5. Did your parents approve of the kind of music you listened too? Why or why not? 6. How hasShow MoreRelatedErik Erikson s Theory Of Human Development Essay1750 Words   |  7 PagesIntroduction The eight stages of Erik Erikson’s psychosocial theory of human development is a theory which describes different stages of a person’s life and the challenges which they must overcome in that specific stage (Arnett, 2016). 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Film Prioritization Case Analysis Essay Example For Students

Film Prioritization Case Analysis Essay Film Prioritization Case Analysis The film division of a large entertainment conglomerate must determine which film projects meet the company’s objectives and assign them priority. Seven films are weighed against three â€Å"must† objectives and seven â€Å"want† objectives by top management. Only four to six films are produced a year by this film division. It is important then for the top leadership to select only the film projects that have a solid return on investment and maintain the highest standards in the industry. The seven film proposals are: My Life with Dalai Lama, Heidi, The Year of the Echo, Escape from Rio Japuni, Nadia, Keiko – One Whale of a Story, and Grand Island. My Life with the Dalai Lama is prioritized last because overall it would be a poor investment. A cute popular children’s book doesn’t always spell success in a film. The initial return on investment is low and the probability of it doing well in a theater setting is minimal. It could be released as a DVD with coinciding stuffed animals and small play figurines. The film is about one of the great teachers of Buddhism and this would unfortunately discourage other religious sects from allowing their children to watch this educational film. This film could do well in an IMAX setting and could be billed as an educational family event. Heidi is ranked number two for several reasons. Initially there would not be a real strong showing at the box-office. It is a family film and would have a strong appeal to girls and older women (enjoyed the story of Heidi when they were young). It will do well when released as a DVD and has strong marketing possibilities. Dolls, accessories, jewelry, clothing, and backpacks are some of the items that would sell well. With an all-star cast, there is always a huge push for these kinds of films come Oscar time

Myths of Aincent Greece Essay Example For Students

Myths of Aincent Greece Essay Five Guidelines for Our OrganizingThere is a very positive development happening in the anti-war movement. That is, people are actively trying to connect the war abroad with the struggles for power, resources, and freedom right here in our own neighborhoods. In the Boston area, members of United for Justice with Peace, local activists working to stop the state budget cuts, and progressive city councilors are holding informal meetings to develop strategies for how we can work together in order to mutually benefit and enlarge each others efforts. Neighborhood-based peace groups are forging institutional links with grassroots tenant and immigrant organizations. Our most recent major peace rally featured labor, youth, and representatives from organizations doing a range of peace and justice work. The relationships and institutional ties that grow out of these efforts are nothing less than the beginnings of a broad-based movement for social change. These efforts are critical to our ability to end not just this war but to dismantle the institutions that give rise to wars, and that simultaneously work on multiple levels to concentrate power and wealth in the hands of a few. Speaking from my experience working on the neighborhood and regional levels to connect the many different pockets of activism, I offer the following five proposals that I think could usefully guide our activism at this moment. 1. Build neighborhood based groups. In the Boston area, United for Justice with Peace (www.justicewithpeace.org) has put considerable energy into starting and supporting neighborhood-based peace and justice groups. These groups have been critical to UJPs growth. They are the entry point for many newly mobilized activists who might be less likely to venture into a big downtown meeting of seasoned activists. Meetings are local and include familiar faces. Events, vigils, and forums present opportunities to communicate with people you know, people you live next to, people whose kids go to school with your kids. After 9-11, when UJP first took shape, there were maybe a dozen community based groups working in Boston-area neighborhoods. Representatives from these groups have been meeting once a month for the past year and a half. We have sponsored skills-building conferences, organized workshops, and visited each others meetings to share resources and organizing strategies. There are now over 50 groups each of which is actively engaged in building their ranks, disseminating information, and forging coalitions all on a grassroots level. Because of the war, the number of groups is increasing dramatically and the number of people in each group is doing the same. Because of the early efforts on the part of UJP to support the development of community groups, the infrastructure is in place for more and more groups to form and to have a larger network to link with. I think it is a fair guess that such work would be impossible if it were attempted by a centralized Boston-based organization. Working on a local level, each group has the opportunity to explore relationships with other neighborhood-based organizations. A few examples: In Jamaica Plain, the peace and justice group has worked with City Life (a grassroots tenant and immigrant organization) on their fundraising/neighborhood-clean-up campaign and on their youth march against militarism. In Somerville, peace activists have set up dialogs with the immigrant community in order to better understand how the war on terrorism is affecting their civil liberties. In Dorchester, peace activists have initiated a survey of community agencies to find out how they are being affected by budget cuts. Rather than recruiting people engaged in domestic struggles away from their work and into the peace movement, these peace groups have instead found ways to support those working on the domestic front. In the process, they have learned a thing or two about the challenges their neighbors face. .u09435f1acb227f77db258ef75f9652bf , .u09435f1acb227f77db258ef75f9652bf .postImageUrl , .u09435f1acb227f77db258ef75f9652bf .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u09435f1acb227f77db258ef75f9652bf , .u09435f1acb227f77db258ef75f9652bf:hover , .u09435f1acb227f77db258ef75f9652bf:visited , .u09435f1acb227f77db258ef75f9652bf:active { border:0!important; } .u09435f1acb227f77db258ef75f9652bf .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u09435f1acb227f77db258ef75f9652bf { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u09435f1acb227f77db258ef75f9652bf:active , .u09435f1acb227f77db258ef75f9652bf:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u09435f1acb227f77db258ef75f9652bf .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u09435f1acb227f77db258ef75f9652bf .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u09435f1acb227f77db258ef75f9652bf .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u09435f1acb227f77db258ef75f9652bf .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u09435f1acb227f77db258ef75f9652bf:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u09435f1acb227f77db258ef75f9652bf .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u09435f1acb227f77db258ef75f9652bf .u09435f1acb227f77db258ef75f9652bf-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u09435f1acb227f77db258ef75f9652bf:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: dylexias EssayNot only that, they have found passionate anti-war sentiment among working people and people of color an eye-opener for those who may have thought that the anti-war demographic is disproportionately white and privileged. Contrary to what you often hear, people fighting evictions would also like to be mobilizing to fight the war. But they cant add that organizational work to their already over-taxed agendas. A neighborhood group that is organizing against the war and that has built a relationship with the eviction-fighters is a welcome addition to the community. It helps capture the growing anti-war energy; it provides channels for the community to express it s anti-war sentiments. And it does all this by contributing to the mix of available activist outlets. Supporting decentralized, neighborhood-based organizing helps give people a political home, a way for their voice to be heard, a comfortable way for them to have an impact, important lessons in organizing, and a chance to create alliances with and build understanding among diverse neighborhood-based groups