Právněhistorické studie / Legal History Studies (Charles University journal; below referred to as PHS or Journal) is a scientific journal listed in the international prestigious database SCOPUS. The journal is published by Charles University in Prague under the guarantee of the Department of Legal History of the Faculty of Law of Charles University. It is published by the Karolinum Press. The journal focuses on the field of legal history and related topics.
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PRÁVNĚHISTORICKÉ STUDIE, Vol 55 No 3 (2025), 127–141
ArticleÚstavní úprava problematiky svobody politického projevu v USA v letech 1919–1969
[The Constitutional Treatment of the Issue of Free Political Speech in the United States, 1919–1969]
Radim Seltenreich
DOI: https://doi.org/10.14712/2464689X.2025.37
published online: 10. 12. 2025
abstract
In this article, the author deals with the subject of freedom of political expression in the USA in the period 1919–1969. He chooses this period because he believes that it was during these years, marked by the cases of Schenck v. USA and Brandenburg v. Ohio, that the U.S. Supreme Court laid the foundations for the modern constitutional treatment of this issue, on which it still rests. The author begins by recalling the historical roots of free speech in the United States, which can be traced back to colonial times. He then recounts the constitutional enshrinement of this freedom in the First Amendment to the US Constitution, in the Bill of Rights of 1791. His main interest, however, is in the period of the First World War, when the US Supreme Court first began to consider the possibility of restricting it. The author then takes us through the following period until the late 1960s, when he comes to the conclusion that such limitations can only be implemented by the least restrictive means.
keywords: freedom of speech; first amendment; clear and present danger; the overbreadth doctrine; the void for vagueness doctrine
references (10)
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Ústavní úprava problematiky svobody politického projevu v USA v letech 1919–1969 is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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ISSN: 0079-4929
E-ISSN: 2464-689X
