2 ms·
First amendment cases concerning private individuals aren't as common anymore because it's largely settled law. Welcome to America, you have nearly-unlimited fr
by marcoperaza 12y ago
First amendment cases concerning private individuals aren't as common anymore because it's largely settled law. Welcome to America, you have nearly-unlimited freedom of speech. People don't get arrested for political opinions, or for posting racist tweets (unlike Europe), or for saying something hateful things in public (unlike Europe), or for publicly supporting Al Qaeda or ISIS, or for wearing a swastika and having a Nazi march through a town inhabited by aging Holocaust survivors (see Skokie). In fact, if a CIA agent walked up to you and gave you thousands of seriously embarrassing classified documents, he'd go to jail for a long time but it would be almost impossible for the government to get a court order stopping you or punishing you for publishing. Every so often, some local cops overstep their authority and the district courts take care of it. The Supreme Court is interested in clarifying existing law, resolving circuit splits, and deciding landmark cases, not in deciding the same issue repeatedly.
If you say hateful or stupid things, your punishment is that people won't like you. Amazingly, it works.