Freedom of Expression/Legal Codification/US exceptions
Are there any exceptions in American law to this right?
Several Supreme Court cases have placed restrictions on the right to free expression, creating exceptions to the First Amendment. For example, in Schenk v. United States, the Supreme Court ruled that free expression is not constitutionally protected when it will “create a clear and present danger that they will bring about substantive evils that the government has a right to protect.” The qualifications for limiting dangerous speech were later established by Brandenburg v. Ohio, which ruled speech could be prohibited if it was "directed at inciting or producing imminent lawless action" or was “likely to incite or produce such action.”
Additionally, there is a legal exception for “fighting words”, in that words that “would likely make the person to whom they are addressed commit an act of violence” are not shielded by the First Amendment. This was decided by the Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire decision, where the court upheld that it was illegal for Walter Chaplinsky to call a police officer “a damned Fascist.”
Another exception to the First Amendment is obscene language. In Miller v. California, the court clarified what qualifies as obscene language, which was described as speech that “To the average person, applying contemporary community standards, appeal to the prurient interest; Depict or describe, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct, as specifically defined by the applicable state law, and taken as a whole, lack any serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.” Therefore, expression that falls under these standards may be regulated.
Defamation, “a statement that injures a third party’s reputation” (Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School), is an additional exception to freedom of expression in the United States. The standards for defamation were established in New York Times Company v. Sullivan, which claimed that in order to sue a news outlet for defamation, one must have proof that the outlet was aware of their false claims prior to publishing.
Lastly, commercial speech may be regulated in order to protect consumers. Furthermore, the standards for commercial speech regulation were created by Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corporation v. Public Service Commission of New York, which created a four part test for determining whether or not the government could limit commercial speech. According to the court, commercial speech is may be regulated only if,
speech must concern lawful activity and not be misleading; 2. the asserted governmental interest must be substantial. If the first two parts are established, then it must also be determined that: 3. the regulation directly advances the governmental interest asserted; and 4. the regulation is not more extensive than is necessary to serve that interest.
Ultimately, demonstrated by these numerous cases, although the United States Constitution upholds freedom of expression, there are various exceptions to the First Amendment.