Communication Law and Ethics

• Common Law


  Decisions made by judges that set a precedent
• Equity Law


  Legal remedies in inflexible civil cases
• Statutory Law


  Enacted by legislative bodies and signed by the executive
• Constitutional Law


  Documents containing rules for society
• Administrative Law


  Rules and decisions of administrative agencies
• International Law


  Treaties between nations
• Contract Law


  Created between entities in contracts
• Jurisdiction Courts deal with the following


  Subject Matter

  Geography

  Types of People or Places
• Federal Courts


  Judges are appointed for life
• 94 U.S. District Courts


  Resolve disputes by determining the facts and applying legal principles to decide who is right
• 13 U.S. Courts of Appeals


  Hear appeals from the district courts in its circuit
• Supreme Court


  Court of last resort
• State Courts


  Most criminal and civil trials
• Trials


  Find facts and applies law
• Civil


  Complaint

  Response

  Discovery

  Hearings

  Motion
• Criminal


  Investigation

  Arrest

  Arraignment

  Complaint

  Probationary Hearing

  Grand Jury Indictment

  Hearings

  Motions

  Trial

  Sentencing
• Star Chamber


  Originally established to ensure the fair enforcement of laws against socially and politically prominent people sufficiently powerful that ordinary courts might hesitate to convict them of their crimes
• John Milton believed


  Printers should have free speech

  Printers should criticize the government
• 3 Levels of Hierarchy of Protected Speech


  Private Companies

  Advertising

  Political Speech
• Pope Alexander the 8th


  Tried licensing books to stop Martin Luther
• King Henry the 6th


  Banned books about Martin Luther
• Proclamation of 1538


  No unlicensed printing

  King controls all printing
• 5 Freedoms in First Amendment


  Religion

  Speech

  Press

  Assembly

  Petition
• Emerson's 6 Reasons


  More communication is affected

  Keeps information from public

  Has propensity toward adverse decisions

  Procedure favors the government

  Punishment afterwards provides public appraisal and criticism

  Prior restraint results in MORE censorship
• Premise


  Base an argument, theory, or understanding on
• Autonomy


  Being independent
• Temporary Restraining Order (TRO)


  Temporary ban on speech while courts figure things out
• New York Times v, United States (1971)


  Supreme Court said study CIA commissioned on Vietnam War and lessons learned could be published
• Near v. Minnesota (1931)


  Supreme Court ruled that prior restraint isn't part of the Constitution
• Indecency


  Something considered vulgar and/or offensive
• Pornography


  Sexually explicit expression
• Obscenity


  Illegal sexual material
• Miller v. California (1973) 3 part obscenity tests


  Prurient Interests

  Patently Offensive Sex

  Serious Value
• Stanley v. Georgia (1969)


  Supreme Court found that possession of obscenity isn't a crime due to the Castle Doctrine
• State and Federal Laws in Regards to Obscenity

  Prohibits the sale of explicit materials to minor and materials portraying juveniles in sexually explicit situations
• Variable Obscenity


  Government may prohibit distributing sexual material to children
• FCC v. Pacifica (1978)


  Supreme Court said that radio was more available to children than print
• Defamation


  Damaging the good reputation of someone
• Libel


  Written or print defamation
• Slander


  Spoken or gestured defamation