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FAQs >
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Can a city impose a permit fee on citizens for posting political yard signs?
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Can a city prohibit political signs but allow commercial signs, such as 'for sale' signs?
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Can the government impose a 10-minute time limit on speakers during a 'public comment' period?
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Probably. A 10-minute limitation likely would qualify as a reasonable time,
place and manner restriction on speech. It is a content-neutral provision that
on its face does not discriminate against certain types of speech. The question
would be whether the government was applying the time limitation evenhandedly.
If the government imposed the limitations on speakers with whose views it
disagreed, but waived the requirement for those with whom it agreed, there would
be a constitutional problem. For example, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held in 1994 that the president of a school board was allowed to restrict the amount of time given for comments because of high attendance at a particular meeting. The court held that the school board’s policy at this meeting, which limited the public comment session to 45 minutes and each speaker to five minutes, “was a permissible content-neutral restriction on the time, manner, and place of the plaintiffs’ speech and did not violate the plaintiffs’ First Amendment rights. Where regulation of speech is content neutral, is narrowly tailored to serve a significant governmental interest, and leaves open ample alternative avenues for communication, it is constitutionally valid. … [I]n this case, the regulation affected the timing of the speech, not its content.” Hansen v. Westerville City School District Board of Education, 1994 U.S. App. LEXIS 31576.
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Can neighborhood, homeowners’ and condo associations restrict residents in displaying signs, flags, decorations, etc., outside their dwellings?
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At a public meeting, can officials limit a person’s speech because he or she has spoken at previous meetings?
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Could officials limit each speaker to one topic per meeting?
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Could officials bar speakers from criticizing the government?
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Have courts addressed whether clapping at public meetings is protected by the First Amendment?
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May I place fliers on car windshields in a shopping-mall parking lot?
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Are city councils and similar public bodies required to have periods for public comment at meetings?
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May I place leaflets on a windshield if the car is parked along a public street?
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May I hand out leaflets to passersby on a public sidewalk?
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What is a true threat?
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How have the lower courts handled the question of true threats?
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Is it constitutional to have a separate law covering threats against the U.S. president?
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How is the true-threats doctrine applied to student speech?
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What constitutes 'imminent lawless action'?
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Can military personnel attend anti-war protests?
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Are members of the military allowed to participate in a campaign for a political candidate?
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Can the military prevent the press from covering a war?
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Are military personnel allowed to write letters to elected officials or to the editor of a newspaper?
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Can military personnel collect names on a petition to send to elected officials?
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FAQs about public employee speech
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What is the difference between a vanity plate and a specialty license plate?
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For First Amendment purposes are license plates private speech or government speech?
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Can the government prohibit racially insensitive license plates?
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What is the definition of fighting words?
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Does this mean that all profanity constitutes fighting words?
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Why is the subject of fighting words so important?
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Why are bumper stickers considered a form of speech?
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Are bumper stickers with profanity protected under the First Amendment?
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Does it matter if a bumper sticker is displayed at a public employee's workplace, or on public school grounds?
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What are cabaret laws?
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Why is social dancing not protected by the First Amendment?
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I've been told you can't mention or even joke about weapons or bombs in an airport or on a plane. Does that rule violate the First Amendment?
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Is it unlawful to wear clothing bearing words such as 'police' or 'sheriff'?
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Does the First Amendment protect the right to wear a T-shirt that reads “Kill A Cop”?
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