Throughout the history of the United States of America, the Constitution has always been put to the test. The first amendment guarantees freedom of speech and the press. The founders of this great country originally created the first amendment to enable colonists to speak out against the British. The press in the 17th century was accurate and informative with little competition among journalists. But today in the 20th century the circumstances are different and the stakes are higher. Due to incredibly high amount of competition among journalists today, the information is usually exaggerated and slanderous in order to capture a viewing audience.

Some people believe that does not apply to students in public schools. According to the American Bar Association, "Students in public school have the right to free speech and expression, so long as the exercise of those rights would not materially and substantially disrupt the work and discipline of the school." There have also been many court cases that have dealt with censorship. In 1964, the case of The New York Times v. Sullivan found that the press is not censurable and it even cannot be sued for allegedly libelous statements unless deliberate malice is proved. In the Supreme Court case of Roth v. U.S. and Alberts v. California, Judge William Brennan stated that, "obscenity is not within the area of constitutionally protected speech because it is utterly without redeeming social importance, however sex and obscenity are not synonymous and the portrayal of sex is entitled to constitutional protection as long as it is not obscene" (Abraham). These court cases have shown that censorship is unconstitutional and hopefully there will be no more laws that condone it.

Throughout history, figures that don't have the real power to censor resort to personal pressure tactics to intimidate those who have influence over, or in command of, channels of communication. The McCarthy era during the 1940's and 1950's is a compelling example of this. During this time there was blacklisting of controversial literary figures as well as performing artists, thus blocking their employment in certain media such as movies, radio, and television. By doing this they accomplished the task of preventing the public from seeing what they considered to be objectionable material (Dubin 27). There are many rationalizations that are used by people that promote censorship. The first rationalization is that ideas presented or about to be presented are "false" and/or "dangerous" by the standards of the authorities and so they must be suppressed or punished. The second is that the minds of those who would be subjected to the ideas to be censored are not capable of seeing the "falsity" and would hence be led astray. Lastly, ideas that lead to "anti-social behavior" such, as hardcore pornography must be censored (Abraham 360). For as many people that use these rationalizations, there is as many that do not. Wherever there is suppression of thoughts or ideas, whether it is in written form or spoken, there will always be people who oppose it. The reasons for protesting censorship are wide and abundant but the most substantial reason is that our constitution specifically forbids it. Anti-censorship activists feel that each individual should have the right to see, and not to see whatever they want, and that there should be no governmental involvement. Matt Lewis sums up their feelings when he said, "Censorship is ultimately a prohibition against information. As time and history have and will repeatedly tell, does not work. How are we to learn form out mistakes if we never know we made them"(Corner 4)? The most common way that information is censored is with books.

Authors also censor themselves, weeding out curse words and steering away from difficult areas, regardless of feelings that such omissions affect the credibi

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Approximate Word count = 2173
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)