United States v. O’Brien

Paper 2—Free Speech

In 3 typed, double-spaced pages, please respond to the following topic. The paper is due in the dropbox by April 22.

In United States v. O’Brien, the Court tries to make a distinction between speech and actions that can be separated from the speech and hold important public purposes. How does the Court justify that distinction in its opinion? (hint: you must read the opinion.) Is the distinction helpful? Did the Court make a mistake by not protecting actions that are clearly meant to be speech (performative, expressive)? Provide a defense or a critique of Court’s decision.