The 20th Century Freedom Of Expression And Its Principles Of Justice

The freedom of speech and its judicial test in America was a progressive process, which was put forward and developed and got gradually reasonable in the 20th century. Freedom of speech was not only a test of constructing country or a political principle, but also a basic right of the citizen .Preserving free speech was a guidance of founding country and the footstone of democratic politics.During North American colonial times, the colonial government of England severely restricted the freedom of speech in North America, especially the private newspapers because they opposed England government, so the problem of free speech happened. American people had not really the right of free speech in the 18th and 19th century. Speech lawsuit had not been appealed to the Supreme Court, and the judicial test also had not been put forward. The theories of free speech of John Milton and Thomas Jefferson were foundational for the judicial test of free speech which possessed the judicial liberalism was depended on their theories. Besides, they were also the significant driving force for the developing of free speech and its judicial test in America.In the late 19th century and the early 20th century, under the influence of the progressive movement, though the judicial liberalism appeared, judicial conservatism was dominate position in the Supreme Court because of widely using of the bad-tendency doctrine. The bad-tendency doctrine was official test before the Supreme Court put forward the native judicial test, so the freedom of speech was seriously limited. In the Schench lawsuit, Jr. Holmes put forward the clear-and-present danger test, which possessed the judicial liberalism. By comparison with the bad-tendency doctrine, the clear-and-present danger test was in favor of preserving the freedom of speech. In 1930s and 1940s, Stone Court (1941-1946) put the preferred-position test, which was fitter for the reality. Though it was not used in the judicial practice, it inherited and developed the judicial liberalism. Vinson Court (1946-1953) put AD Hoc Balancing Test into use and the freedom of speech was reduced due to the change of the political setup of the world, the spreading of the coldwar between America and the Soviet Union, and the prevailing of "the Red Menace".In the late half of the 20th century, especially Warren Court, judicial liberalism took up leading status. The actual malice test was put forward. Burger Court (1969-1986) also used the prohibiting prior limit test and the time-place-manner regulations. Among the three tests, the actual malice test widened the freedom of political speech of the citizen and the presses, whose speeches of criticizing government were preserved by the law. The law preserved their criticizing government. The prohibiting prior limit test restricted the government privilege, which was the government had no power to limit the right of speech before they were expressed. The time-place-manner regulations reasonably confined the speech in the time, place and manner in order to preserve the benefits of the whole society. The above mentioned tests which were used in the judicial reality showed that the Supreme Court could comparatively protect the basic right of free speech.Freedom of speech and its judicial test embodied the historical progress in the developing process, and it inspired our country construction in the law system. Along with the progress of history, the Supreme Court put forward different judicial tests about free speech. These tests which were put forward and set up early or late took on the tendency from rigorously controlling the freedom of speech to comparatively respecting the right, which helped to preserve the freedom of speech and strengthened the press' supervision over the government and gave an impetus to the whole society.