Civil Liberties Test

When the freedoms and protections collide in there can be a misunderstanding of the rights because they change under certain circumstances. We can look at several Supreme Court cases and see what happens when these two collide. In the case of Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier the principal of the school found two articles in the school paper inappropriate so he removed them from the paper. The students argued that this violated their freedom of press and the 1st amendment. When the case went to court it was found that the principal did not violate the 1st amendment because schools are not required to affirmatively provide particular types of speech in schools and the schools are suppose to act in the best interest of the students and protect them. However when you look at the case of Near v. Minnesota the results of the decision differ from the Hazelwood case. A publishing company wanted to print stories about local officials who were caught up in bad politics so the officials wanted it stopped so under Minnesota state law they stopped the article from being printed. The publishing company said it violated their freedom of press. When the case was brought to the Supreme Court they ruled the state law was unconstitutional and the government could not censor publication in advance. This case differs from freedom of press in schools. The government cannot stop publication to protect people from stories but in schools they can review publications before they go out to protect their students. Another place where freedoms and protections also collide is with the 4th amendment. The rules for search and seizure depend on the situation and who is involved. In the case of Mapp v. Ohio, Mapp is convicted of possessing obscene materials after an illegal police search of her home. The conviction was thrown out because all evidence obtained through an illegal search was inadmissible in a state court. In this case Mapp was allowed her freedoms because her house was illegally searched therefore none of the evidence could be used. Another case dealing with the 4th amendment and search and seizure is the New Jersey v. T.L.O. A girl got smoking in the bathroom of her school so her purse was searched and they found marijuana in her bag. This case did not violate the fourth amendment because less strict rules are applied in schools for search and seizure because the schools are allowed to act in the best interest of their students and protect them before they get their freedoms. Then in the case of Miranda v. Arizona, the police failed to notify the people they were interrogating their right to counsel. This violated the 5th amendment of every citizen’s right to counsel. The courts could not use statements from interrogations unless safeguards were used to allow the privilege against self discrimination. Miranda’s freedoms were allowed here to protect himself from self incrimination. Freedoms tend to win when it comes to adults. The government cannot prevent the freedom of press to defend a group of individuals from a true story being released about them, however in a school the principal or administration can limit their freedom of press to protect the students. In schools protections tend to be important then freedoms because the school acts as the student’s parents when they are there and must act to protect the student’s best interests. Freedoms collide with protections and will continue to because there are different circumstances in which freedoms are protected over the protection of individuals.