United States V. O'Brien

[I didnt get the highest grade in this- too biast]

United States v. O'Brien

Situation

In 1966 the Vietnam war was causing protests at an all time high. Among many other drastic protest's, a popular one was for young men to burn their draft card. In 1965 an amendment to the selective service act was put into affect. The amendment made it illegal to "knowingly destroy" or "knowingly mutilate" your draft card, around the same time this form of protest was popular. In 1966, in front of a Bostonian courthouse, David O'Brien and four other men gathered in front of a partially angry crowd, and burned their draft cards. Some members of the ground became violent towards the men, and several FBI agents who were part of the crowd ushered them inside of the courthouse, where they were given the Miranda warning* and placed under arrest. O'Brien proudly confessed to the crime, producing his charred draft card. In the trials of the district court of Massachusetts, he insisted on representing himself, appealing to the courts that the amendment to the Selective Service act was unconstitutional. His case failed in the district court and as a youth offender, he was given to the attorney general for supervision and treatment. O'Brien did not accept defeat, and appealed to the supreme court. They agreed to hear his case, and O'Brien v. U.S. began in January '68.

Constitutional Issue

The issue is that by adding the amendment to the Selective Service act they were restricting the use of the first amendment. In May of 1968, the court gave it's holding. They found that the amendment to the Selective Service act did not violate the first amendment, because the limitation of speech was coincidental. Those protesters would argue that it wasn't conincedental, that it was trying to deliberetely limit freedom of speech to keep that blind patriatism strong. Afterwards though, the began to put into effect what is known as the O'Brien test. The O'Brien test is simply whether the law being challenged as unconstitutional in fact limits the freedom of speech(Even though this seems like something they were already doing).

[This part was a requirement from the teacher, and should be ommitted unless you are asked to give your opinion from the 1st person as a judge]

My Opinion

This court found that the amendment to the Selective service act did not violate the first amendment. I highly disagree with my fellow judges ruling. In my opinion the amendment to the Selective Service act was put into effect to simply punish those protesters who choose to do so, which there were only a handful of. Probably the strongest evidence