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Definition:
The "bad tendency" doctrine is a way of interpreting the First Amendment that allows governments to infringe upon freedom of speech even though the amendment specifically forbids that. According to the idea of "bad tendency," the government should have the ability to restrict certain speech if it can establish that that speech will have a tendency to cause or incite illegal activities. This doctrine derives from English common law and has been criticized on this basis - namely, that it comes from a time before the First Amendment and so cannot be reconciled with it, but most courts have ignored this complaint.
As an example of the bad tendency test, one can simply look at the 1907 case of Patterson v. Colorado. In his decision, Oliver Wendell Holmes argued that a newspaper could be prosecuted even for printing the truth about a pending judicial case if it "tends to obstruct the administration of justice."
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Related Resources:
What are Political and Legal Philosophy
The Philosophy of Politics and the Philosophy of Law are often studied separately, but they are presented here jointly because they both come back to the same thing: the study of force. Politics is the study of political force in the general community, while jurisprudence is the study of how laws can and should be used to achieve political and social goals.
What is Philosophy?
What is philosophy? Is there any point in studying philosophy, or is it a useless subject? What are the different branches of philosophy - what's the difference between aestheitcs and ethics? What's the difference between metaphysics and epistemology?
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