Mass Media Law Study Guide Chapter 1 1 Law A set of rules that attempt to guide human conduct A set of formal governmental sanctions are applied when those rules are violated Five Sources of Law o Common Law o Equity Law o Statutory Law o Constitutional Law o Executive orders and administrative rules 2 Common law discovered law or judge made law Principles and rules of law that derive their authority not from legislation but from community usage and custom Judges should look to the past to follow court precedents o Stare decisis is the key phrase Let the decision stand Oldest source of law o Developed in England to distinguish itself from church law o Uses an Inductive system a Legal standards are arrived at after consideration of many cases involving similar facts Deals with resolving issues involving individual grievances and o an established rule of the law set by a previous case 4 Rules when setting precedents concerns Precedent o Accept Follow o Modify Update o Distinguish o Overrule a A situational difference between the facts of the current case and that of the precedent a When the U S Supreme Court establishes a precedent it may only be overruled by the U S supreme Court b Courts overrule precedents when there are changes in i ii iii Factual knowledge and circumstances Social mores and values Judges justices on the court Hunch theory o a judge decides a case based on gut feeling of what is right and wrong and then seeks out precedents to support the decision Invasion of privacy o A civil tort that emerged in the early 20th century and contains four distinct categories of legal wrongs a appropriation b intrusion c publication of private facts d false light Case reporter a book containing a chronological collection of the opinions rendered by a particular court for cases that were decided by the court precedents o Each case collected has an individual Citation a identification number which reflects the name of the reporter in which the case can be found the volume of that reporter the page on which the case begins and the year the opinion was rendered o EX 385 U S 39 1966 a 385 Volume of the United States Report b 39 The page on which the case appears c 1966 The year in which the case was decided 3 Equity Law judge made law in which courts are empowered to decide cases on the basis of equity or fairness and are not bound by the rigid precedents that often exist in common law Rulings in the form of judicial decrees to restrain an individual corporation or government from taking an action o Can be preventive or remedial a Preventative prohibiting a party from engaging in potential behavior it is considering b Remedial compelling a party to stop doing something it is currently doing o Injunction temporary restraint o Preliminary injunction immediate restraint o Permanent injunction severe punishment 4 Statutory law created by elected legislative bodies at the local state and federal levels Statue laws adopted by legislative bodies at the local state and federal levels Statutory construction the process undertaken by courts to interpret or construe the meaning of statues o Consider the legislative intent of a statute to determine its meaning There are two primary ways to argue that a statue violates the First Amendment right of free speech 1 attacking problems with its wording terms and language 2 attacking problems with its actual application to a particular factual scenario 5 Constitutional Law The supreme law of the land Constitution A written outline of the organization that provides for both the rights and responsibilities of various branches of the government and the limits of the government o Federal constitutions can be amended by a 2 3 vote of the members both the U S House of Representatives and the Senate b or 2 3 of the the state legislature can call for a constitutional convention o There are 27 amendments a 1 10 are the bill of rights which guarantee basic human b A direct restriction on speech or press is protected by rights to all citizens the first amendment o State constitutions can give more rights to citizens than provided by the U S constitution a can t reduce rights given by the federal constitution o State constitutions can be changed or approved by a direct o Supreme court is the only mandatory court under the vote of the people constitution A statue might be declared unconstitutional if it violates o overbreadth docterine Prohibits the government from banning unprotected speech if a substantial amount protected speech is prohibited or chilled in the same process o void for vagueness doctrine a law will be declared unconstitutional and struck down if a person of reasonable and ordinary intelligence would not be able to tell what speech is allowed and what speech is prohibited a Problematic because i ii Do not provide fair notice of what speech is permitted Can be enforced unfairly and discrimnatroily because they give too much discretion due to vague terms to those who enforce them police and judges 6 Executive Orders Final source of American Law has two main streams Executive Orders Orders issued by elected officers of government presidents governors mayors Administrative rules rules generated by the administrative agencies of government at the federals state and local levels boards and commissions in the nation that produce rules and regulations Administrative agency An agency created and funded by Congress whose members are appointed by the president with the purpose of administering specific legislation o All regulations pertaining to advertising and broadcasting fall under administrative law a EX FTC and FCC appealed o Their tasks are narrowly defined and their rulings can always be o Courts have limited power to review decisions by administrative agencies and can overturn ruling if 1 the original act that established the agency is unconstitutional 2 Agency exceeds its authority 3 Agency violates its own rules 4 there is no evidentiary basis whatsoever to support the ruling o Reasoning behind these limitations a agencies were created to bring expert knowledge to bear on complex problems b their entire purporse for creation would be defeated if judges with no special expertise in a given area could reverse an agency ruling mearley because they had a differnet solution to a problem 7 The Judicial System The branch of America s three part government in which most of the battles involving communications law are fought 52 different judicial systems in
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