an attempt to prevent publication or broadcast of any statement, which is an unconstitutional
restraint on free speech and free press (even in the guise of an anti-nuisance ordinance).
Stemming from the First Amendment to the Constitution, the ban on prior restraint
allows publication of libel, slander, obvious untruths, anti-government diatribes,
racial and religious epithets, and almost any material, except if public security
or public safety is endangered (false claim of poison in the reservoir or exhortation
to commit a crime like a lynching) and some forms of pornography. The theory, articulated
by the U. S. Supreme Court in Near v. Minnesota (1931) is that free speech and free
press protections have priority, and lawsuits for libel and slander and prosecutions
for criminal advocacy will curb the effect of defamation and untruths. Most other
nations permit prior restraint by court order or police action when the material
appears to be defamatory (hurtful lies), salacious (nasty), or "improper, mischievous,
or illegal" (in the words of Sir William Blackstone).
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