...not involve prior restraint on free expression. Justice Holmes summed up his central idea as follows: "The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theater and causing panic."35 A deliberate falsification of facts, if it led to panic and endangered...

...though the clear and present danger test was soon altered, Holmes' statement that the First Amendment "would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre . . ." has stood as a common-sense measure of the limits to an individual's freedom of speech. After...

...According to Justice Holmes: the character of every act depends upon the circumstances in which it is done. The most stringent protection of free speech would...falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic . . . The question in every case is whether the words used are used in such circumstances and are of...