ABSTRACT
In the early and mid-1900s, the Supreme Court developed four tests for evaluating political speech: the bad tendency test, the clear and present danger test, and a pair of tests known as balancing tests. Applying the bad tendency test, developed in the early 1900s against the backdrop of World War I and the years that followed, speech could be restricted if there was any credible evidence that it could result in violent acts. The clear and present danger test was first applied in 1919 and was commonly applied in free speech cases up to and including the 1950s and 1960s, even though it was last successfully used to limit speech in 1951. Twenty-one years later, in the case of Texas v. Johnson, the Supreme Court made the opposite ruling regarding flag burning, determining that it is political speech rather than conduct.
