Continuing with a political theme due to our recent elections, the highlight this week is an anti-cartoonist law that was signed in 1903 by Pennsylvania Governor, and former President of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Samuel Pennypacker. The law stated that politicians could not be depicted in a non-human form. Naturally, many cartoonists got their revenge through several very un-flattering images of Governor Pennypacker; three are shown below.

After Pennypacker left office in 1907 the bill was repealed. Pennypacker expressed that journalists were only interested in sensational headlines and libelous statements while journalists said the law was against our first amendment rights.

This cartoon opens an important classroom debate, especially in today’s society where privacy is even harder to come by. Some questions to consider when discussing this with your class could include, what does defamation mean? What laws do we have to protect individuals from slander? Do those laws go against our first amendment rights?

There are many more examples to follow up on this idea. One in particular is the court case between President Theodore Roosevelt and William Barnes. This is an example how often the court of public opinion can completely crush the career of individuals. After discussing these ideas with your class have students read editorials from prominent newspapers and discuss the opinions of the articles.