Digital Commons Network^™

Pressing The Verdict: The Social Influence Of Pretrial Publicity On Juror Biases, Kara Cato

CMC Senior Theses

Past psychological research has indicated that pretrial publicity has a significant impact on jury decision-making (Shniderman, 2013). This current review aims to expand on past research by investigating the social influence of pretrial publicity on juror biases. The effects of pretrial publicity on juror biases are examined through three mechanisms of social influence: story model, predecisional distortion, and conformity prejudice. This research inspects the relationship between media and the law by reviewing the pervasiveness of the media's depiction of criminal cases, the changing nature of media, and the biasing effects of media exposure. In addition, it explores the different forms …

Reconciling Self-Censorship: A Qualitative Study Of The Experiences Of University Staff And Administrators, Leigh C. Morales

Doctoral Dissertations

In addition to a global pandemic, the past three years have been marked by racial, social, and political unrest. These circumstances add meaningful context to examine and better understand factors that undermine free expression and contribute to self-censorship among university staff and administrators. To date, few studies have holistically explored the unique experiences of university staff and administrators with self-censorship and how this phenomenon affects their experience on college and university campuses. Understanding why staff and administrators choose to self-censor may allow for a deeper discussion about speech climate and the degree to which colleges and universities implement and uphold …

Free Speech And Its Limits: An Exploration Of Tolerance In The Digital Age, Jamie Forte

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Humans have made remarkable strides in protecting and preserving free speech despite an overwhelming historical legacy of censorship and suppression of dissent. Given that history makes clear how easy it is to slide into authoritarianism and sacrifice our rights in the name of security, and given that we find ourselves frequently facing the temptation to do so, this is not an unreasonable position. If the United States is one of the few bastions of free speech in an otherwise unfree world, then we must defend this freedom vehemently, or so the argument goes. While this position is not an unreasonable …

Battles Of The Mind: The Reaction Against Progressive Education, 1945-1959, Ben Yturri

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis discerns the relationships between three interrelated movements of the post-war period (circa 1945-1959): the overwhelming concern among leading intellectuals regarding the relationship between the individual and society, the post-war debates over education, and rising religious observance. Following WWII, the nation’s leading scholars and social critics addressed the most important problem facing the country and, for that matter, the world: how to avoid totalitarianism. Almost naturally, such anxieties influenced new debates over education. Broadly speaking, these controversies involved two related disputes over the efficacy of progressive education and the proper relationship between church and state. After World War II, …

Spectrum Of Shit, Hannah Hiaasen

Theses and Dissertations

Contending with the loss of a parent to a mass shooting in their workplace, a newsroom, I find myself suspended in time, in an office. Post-its, fans, button-ups, snow globes, clipboards, reporters notebooks, scrap paper, jot downs, keyboards hold me up. I crave the comfort of repetitive cumulative hand work. Quilting, weaving, and cutting away help me breathe, haptically process and memorialize these grieving objects, this grieving person. Weed-wacking towards intimacy, my work employs a range of materials to mourn the mundanity of a workday, fantasize transformative justice, and steward embodied grief to the surface. My only speed is slow-- …

Tinkering With Tinker: Why The Supreme Court Must Protect Student Speech Through Social Media, Alexis Roach

Honors Theses and Capstones

The goal of this paper is to address the failing of the Supreme Court in their decision of the case Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L.[1]. While the Court defended students’ rights to free speech under the First Amendment in Tinker v. Des Moines (1969)[2], they have since restricted that right through a number of cases. While the Court’s decision in Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L. protected student speech, the Court failed to provide a standard for application in cases regarding social media in schools. This paper argues that while the Court was correct in …

Is Freedom Of Expression A Tool Of Oppression And Harm? A Study On Hate Speech And Its Harms In Case Law And Doctrine Of The Us And European Court Of Human Rights, Mohamed Hassan

Theses and Dissertations

Many societies now face the problem of hate speech. It has reached the level of a global problem. Many groups use freedom of expression to oppress other groups through using hate speech. The problem of hate speech represents a complex topic because it is interwind with the right of freedom of expression. However, international human rights law tries to combat the hate speech law in some treaties, such as the ICCPR and CERD, by offering rules to guide states constitutional courts in adjudicating these cases by limiting some of their absolute discretionary power in deciding these cases. These efforts have …

Does The Press Have A Right To Be Wrong?: Fake News, Press Freedom, And Defamation Law In 2021, Nathan T. Danielson

Journalism

The following study analyzes defamation lawsuits filed against Fox News and its on-air personalities by companies that manufactured and maintained voting machines used in the 2020 US presidential election. Smartmatic and Dominion accused Fox in court of broadcasting debunked allegations that the companies had rigged the election against incumbent president (and longtime Fox viewer) Donald Trump. The size of the sought-after damages, and the size of Fox itself, make this the largest “fake news suit” in history. This study explores the merits of the suits, defenses to defamation (particularly opinion, political speech, and retraction) and the potential ramifications of a …

Cyberbullying: School Administrators' Perceptions Of Law And Prevalence, And Their Roles In Prevention, Intervention And Discipline, Suzan Gragg Denby

Theses and Dissertations

This study was aimed at investigating secondary school administrators’ experiences with and their perceptions of cyberbullying, as well as their intervention and prevention procedures. As technology has become ubiquitous in our society, students’ use has increased and impacted the school environment. Given the potential for cyberbullying and the negative effects of such, schools harbor the responsibility to prevent and intervene in such occurrences. This can be a tricky process.

This study included 12 administrators of secondary schools across eight school divisions in Virginia. Through an interview process, administrators spoke of their experiences with technology and cyberbullying incidents, and how they …

Legal Interpretation, Mykaila Ashlynn Berry

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

The purpose of this project is to provide a fresh and in-depth analysis of legal jurisprudence through the use of two of the most important legal theorists of our time, H. L. A. Hart and Ronald Dworkin. This project focuses on how Dworkin’s position in his famous paper “Hard Cases”, helps us understand an important Supreme Court case, Cohen v. California. Cohen will be the main focus of my project. The project will discuss the case and the possible ways of deciding the case. Then the project explains both Dworkin’s and Hart’s positions. Finally, the project will analyze how Dworkin’s …

Free Speech On Public College Campuses, Christopher Gothard

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

The topic of free speech has become increasingly publicized and debated recently. With cases of speech being suppressed coming to light all across the country, it is apparent that there has been a tremendous shift in views on college campuses on the right to free speech. Through trying to balance an inclusive society with the right of all to speak freely, the First Amendment right to free speech and the applicable case law have begun to be inconsistently interpreted, specifically on public college campuses. Whether by imposing security costs on speakers, solely utilizing free speech zones, or allowing the heckler’s …

What Do Voting Results Of The 2016 State Elections Tell Us About Bias Response Teams?, Reid Parker

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

"Tinkering" With Student Rights: School Walkouts And The Implications Of Discipline Practice And Policy On Students' Right To Protest, Hannah Weissler

Scripps Senior Theses

In this study, I examine the extent to which students’ rights to free speech and expression were violated in response to the nationwide school walkouts that took place during the spring of 2018. Students hold the right to political speech and expression under the landmark Supreme Court Case, Tinker v. Des Moines (1969). However, the rights students maintain to participate in protest during school hours is somewhat unclear. Using a two-pronged case study analysis, I explore the question of student rights and potential violations in the face of protest through examining school disciplinary responses alongside disciplinary policy and disciplinary policy …

Defending University Speech Codes: An Essay On Why Universities Speech Codes Make Sense, Daniel Alexander Schultz

Honor Scholar Theses

No abstract provided.

Toward A Legal Harm Principle: Constructing And Applying A Legal Principle From John Stuart Mill's General Harm Principle, Kathryn Alice Zawisza

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

My goal in this work is to outline a specifically legal harm principle that is derived from John Stuart Mill’s harm principle in On Liberty. I will do this by providing a close reading of On Liberty and comparing it to what he says in chapter V of Utilitarianism. I believe that these two works provide a foundation for a harm principle that defines the domain and limits of the law. While this goal is not new, I focus on Mill’s general harm principle and the two maxims that he believes make it up in order to construct a relatively …

An Examination Of The Instruction Of Religion Clause Issues In Massachusetts Teacher Education Programs, Matthew E. Henry

Educational Studies Dissertations

The prevailing research, as well as reported complaints of academic, civic, personal, and social harm, indicates that public school teachers do not exhibit the professional knowledge, skills, and attitudes grounded in the religion clauses of the U.S. Constitution. This study investigated how TEPs in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts document their instruction of preservice teachers on religion clause issues as they apply to grade 6-12 content area pedagogy, curriculum, and professional ethos. The institutional documents presented to preservice teachers were collected from four teacher education programs in the Commonwealth. An evaluation tool— synthesized from the leading scholarship and research on the …

Non/Disclosure: Documentation And Participant Observation As Hybrid, Nonfiction, Artistic Research Methodology For Ethnographic Media Production, Contemplative Discovery, Social Practice And Catharsis, Cyle P. O'Donnell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As if presaged by the physical, fine and philosophical arts that preceded it, the amelioration to the process of documenting the wonted human existence, political strife, and sundry cultural phenomena through the neo-normative medium of film (and eventually digital video) inaugurated the true scope and importance of anthropological research among a vastly wider audience who would use it, and its intrinsic capacity for the augmentation of artistic expression, to proliferate an expansive accompaniment to the field which would all become recognized platforms for demonstrative presentation of individual oeuvres.

Intermedia has worked in this way to amalgamate concepts like Futurism, Dadaism, …

Render Unto Caesar: How Misunderstanding A Century Of Free Exercise Jurisprudence Forged And Then Fractured The Rfra Coalition, John S. Blattner

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis provides a comprehensive history of Supreme Court Free Exercise Clause jurisprudence from 1879 until the present day. It describes how a jurisdictional approach to free exercise dominated the Court’s rulings from its first Free Exercise Clause case in 1879 until Sherbert v. Verner in 1963, and how Sherbert introduced an accommodationist precedent which was ineffectively, incompletely, and inconsistently defined by the Court. This thesis shows how proponents of accommodationism furthered a false narrative overstating the scope and consistency of Sherbert’s precedent following the Court’s repudiation of accommodationism and return to full jurisdictionalism with Employment Division v. Smith …

Access To Communication In United States Prisons: Reducing Recidivism Through Expanded Communication Programs With Inmates, Lilie Gross

Politics & Government Undergraduate Theses

The need for better communication systems in prisons is dire and will reduce recidivism rates in the United States. Not only is communication via phone lines extremely expensive and corrupt, it is almost impossible. Inmates in United States Prisons need this availability and option to communicate with their families and maintain outside relationships. While maintaining healthy and positive relationships is good for inmate's mental health, it also decreases the risk of recidivism. This paper aims to highlight the benefits of phone communication and relationships between inmates and family on the outside for it will decrease the 50% recidivism rate that …

The Freedom Of Speech In Public Forums On College Campuses: A Single-Site Case Study On Pushing The Boundaries Of The Freedom Of Speech, Alexander Davidson

Journalism

The purpose of this single-site study is to test how far speech can be pushed before it is no longer protected at the California Polytechnic State University. The purpose isn’t merely to push limitations for the sake of testing boundaries, but it is to see what types of speech truly add to the marketplace of ideas and what types simply do not. The main points of the study are to understand what speech is protected and what speech is not protected on California Polytechnic State University’s campus and to understand how the provocation that comes along with “negative speech” can …

The One Exhibition The Roots Of The Lgbt Equality Movement One Magazine & The First Gay Supreme Court Case In U.S. History 1943-1958, Joshua R. Edmundson

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The ONE Exhibition explores an era in American history marked by intense government sponsored anti-gay persecution and the genesis of the LGBT equality movement. The study begins during World War II, continues through the McCarthy era and the founding of the nation’s first gay magazine, and ends in 1958 with the first gay Supreme Court case in U.S. history.

Central to the story is ONE The Homosexual Magazine, and its founders, as they embarked on a quest for LGBT equality by establishing the first ongoing nationwide forum for gay people in the U.S., and challenged the government’s right to engage …

Conscience Collisions: The Search For Public Policy Solutions To The Problem Of Doctrine In Medicine, Christina M. Claxton

Senior Theses and Projects

No abstract provided.

Student Press Law: Past, Present, And Future, David R. Wheeler

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

This dissertation will identify and describe the state of the law regarding student speech and press freedom. The following questions will be explored: What rights do young people have? What standards have state and federal courts established? To what extent and how clearly have state statutes defined student expressive rights? What do state laws say about this topic? What issues have yet to be addressed, either because a case has not raised certain issues or because the issue does not lend itself to compromise or a clear solution? How does the capacity of social media for widespread and rapid dissemination …

The Untold History Of Nevada's Shield Statute, Matthew Travis Ward

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The history of American journalism is replete with anecdotes about news reporters enduring jail and other penalties to protect the identities of confidential sources of information. Since as early as the American Revolution journalists have often found themselves at odds with established authority. In the political cauldron of the late 1960s and early 1970s, U.S. government intrusion into the news gathering process was widespread. The notion the First Amendment protected journalists from revealing sources was invalidated by the Supreme Court's 1972 decision in Branzburg v. Hayes. Many states throughout the nation reacted by codifying a reporter's privilege. Nevada did so …

Judicial Influence And The United States Federal District Courts: A Case Study, Justin R. Hickerson

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

The Importance Of Interpretation: How The Language Of The Constitution Allows For Differing Opinions, Christina J. Banfield

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

When Speech Isn't Free: Legal Barriers And Consequences Of Reporting Sexual Violence, Kevin M. Fleming

Departmental Honors Projects

Incidents of sexual violence continue to be a serious problem for society. Likewise, acts of sexual violence impose severe consequences for survivors. The consequences initially begin at the onset of the survivor’s journey to psychological recovery following the traumatic sexual assault. The consequences take on a unique set of characteristics when the survivor attempts to use the justice system to confront the perpetrator who committed the offense. These characteristics can transform an adversarial process into an isolated battle for the survivor. In the worst cases, the justice system empowers individuals who wish to silence survivors with free speech restrictions instead …

A Progressive Mind : Louis D. Brandeis And The Origins Of Free Speech., Elizabeth Diane Todd

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study argues that Associate Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis played a key role in shaping the jurisprudence of free political speech in the United States. Brandeis's judicial opinions on three freedom of speech cases in the post-World War I era provide the evidence for this argument. This thesis demonstrates how the Espionage and Sedition Acts of World War I allowed Brandeis the opportunity to reflect and rule on the Founding Fathers' meaning of free speech in a political democracy. Chapter I offers a detailed historiography of the Progressive Era and World War I. Chapter II provides a biography …

Freedom Of Speech Through The Looking Glass: Reflections On The Governance Of Political Discourse In China, The United States, And The European Union, Emily Alice Chesbrough

Scripps Senior Theses

Freedom of speech is a right guaranteed by the US, the EU, and China; however, just because a right is guaranteed does not mean the government cannot manipulate the right to achieve its ends. Freedom of speech is commonly associated with the power of language; citizens speak in order to take control of those governing them, in order to assert their desires. In reality, freedom of speech is far more beneficial for governments, who can use this dissent to better control a population. In order to control the population, though, the governments must first control the dissenting speech, the discourse, …

American Law: Integrating Ultra-Traditional Muslims Through Accommodations, Mohamed A. Elsanousi

Maurer Theses and Dissertations

Appropriate legal accommodations for religious minorities can support their integration into American society. Historically, the teachings and practices of many religious communities that have otherwise conflicted with state or federal law have been successfully preserved through legal accommodations. A brief comparison with the experiences of such groups as the Hasidic Jewish community will provide a context for religiously based legal accommodations for various religious communities within the United States.

This dissertation examines the particular situation of a Tablighi Jamaat community, a Muslim missionary movement, as a means to explore how legal accommodations facilitate the successful, stable integration of such groups. …