Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 7 of 7
Full-Text Articles in Law
The Political Party System As A Public Forum: The Incoherence Of Parties As Free Speech Associations And A Proposed Correction, Wayne Batchis
The Political Party System As A Public Forum: The Incoherence Of Parties As Free Speech Associations And A Proposed Correction, Wayne Batchis
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
The Supreme Court’s jurisprudence addressing the associational rights of political parties is both highly consequential and deeply inconsistent. It dates back at least as far as the Court’s White Primary decisions more than a half-century ago. In recent decades, the Court has imposed an arguably ad hoc formula, striking down regulations on political parties on First Amendment grounds in some cases, while upholding them in others. From a jurisprudential perspective, critics might point to insufficiently principled distinctions between these cases. From a normative perspective, the very expansion of First Amendment rights to political parties, like the parallel extension to corporations …
You Can’T Say That!: Public Forum Doctrine And Viewpoint Discrimination In The Social Media Era, Micah Telegen
You Can’T Say That!: Public Forum Doctrine And Viewpoint Discrimination In The Social Media Era, Micah Telegen
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
The growing prevalence of privately-owned social media platforms is changing the way Americans and their governments communicate. This shift offers new opportunities, but also requires a reinterpretation of the First Amendment’s proscription of government limitations of speech. The public forum doctrine and its proscription of viewpoint discrimination seem particularly stretched by the digital revolution and the development of social media. In ongoing cases, litigants and courts have invoked the doctrine to limit the government’s ability to ‘block’ those who comment critically on government pages—much to the chagrin of those who note the private status of the companies hosting the pages …
Purpose And Effects: Viewpoint-Discriminatory Closure Of A Designated Public Forum, Kerry L. Monroe
Purpose And Effects: Viewpoint-Discriminatory Closure Of A Designated Public Forum, Kerry L. Monroe
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
In early 2010, amidst a series of racially charged incidents on campus, the student government president at the University of California at San Diego revoked funding to all student media organizations in response to controversial speech on the student-run television station. It is well established that once the government has opened a forum, including a "metaphysical" forum constituted by government funding for private speech, it may not discriminate based on the viewpoints expressed within that forum. However, it has not been clearly established whether the government may close such a forum for a viewpoint-discriminatory purpose. This Note argues that courts …
Cable Television Rights Of Way: Technology Expands The Concept Of Public Forum, Lawrence E. Spong
Cable Television Rights Of Way: Technology Expands The Concept Of Public Forum, Lawrence E. Spong
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
This Note argues that the public forum analysis is the proper standard for evaluating a cable television company's claim of access to public rights of way. Part I discusses the constitutional basis for this standard. Part II examines the ideological justifications for the public forum doctrine and argues that public rights of way are public forums for cable television purposes. In addition, it explains the application of the public forum doctrine to cable access questions and the doctrine's advantages over other standards.
Protecting The Free Speech Rights Of Insurgent Teachers' Unions: Evaluating The Constitutionality Of Exclusive Access To School Communications Facilities, Stephen E. Woodbury
Protecting The Free Speech Rights Of Insurgent Teachers' Unions: Evaluating The Constitutionality Of Exclusive Access To School Communications Facilities, Stephen E. Woodbury
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Part I examines the traditional and limited public forum doctrines designed to guarantee speakers a right of access to public places, and finds these theories inadequate in the school union setting. Part II explores a recent addition to the free speech/equal protection analysis: the content neutrality doctrine. This doctrine mandates that when a school board allows one union to express its viewpoints, a duty is created to provide equivalent access to all unions, absent a compelling state interest. Part III reviews several justifications for limiting non-EBA access, and finds most of them without merit and none of them adequate to …
Public Broadcasting And The Problem Of Government Influence: Towards A Legislative Solution, Oscar G. Chase
Public Broadcasting And The Problem Of Government Influence: Towards A Legislative Solution, Oscar G. Chase
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
This article will explore the problems raised by the emergence of the federal government as a television "sponsor." It will argue that fundamental structural reform is needed to promote the constitutional values at issue, that such reform will also promote the interests of local control sought by the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, and that legislative action in furtherance of this structural solution is desirable. In this context this article will consider the proposed Public Broadcasting Financing Act of 1974 and will argue that any bill modeled on it would not eliminate the problems despite its salutary innovations. Not considered, …
Campus Pamphleteering: The Emerging Constitutional Standards, Morton M. Rosenfeld
Campus Pamphleteering: The Emerging Constitutional Standards, Morton M. Rosenfeld
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Beginning with Lovell v. City of Griffin, the Supreme Court has consistently held the distribution of handbills to be a fundamental right under the first amendment. Since Lovell, the Court has liberally construed the concept of a public forum where first amendment rights can be properly exercised. More recently, the Court has held that schools cannot arbitrarily or absolutely regulate students' constitutional rights of expression. These three principles would suggest great protection for handbilling rights on state university campuses. A further analysis of case law indicates that broad free speech standards governing such rights exist and that the …