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Full-Text Articles in Law
Zoning Ordinances And "Free Speech", Alan C. Weinstein
Zoning Ordinances And "Free Speech", Alan C. Weinstein
Law Faculty Articles and Essays
Over the past two decades there has been a marked expansion in legal challenges to local land use regulations claiming violations of the free speech clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. First Amendment claims can arise whenever government enacts or enforces zoning or other regulations that deal with uses such as billboards or adult entertainment businesses. This article discusses why this litigation is taking place, provides an overview of First Amendment law, and offers local officials some guidelines to help avoid potential legal challenges.
Disentangling The Law Of Public Protest, Kevin F. O'Neill
Disentangling The Law Of Public Protest, Kevin F. O'Neill
Law Faculty Articles and Essays
The purpose of this Article is to alleviate the confusion that so frequently surrounds the law of public protest. Much of that confusion can be avoided, when analyzing a given case, by zeroing in on who is regulating the speech in question. There are four regulatory players, who act in four distinct settings: restrictions enacted by legislative bodies, the issuance of permits and fees by government administrators, speech-restrictive injunctions imposed by the judiciary, and the influence of police as a regulatory presence on the street. Discrete lines of precedent attend each of these players. Legislators and judges, for example, are …
Zoning Restrictions On Location Of Adult Businesses, Alan C. Weinstein
Zoning Restrictions On Location Of Adult Businesses, Alan C. Weinstein
All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications
This year's report concentrates on recent legal developments concerning regulation of the location of "adult entertainment businesses." Such regulations raise serious constitutional issues because the First Amendment's guarantee of freedom of expression extends to non-obscene sexually oriented media. The U.S. Supreme Court, however, has established that local government may single out adult businesses for special regulatory treatment in the form of locational restrictions if the local government can show a substantial public interest in regulating such businesses unrelated to the suppression of speech and if the regulations allow for "reasonable alternative avenues of communication," which essentially translates into a reasonable …