Law Commons^™

"To Hell In A Handbasket": Teachers, Free Speech, And Matters Of Public Concern In The Social Media World, Jessica O. Laurin

Indiana Law Journal

This Note argues that courts should narrow the scope of examined speech and place little weight on the amount of media attention that the speech received. Although courts sometimes reject First Amendment protection on the Pickering balancing test instead of the public concern issue, the public concern requirement is a threshold issue that plays a critical role in successful First Amendment claims. Accordingly, courts need to revisit the public concern doctrine to ensure that its analysis is sound and yields the correct outcome.

Part I provides background concerning retaliation claims, criticism of the public concern requirement, and special issues that …

Wikileaks And The First Amendment, Geoffrey R. Stone

Federal Communications Law Journal

FCBA Distinguished Speaker Series

In November 2010, Julian Assange's WikiLeaks collaborated with major media organizations to release thousands of classified U.S. State Department documents. American soldier Bradley Manning stands accused of leaking those documents to the website. In response, Congress introduced the SHIELD Act to amend the Espionage Act of 1917, making it a crime for any person to disseminate any classified information concerning American intelligence or the identity of a classified informant. Such sweeping language, while possibly constitutional as applied to government employees like Manning, is plainly unconstitutional as applied to those like Assange and WikiLeaks who subsequently publish …

Computer Code Vs. Legal Code: Setting The Rules In Cyberspace, Mark S. Nadel

Federal Communications Law Journal

Book Review: Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace, by Lawrence Lessig, Basic Books, 1999, 230 pages.