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Full-Text Articles in Law
Why The Law Needs Music: Revisiting Naacp V. Button Through The Songs Of Bob Dylan, Renee Newman Knake
Why The Law Needs Music: Revisiting Naacp V. Button Through The Songs Of Bob Dylan, Renee Newman Knake
Fordham Urban Law Journal
The law needs music, a truth revealed by revisiting the United States Supreme Court’s opinion in NAACP v. Button through the songs of Bob Dylan and the play Music History. This Essay proceeds in three parts. Part I opens with a summary of the Court’s decision in NAACP v. Button, focusing particularly on the expanded understanding of First Amendment rights related to access to the law that flow from this legal opinion. Part II explains the inspiration for this Essay, Seaton’s play Music History, which reveals the influence of music on law and culture during the civil rights movement. Part …
Hazelwood V. Kuhlmeier And The University: Why The High School Standard Is Here To Stay, Christopher N. Lavigne
Hazelwood V. Kuhlmeier And The University: Why The High School Standard Is Here To Stay, Christopher N. Lavigne
Fordham Urban Law Journal
In Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier, the Supreme Court evaluated the administrative control of a high school newspaper and held that public school officials could control speech in school-sponsored activities if they did so for legitimate pedagogical reasons. While the Court reserved the question of whether this standard should be applicable at the university level, various federal circuit courts have since applied this speech-restrictive standard to student speech at colleges and universities. In light of these circuit court opinions, there has been considerable debate about whether and to what extent the Hazelwood framework should apply to college and university students. …
Nonparty Remote Electronic Access To Plea Agreements In The Second Circuit, David L. Snyder
Nonparty Remote Electronic Access To Plea Agreements In The Second Circuit, David L. Snyder
Fordham Urban Law Journal
Widespread electronic access to case files gives rise to security concerns previously unrealized in the era of paper records. As the United States Department of Justice noted, the emergence of a "cottage industry" of websites that republish court filings online for the purposes of witness intimidation, retaliation, and harassment poses "a grave risk of harm" to cooperating witnesses and defendants. Accordingly, the benefits associated with remote electronic availability and dissemination of judicial documents may come at a considerable cost. This Note describes the options that district courts within the Second Circuit could implement to mitigate these concerns. Part I of …
The First Amendment: Churches Seeking Sanctuary For The Sins Of The Fathers, Jeffrey R. Anderson, Mark A. Wendorf, Frances E. Baillon, Brant D. Penney
The First Amendment: Churches Seeking Sanctuary For The Sins Of The Fathers, Jeffrey R. Anderson, Mark A. Wendorf, Frances E. Baillon, Brant D. Penney
Fordham Urban Law Journal
This article examines whether the Free Exercise Clause or Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, or the judicial abstention doctrine, shields religious institutions from otherwise cognizable tort claims caused by their agents or employees. It concludes that the Constitution does not provide a religious institution with the right or privilege to operate as a law unto itself -- the institution must comply with the law of civil government. Part I provides a brief introduction and background on the First Amendment. Parts II, III, and IV analyze the Free Exercise Clause, judicial abstention doctrine, and the Establishment Clause, respectively, and how …
The Politics Of Permits: The Unconstitutionality Of The Guiliani Administration's Parade And Rally Permit Application Procedures, Michael L. Landsman
The Politics Of Permits: The Unconstitutionality Of The Guiliani Administration's Parade And Rally Permit Application Procedures, Michael L. Landsman
Fordham Urban Law Journal
This article addresses the unconstitutionality of New York Mayor Rudolph Guiliani’s Administration’s parade and rally permit application procedures, which Judge Leonard B. Sand of the Southern District of New York held to be in violation of the First Amendment on November 16, 1998. The author initially noted the two major factors that won Guiliani the 1993 mayoral election, New Yorker’s belief that he could (1) reduce crime and (2) cool racial tensions, and then “curiously” observed that the groups that faced the greatest bias in their applications were those that applied for parade or rally permits to protest or make …
Challenging The Telco-Cable Cross-Ownership Ban: First Amendment And Antitrust Implications For The Interactive Information Highway, Laura Land Sigal
Challenging The Telco-Cable Cross-Ownership Ban: First Amendment And Antitrust Implications For The Interactive Information Highway, Laura Land Sigal
Fordham Urban Law Journal
This Note explores options available to decisionmakers by analyzing Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co. v. United States (C & P), which set an important precedent regarding a telephone company's First Amendment right to provide video programming over its own facilities in its local service area. C & P, a Bell Atlantic Corporation subsidiary providing local telephone service in Northern Virginia, claimed that the cable-telco cross-ownership ban, codified at § 533(b) of the Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984, infringes unconstitutionally upon its First Amendment right to freedom of expression. On November 21, 1994, the Court of Appeals for the Fourth …
Targeting Conduct: A Constitutional Method Of Penalizing Hate Crimes, Kevin N. Ainsworth
Targeting Conduct: A Constitutional Method Of Penalizing Hate Crimes, Kevin N. Ainsworth
Fordham Urban Law Journal
Forty-three states have enacted hate-crime statutes. These laws generally fall into one of two classes, either hate-speech or penalty-enhancement statutes. The former has sought to control virulent expression by punishing the utterance or display of words or symbols that the user knows will arouse anger in others on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, or some other immutable characteristic. The United States Supreme Court examined an ordinance of this type in R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul and found that the law infringed on the First Amendment right to free speech. Penalty enhancement statutes vary slightly among states, but …
The Need For Fair Trials Does Not Justify A Disciplinary Rule That Broadly Restricts An Attorney's Speech, Thomas Gibson, Diana Parker
The Need For Fair Trials Does Not Justify A Disciplinary Rule That Broadly Restricts An Attorney's Speech, Thomas Gibson, Diana Parker
Fordham Urban Law Journal
In "Gentile v. State Bar of Nevada," the Supreme Court held a Nevada law prohibiting attorneys from making extra-judicial statements that could reasonably be expected to lead to prejudiced proceedings unconstitutionally vague. The safe harbor provision of New York's restriction on extra-judicial attorney speech seems to suffer from a similar deficiency, and must therefore be amended. To cure vagueness concerns, an amended rule should pay heed to the timing of prohibited public statements by attorneys, limiting speech restrictions to the month preceding the start of the trial. The amended rule should also include a clear and present danger standard to …
Giving Women The Benefit Of Equality: A Response To Wirenius, Tracy Higgins
Giving Women The Benefit Of Equality: A Response To Wirenius, Tracy Higgins
Fordham Urban Law Journal
This essay offers a feminist response to Mr. Wirenius’s provocative critique of Professor MacKinnon. Whether supporting or opposing pornography regulation, feminist legal scholars tend to approach the issue from neither of the traditional positions – First Amendment absolutist or moral censor. Rather, a feminist approach to pornography is informed by an understanding of the profound harm that pornography can and does inflict upon women. Consequently, even for feminists who many oppose pornographic regulation, the choice is not an obvious one, as it seems to be for Mr. Wirenius, between the good of civil libertarianism and the evil of totalitarianism. An …
The Miner's Canary: Tribal Control Of American Indian Education And The First Amendment, John E. Silverman
The Miner's Canary: Tribal Control Of American Indian Education And The First Amendment, John E. Silverman
Fordham Urban Law Journal
One legacy of America's mistreatment of its indigenous peoples has been an educational policy that has run roughshod over Native American Free Exercise rights. Today, American Indian tribes widely seek increased control over the education of their children. This position has received broad congressional and presidential support since the Nixon Administration, but more than twenty years later, Native Americans are still fighting to attain their goals. Federal statistics that rank American Indians as our least educated, most addicted, shortest-lived citizens suggest tremendous room for improvement in Indian education. Despite certain circuit court Free Exercise Clause decisions that unreasonably hold Indian …
Giving The Devil The Benefit Of Law: Pornographers, The Feminist Attack On Free Speech, And The First Amendment, John F. Wirenius
Giving The Devil The Benefit Of Law: Pornographers, The Feminist Attack On Free Speech, And The First Amendment, John F. Wirenius
Fordham Urban Law Journal
The battle lines over the censorship of “pornographic” materials have been shifted by a faction of the women’s movement following the publication of Andrea Dworkin’s Pornography: Men Possessing Women. With Dworkin, Catharine A. MacKinnon, a vocal and influential female advocate, co-authored a prototypical ordinance to protect against the degradation of individuals, mainly women, in pornography. To these advocates, pornography causes direct harm to individuals coerced into sexual activity and indirect harm by inculcating society with the chauvinistic norms of the pornographic world. While Wirenius agrees with MacKinnon and Dworkin about the importance of pornography in First Amendment jurisprudence, he disagrees …
Electronic Publishing: First Amendment Issues In The Twenty-First Century, Lynn Becker
Electronic Publishing: First Amendment Issues In The Twenty-First Century, Lynn Becker
Fordham Urban Law Journal
In six sections, the author explores regulation of the then-emerging field of tele-communications, including electronic publishing, e-mail, electronic bulletin boards, teletype, and digital banking. Focusing on how the First Amendment applies to claims of defamation and obscenity made in an electronic format, the author proposes a unified regulatory scheme based on existing communications regulation law that will unify telecommunications policy countrywide. The first two sections are devoted to explanation of the then-novel forms of electronic communication and giving the history of the FCC and communications and data regulation in the US. The author describes the distinction between press regulation, broadcast …
The Minneapolis Anti-Pornography Ordinance: A Valid Assertion Of Civil Rights?, Winifred Ann Sandler
The Minneapolis Anti-Pornography Ordinance: A Valid Assertion Of Civil Rights?, Winifred Ann Sandler
Fordham Urban Law Journal
The author of this student note examines a recent Minneapolis city ordinance that declares pornography to be both subordination of and a form of sex discrimination towards women. First Amendment proponents challenged the ordinance as unconstitutional. The author considers whether the state has a compelling interest in protecting its citizens from civil rights violations, and whether that interest can overcome first amendment rights. The author concludes that pornography is neither a civil rights violation, nor a category of unprotected speech.
A Unified Theory Of The First Amendment:, Mark S. Nadel
A Unified Theory Of The First Amendment:, Mark S. Nadel
Fordham Urban Law Journal
The Supreme Court presently permits reasonable regulation of access in the broadcasting media; it nevertheless allows print publishers to foreclose such access. Although this approach has been praised by some, and a doctrine can only survive if there is a clear distinction between the print and broadcast media. In today's rapidly developing communications industry, the distinction between these converging media is unstable and inadequate. The increasing significance of cable television in particular has created a pressing need to replace the fragile double standard with a unified, all encompassing theory. This Article proposes such a unified theory after first drawing the …
Regulation Of Advertising And Promotional Pracitces Of Public Utilities Under The First Amendment, Thomas G. Carulli
Regulation Of Advertising And Promotional Pracitces Of Public Utilities Under The First Amendment, Thomas G. Carulli
Fordham Urban Law Journal
This Note examines the first amendment right of public utility corporations in light of the recent restrictions imposed on how these corporations communicate with their subscribers and the public in general. Specifically, this Note will focus "on the regulations promulgated by the New York Public Service Commission which prohibited the use of bill inserts on controversial matters of public policy and banned all promotional advertising by public utility corporations."
Note: Using Constitutional Zoning To Neutralize Adult Entertainment - Detroit To New York, Charles T. Fee, Jr.
Note: Using Constitutional Zoning To Neutralize Adult Entertainment - Detroit To New York, Charles T. Fee, Jr.
Fordham Urban Law Journal
In an effort to prevent the spread of businesses specializing in adult entertainment, many cities have utilized zoning ordinances to combat problems in certain neighborhoods. New York City, Boston, and Detroit all have instituted such restrictions. This Note will consider whether the zoning of businesses specializing in adult entertainment is a legitimate exercise of the state's police power, analyzing its potential as a violation of the first amendment and the equal protection clause of the fourteenth amendment. In addition, the Note will examine the validity of using the twenty-first amendment to regulate adult entertainment businesses that serve alcoholic beverages.
Book Review: The Law Of Obscenity, Edward J. Berbusse, S.J.
Book Review: The Law Of Obscenity, Edward J. Berbusse, S.J.
Fordham Urban Law Journal
Edward J. Berbusse, S.J. reviews The Law of Obscenity by Frederick F. Schauer. Schauer's book provides a historical perspective on obscenity law, tracking developments through several centuries. It begins with a look at obscenity law within the Church during the 16th and moves through civil law in England and up to the present in the United States. The book then explores the Miller v. California decision and the Supreme Court's move to a local standard, rather than national, of obscenity. In addition to the Miller case, Schauer looks at other important decisions which developed the modern body of law focusing …
Constitutional Law-Blockbusting-Antiblockbusting Section Of The Civil Rights Act Of 1968 Held Not Violative Of First Amendment. Finding Of "Group Pattern Or Practice" Does Not Require A Showing Of Conspiracy Or Concerted Action
Fordham Urban Law Journal
An action was brought by the Attorney General against the president of a realty group and four other real estate brokers to enjoin alleged violations of anti-blockbusting provisions of the Fair Housing Act of 1968. Defendants were accused of individually and collectively engaging in a practice to prevent the enjoyment of rights granted by the Fair Housing Act and that a group of persons was denied rights as a result. It was alleged the defendant's agents made unlawful representations to white homeowners concerning changes in the racial composition of their neighborhood in order to induce sales. The trial court found …