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Articles 1 - 15 of 15
Full-Text Articles in Law
Rage Rhetoric And The Revival Of American Sedition, Jonathan Turley
Rage Rhetoric And The Revival Of American Sedition, Jonathan Turley
William & Mary Law Review
We are living in what Professor Jonathan Turley calls an age of rage. However, it is not the first such period. Professor Turley explores how the United States was formed (and the Constitution was written) in precisely such a period. Throughout that history, sedition has been used as the vehicle for criminalizing political speech. This Article explores how seditious libel has evolved as a crime and how it is experiencing a type of American revival. The crime of sedition can be traced back to the infamous trials of the Star Chamber and the flawed view of free speech articulated by …
Democratic Vibes, Jonathan Gingerich
Democratic Vibes, Jonathan Gingerich
William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal
Who should decide who gets to say what on online social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube? American legal scholars have often thought that the private owners of these platforms should decide, in part because such an arrangement is thought to serve valuable free speech interests. This standard view has come under pressure with the enactment of statutes like Texas House Bill 20, which forbids certain platforms from “censoring” user content based on viewpoint. Such efforts to regulate the speech policies of online platforms have been challenged for undermining the editorial speech rights of these platforms and allowing the …
Waiting For Mahanoy: Examining The Still-Unsettled Jurisprudence Of Online Student Speech, Emily Erickson, Matthew D. Bunker
Waiting For Mahanoy: Examining The Still-Unsettled Jurisprudence Of Online Student Speech, Emily Erickson, Matthew D. Bunker
William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal
This Article first explores the constitutional background of student speech rights, beginning with the Tinker decision and continuing through early court attempts to analyze online, off-campus cases. Next, it examines Mahanoy itself, unpacking the frustratingly murky majority opinion written by Justice Stephen Breyer. The Article then breaks new ground by exploring court decisions in the years since Mahanoy, as jurists continue trying to identify First Amendment boundaries in student speech cases involving bullying, threats, and otherwise offensive speech. A concluding section synthesizes the state of the law and offers perspectives on this vital area of constitutional concern.
This abstract …
Blunt Speech Rights, Nicholas Almendares
Blunt Speech Rights, Nicholas Almendares
William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal
There is a lot to be said about the Supreme Court’s decision in 303 Creative LLC. In the wake of the decision there will be a range of commentaries like those presented in this Issue. I want to draw attention to a particular aspect of the opinion, part of a broader trend in the Court’s First Amendment jurisprudence, towards blunt, sweeping rules. By a blunt rule, I mean a simple, coarse one that lacks nuance or distinctions. Blunt rules, by their nature, tend to be sweeping: nuance, that is, distinguishing cases based on various factors, limits the scope of …
Harmonizing Freedom Of Speech And Free Exercise Of Religion, John Fee
Harmonizing Freedom Of Speech And Free Exercise Of Religion, John Fee
William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal
[...]The close relationship between the free exercise of religion and the freedom of speech points to the sensible assumption that they should receive similar interpretation when dealing with parallel types of problems, or at least that differences in interpretation should be carefully justified.
With this premise, this Article compares freedom of speech and free exercise jurisprudence in various parallel applications, with the suggestion of harmonizing them more closely. While other commentators have compared freedom of speech and free exercise case law with a narrower focus (most commonly, focusing on the incidental burdens issue presented in [Employment Division v. Smith] …
The Private Abridgment Of Free Speech, Erin L. Miller
The Private Abridgment Of Free Speech, Erin L. Miller
William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal
This Article challenges the orthodoxy that First Amendment speech rights can bind only the state. I argue that the primary justification for the freedom of speech is to protect fundamental interests like autonomy, democracy, and knowledge from the kind of extraordinary power over speech available to the state. If so, this justification applies with nearly equal force to any private agents with power over speech rivaling that of the state. Such a class of private agents, which I call quasi-state agents, turns out to be a live possibility once we recognize that state power is more limited than it seems …
Q&A With Professor Timothy Zick, Author Of "Managed Dissent: The Law Of Public Protest", William & Mary Law School, Timothy Zick
Q&A With Professor Timothy Zick, Author Of "Managed Dissent: The Law Of Public Protest", William & Mary Law School, Timothy Zick
Popular Media
No abstract provided.
Incitement And Social Media-Algorithmic Speech: Redefining Brandenburg For A Different Kind Of Speech, Anna Rhoads
Incitement And Social Media-Algorithmic Speech: Redefining Brandenburg For A Different Kind Of Speech, Anna Rhoads
William & Mary Law Review
Assuming that these scholars are correct and that social media algorithms’ decisions qualify as speech to which the First Amendment applies (social media-algorithmic speech), this Note proposes a legal solution to the increasing problem of violence stemming from social media. This Note asserts that the incitement standard for social media-algorithmic speech should be less stringent because the Brandenburg standard does not apply well to new media, social media-algorithmic speech is much more likely than other speech to actually produce lawless action, and the traditional First Amendment justifications do not apply to social media algorithms’ speech. Therefore, the Supreme Court should …
Consider Freedom Of Speech: Perspectives On How To Hold Difficult Conversations With Respect, Vivian E. Hamilton, Andrew D. Stelljes
Consider Freedom Of Speech: Perspectives On How To Hold Difficult Conversations With Respect, Vivian E. Hamilton, Andrew D. Stelljes
Popular Media
No abstract provided.
The Coddling Of The American Worker's Mind: The Anti-Free Speech Nature Of Popular Labor Law Reforms, Daniel V. Johns
The Coddling Of The American Worker's Mind: The Anti-Free Speech Nature Of Popular Labor Law Reforms, Daniel V. Johns
William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal
As the nation enters an era in which a new presidential administration will likely push such labor law reforms, it is worth considering whether transparently anti-free speech reform measures make sense for the future of labor policy and law. This Article argues that they do not. Because employee free choice is furthered, not diminished, by hearing both sides of an issue, American workers should have the opportunity to hear and evaluate employer speech in the course of union campaigns. Only then can employees make an informed decision about their workplace future. In the end, freedom of speech furthers employee freedom …
Manipulation And The First Amendment, Helen Norton
Manipulation And The First Amendment, Helen Norton
William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal
This Article examines new conceptual tools for understanding manipulation and its harms. More specifically, Part I draws from ethicists' insights to explain how manipulation can inflict harms distinct from those imposed by coercion and deception, and to explain why addressing these distinct harms is a government interest sufficiently strong to justify appropriately tailored interventions.
Part II explores how these conceptual tools also help us understand when, how, and why government can regulate manipulation consistent with the First Amendment. As a threshold matter, note that manipulative online interfaces and related design choices may be better understood as conduct, rather than speech …
Free Speech, Strict Scrutiny And A Better Way To Handle Speech Restrictions, Aaron Pinsoneault
Free Speech, Strict Scrutiny And A Better Way To Handle Speech Restrictions, Aaron Pinsoneault
William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal
When it comes to unprotected speech categories, the Roberts Court has taken an amoral and inaccurate approach. When the Court first created unprotected speech categories-- defined categories of speech that are not protected by the First Amendment-- it was unclear what rendered a category of speech unprotected. One school of thought argued that speech was unprotected if it provided little or no value to society. The other school of thought argued that speech was unprotected if it fell into a certain category of speech that was simply categorically unprotected. Then, in 2010, the Court strongly sided with the latter approach, …
Dissent, Disagreement And Doctrinal Disarray: Free Expression And The Roberts Court In 2020, Clay Calvert
Dissent, Disagreement And Doctrinal Disarray: Free Expression And The Roberts Court In 2020, Clay Calvert
William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal
Using the United States Supreme Court’s 2019 rulings in Manhattan Community Access Corp. v. Halleck, Nieves v. Bartlett, and Iancu v. Brunetti as analytical springboards, this Article explores multiple fractures among the Justices affecting the First Amendment freedoms of speech and press. All three cases involved dissents, with two cases each spawning five opinions. The clefts compound problems witnessed in 2018 with a pair of five-to-four decisions in National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v. Becerra and Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees. Partisan divides, the Article argues, are only one problem with First Amendment …
Racial Justice Protests & Protestor Rights (July 15, 2020), Timothy Zick, Mikaela Phillips
Racial Justice Protests & Protestor Rights (July 15, 2020), Timothy Zick, Mikaela Phillips
Racial Justice & Social Reform Speaker Series
No abstract provided.
Constitutional Moral Hazard And Campus Speech, Jamal Greene
Constitutional Moral Hazard And Campus Speech, Jamal Greene
William & Mary Law Review
One underappreciated cost of constitutional rights enforcement is moral hazard. In economics, moral hazard refers to the increased propensity of insured individuals to engage in costly behavior. This Essay concerns what I call “constitutional moral hazard,” defined as the use of constitutional rights (or their conspicuous absence) to shield potentially destructive behavior from moral or pragmatic assessment. What I have in mind here is not simply the risk that people will make poor decisions when they have a right to do so, but that people may, at times, make poor decisions because they have a right. Moral hazard is not …