Law Commons^™

Tinkering With Success: College Athletes, Social Media And The First Amendment, Mary Margaret Meg Penrose

Pace Law Review

Good law does not always make good policy. This article seeks to provide a legal assessment, not a policy directive. The policy choices made by individual institutions and athletic departments should be guided by law, but absolutely left to institutional discretion. Many articles written on college student-athletes’ social media usage attempt to urge policy directives clothed in constitutional analysis.

In this author’s opinion, these articles have lost perspective – constitutional perspective. This article seeks primarily to provide a legal and constitutional assessment so that schools and their athletic departments will have ample information to then make their own policy choices.

Abuse And Harassment Diminish Free Speech, Anita Bernstein

Pace Law Review

Owen Fiss focused on “the robustness of public debate” to conclude on his last page: “The autonomy protected by the First Amendment and rightly enjoyed by individuals and the press is not an end in itself, as it might be in some moral code, but is rather a means to further the democratic values underlying the Bill of Rights.”

This article embraces the same values but more conservatively. Whereas Fiss defended state-sponsored coercion, I leave the government mostly outside the descriptions and arguments presented here. Scholars have sought to apply the law—of crimes, torts, intellectual property, and statutory allotments and …

The Panhandlers’ Dialogue: Are Restrictions On Panhandling Content-Neutral Under The First Amendment?, Jing Zhang

Seventh Circuit Review

One of the defining characteristics of the U.S. Constitution is its guarantee of certain enumerated rights, including the right to free speech. The First Amendment guards against governmental regulations that infringe on the right to free speech. In recent years, local governments across the nation have enacted local laws and ordinances that regulate or prohibit panhandling in certain areas. In Norton v. City of Springfield, the Seventh Circuit reviewed and upheld one such ordinance prohibiting panhandling in the downtown historic areas. The Springfield ordinance defined panhandling as an oral request for immediate donation of money. The downtown historic district …

Mj Still Winning In Chicago: The Seventh Circuit Correctly Holds That Jewel-Osco’S Use Of Michael Jordan’S Likeness In Its Advertisement Constituted Commercial Speech, Michael A. Albert

Seventh Circuit Review

Sometimes businesses advertise offers for particular products or services. In addition to product advertising, businesses frequently engage in “image” advertising, where they promote their brand generally rather than a specific product. Both types of advertising may constitute commercial speech. The U.S. Supreme Court commonly defines commercial speech as “speech that proposes a commercial transaction.” Although the Court has addressed this phrase’s meaning, it has never provided a comprehensive method for determining whether a given expression constitutes commercial speech. As a result, some courts interpret this phrase to apply narrowly in scope, while others find that it can be applied broadly. …

Compelled Commercial Speech, Robert Post

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

After Hobby Lobby: The “Religious For-Profit” And The Limits Of The Autonomy Doctrine, Angela C. Carmella

Missouri Law Review

Churches are protected under the autonomy doctrine, which is rooted in the Religion Clauses, to ensure that they are free to define their institutional identity and mission. In more limited circumstances, many religious nonprofits also enjoy autonomy protections. Now that the Supreme Court has decided in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. that for-profit corporations are capable of religious exercise and entitled to statutory free exercise protection, this Article poses a question that is on the horizon: would it ever be plausible to extend the autonomy doctrine to a for-profit institution? This Article identifies several types of for-profits (named “religious …

A University's Slight Inconsistency In Written Policies And The Resulting Colossal Effect On First And Fourteenth Amendment Rights, Yerin Cho

Tennessee Journal of Race, Gender, & Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Doe V. Elmbrook School District And The Importance Of Refocusing Establishment Clause Jurisprudence, Julie M. Karaba

Northwestern University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Free Exercise Reconceived: The Logic And Limits Of Hosanna-Tabor, Christopher C. Lund

Northwestern University Law Review

Two terms ago, in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church & School v. EEOC, the Supreme Court held that the First Amendment precludes ministers from bringing employment-related claims against their churches. In some ways, Hosanna-Tabor changed little. The lower courts had all reached that conclusion already, though the Supreme Court slightly expanded the breadth of the so-called ministerial exception. More important is how Hosanna-Tabor reconceptualized things, especially in how it pushed back somewhat against the Supreme Court’s imperial decision in Employment Division v. Smith, where the Court had broadly held that the Free Exercise Clause did not entitle religious believers to exemptions …

Frank Miller’S Sin City College Football: A Game To Die For And Other Lessons About The Right Of Publicity And Video Games, Jordan M. Blanke

Washington and Lee Law Review

The challenge of finding a workable solution for applying the right of publicity is a formidable one because it implicates not only a delicate balance between First Amendment rights and the rights of publicity, but also the complications of varying state laws. The best of the tests developed by the courts so far—the transformative use test—was borrowed from copyright law and itself reflects a careful balance between First Amendment and copyright interests. Additionally, because of dramatic progress in technology, it is likely that in the near future this balancing will often involve not only the rights of publicity and the …

Can Dead Soldiers Revive A "Dead" Doctrine? An Argument For The Revitalization Of "Fighting Words" To Protect Grieving Families Post-Snyder V. Phelps, Kevin P. Donoughe

Cleveland State Law Review

This Note avers that speech of the Westboro Baptist Church, in the context of funeral pickets, can be construed as targeted personal attacks on grieving families which have the potential to incite—and indeed have incited—immediate breaches of the peace and violent rebuttals. In light of Snyder, and the inadequacy of time, place, and manner statutes as a protection for grieving families, this Note argues for the revitalization of the “fighting words” doctrine to encompass targeted, ad hominem attacks from organizations like the Westboro Baptist Church, thereby leaving this speech unprotected by the First Amendment and exposing the speakers to tort …