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The One Fixed Star In Higher Education: What Standard Of Judicial Scrutiny Should Courts Apply To Compelled Curricular Speech In The Public University Classroom, Joseph J. Martins

Faculty Publications and Presentations

Virtually three-quarters of a century ago, the Supreme Court in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette recognized that the First Amendment protects citizens from being forced to speak. Often, new legal doctrines are announced cautiously and narrowly in anticipation of future judicial development. Not so with Barnette. The Court boldly proclaimed that the right to be free from state-compelled affirmation is so fundamental that it stands as the one “fixed star in our constitutional constellation” that cannot be moved. State assertions of power that seek to coerce citizens to affirm government-approved ideas will inevitably fail, except when narrowly …