Law Commons^™

Racial Defamation As Free Speech: Abusing The First Amendment, Kenneth Lasson

All Faculty Scholarship

The traditional view of the first amendment's free speech guarantee as absolute, allowing few and narrow exceptions, reflects the Constitution's dedication to an open and unfettered exchange of ideas. Those thoughts that are abhorrent to a free society, the argument goes, will wither when aired but fester if suppressed. Moreover, who is to decide which ideas are offensive? The interests of the state may well be inferior to those of the people, the wisdom of public servants often suspect in quality and motivation. But freedom of speech is so precious and delicate a liberty it must be preserved at great …

Reducing Unions' Monopoly Power: Costs And Benefits, Robert H. Lande, Richard O. Zerbe Jr.

All Faculty Scholarship

There is a fundamental conflict between labor law and antitrust law. The antitrust laws reflect the powerful idea that competition should usually dictate the way our economy is organized, to the benefit of the economy as a whole, including workers. But the labor exemption to the antitrust laws suggests a different policy: workers should have the right to eliminate competition for wages, hours, and working conditions.

The Voting Rights Amendment Act Of 2014: A Constitutional Response To Shelby County, Gilda R. Daniels, William Yeomans, Nicholas Stephanopoulos, Gabriel J. Chin, Samuel Bagenstos

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This Issue Brief from the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy begins by explaining the Voting Rights Act, Shelby County v. Holder, and the Voting Rights Amendment Act of 2014 (VRAA). The remaining sections then explain the four specific ways the VRAA attempted to counter the holding from the Shelby County decision.

The Pursuit Of Pluralism: The Lessons From The New French Audiovisual Communications Law, Michael I. Meyerson

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Electronic mass communications, which have become increasingly influential over the past quarter century, have also undergone rapid and profound technological change. Constitutional governments around the world have struggled to apply their fundamental legal principals to the electronic media through sensible and balanced regulation. Perhaps the central problem in such regulation is to protect truth in the media, mainly by encouraging diversity, without allowing the regulators themselves to exert undue influence over what is disseminated over the airwaves and cables of a country's communications infrastructure. The following article traces the history of France's attempts to solve this problem in its electronic …

Civil Liberties For Homosexuals: The Law In Limbo, Kenneth Lasson

All Faculty Scholarship

This article will examine the recent surge in litigation arising from assertions by homosexuals of their constitutional rights - cases that reflect the law in flux and conflict - and will demonstrate that both constitutional principles and social philosophy generally require resolution of the conflicts in favor of equality, without regard to sexual preference.

In Defense Of Group-Libel Laws, Or Why The First Amendment Should Not Protect Nazis, Kenneth Lasson

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The author discusses group libel laws, and the underlying problems when free speech is used as a defense by those who would defame specific racial or ethnic groups and/or minorities. The topic is further explained in reference to various state laws, and the subsequent court cases extant at the time of the article's writing which defined the issue in terms of law. References are also made to such laws in countries other than the United States for the sake of comparison.

The Cable Communications Policy Act Of 1984: A Balancing Act On The Coaxial Wires, Michael I. Meyerson

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After three decades of what Chief Justice Burger termed ‘the almost explosive development’ of cable television, Congress updated the Communications Act of 1934 with the Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984. The Act represents the culmination of a ‘decade long effort to update the Communications Act of 1934 . . . and bring our outdated communications laws into the information age.’ The 1984 Cable Act was a complicated piece of legislation, the result of countless compromises and political deals. This Article explains how Congress attempted to balance the competing, and sometimes mutually exclusive, interests of the cable operators, cities, video …

Vertical Restraints Guidelines: A Step Forward, Joe Sims, Robert H. Lande

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Copyright Notice Requirement In The United States: A Proposed Amendment Concerning Deliberate Omissions Of Notice, Lynn Mclain

All Faculty Scholarship

Outside the United States, many countries take the position that an

author owns the copyright to his or her work simply by virtue of having

created it; copyright protection is not conditioned on compliance with

notice or other formalities. 1 The United States, however, has historically

required copyright notice to be placed on works which are published.

Judge Friendly succinctly explained the American position: "The notice

requirement serves an important public purpose; the copyright proprietor

is protected so long and only so long as he gives effective warning to

trespassers that they are entering on forbidden ground.

Professional Sports And Antitrust Law: The Groundrules Of Immunity, Exemption And Liability, Phillip J. Closius

All Faculty Scholarship

As professional sports leagues increased their wealth and national prominence, the federal judicial system became uncomfortable with its characterization of sports as something other than a business. The Supreme Court reflected this change in policy in the 1950s by refusing to extend baseball's antitrust exemption to other sports. The application of the Sherman Act to all nonbaseball sports established the foundation for the forceful imposition of antitrust constraints on team owners in the sports litigation of the 1970s. These "revolutionary" decisions substantially eliminated the status of sports as a game or amusement insulated from the legal obligations of profit-making industries. …