Law Commons^™

When Does F*** Not Mean F***?: Fcc V. Fox Television Stations And A Call For Protecting Emotive Speech, W. Wat Hopkins

Federal Communications Law Journal

The Supreme Court of the United States does not always deal cogently with nontraditional language. The most recent example is FCC v. Fox Television Stations, in which the Justices became sidetracked into attempting to define the f-word and then to determine whether, when used as a fleeting expletive rather than repeatedly, the word is indecent for broadcast purposes. The Court would do well to avoid definitions and heed Justice John Marshall Harlan's advice in Cohen v. California to provide protection for the emotive, as well as the cognitive, element of speech

The "Strong Medicine" Of The Overbreadth Doctrine: When Statutory Exceptions Are No More Than A Placebo, Christopher A. Pierce

Federal Communications Law Journal

In United States v. Stevens, the United States Supreme Court invalidated a federal statute criminalizing the interstate sale and distribution of depictions of animal cruelty on First Amendment grounds. While Stevens demonstrates the Court's reluctance to create a new category of speech outside of First Amendment protection, Stevens also stands for the proposition that borrowing the exceptions clause from the Court's obscenity standard will not adequately protect a statute from invalidation as overbroad. This Note discusses the use of the obscenity standard's exceptions clause in nonobscenity statutes and the Court's treatment of the exceptions clause in Stevens. This Note concludes …

Equal Citizenship And The Individual Right To Vote, Jospeh Fishkin

Indiana Law Journal

An emerging consensus among election law scholars urges courts to break out of “the stagnant discourse of individual rights and competing state interests” and instead adopt a jurisprudence of “structural” democratic values that sidelines individual rights. This structuralist approach won out in the great “rightsstructure” debate in election law, and came to dominate the field, during a period in which the main controversies—vote dilution, gerrymandering, ballot access, campaign finance—were all ones in which the structuralist move was illuminating. However, structuralism is now causing both scholars and courts to evaluate the new wave of vote denial controversies, over such issues as …

A Review Of Constitutional Theocracy, By Ran Hirschl, Sadia Saeed

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

No abstract provided.

The Framers' Intent: John Adams, His Era, And The Fourth Amendment, Thomas K. Clancy

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Boundaries Of Privacy Harm, M. Ryan Calo

Indiana Law Journal

Just as a burn is an injury caused by heat, so is privacy harm a unique injury with specific boundaries and characteristics. This Essay describes privacy harm as falling into two related categories. The subjective category of privacy harm is the perception of unwanted observation. This category describes unwelcome mental states—anxiety, embarrassment, fear—that stem from the belief that one is being watched or monitored. Examples of subjective privacy harms include everything from a landlord eavesdropping on his tenants to generalized government surveillance.

The objective category of privacy harm is the unanticipated or coerced use of information concerning a person against …

Retail Rebellion And The Second Amendment, Darrell A. H. Miller

Indiana Law Journal

When, if ever, is there a Second Amendment right to kill a cop? This piece seeks to answer that question. In District of Columbia v. Heller, the Supreme Court held that the Second Amendment codifies a natural right to keep and bear arms for selfdefense. That right to self-defense extends to both private and public threats, including self-defense against agents of a tyrannical government. Moreover, the right is individual. Individuals―not just communities―have the right to protect themselves from public violence. Individuals―not just militias―have the right to defend themselves against tyranny. In McDonald v. City of Chicago, the Court went further, …

The Roberts Court And Freedom Of Speech, Erwin Chemerinsky

Federal Communications Law Journal

This is an edited version of a speech delivered on December 16, 2010 in Washington, D.C., as part of the Federal Communications Bar Association's Distinguished Speaker Series.

This speech was given by Dean Erwin Chemerinsky in December 2010 as part of the FCBA's Distinguished Speaker Series. In the speech, Dean Chemerinsky offers his perspectives on and analysis of the Supreme Court's position on freedom of speech in recent years. He highlights important recent freedom of speech decisions made by the Roberts Court, and gives some projections as to where the court is heading in the years to come, given its …

How Elevation Of Corporate Free Speech Rights Affects Legality Of Network Neutrality, Barbara A. Cherry

Federal Communications Law Journal

In Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010), the U.S. Supreme Court overruled a century of precedent to hold that corporations must be treated identically to natural persons with regard to political speech. This Article describes how the Court's decision is a radical departure from history that mirrors the FCC's flawed analysis in its classification of broadband Internet access services as an information service with no separable telecommunications component subject to common carriage regulation. Overall, the combinatorial effect of Citizens United and the FCC's classification of broadband access service as an information service is to elevate the constitutional free speech …

Wikileaks Would Not Qualify To Claim Federal Reporter’S Privilege In Any Form, Jonathan Peters

Federal Communications Law Journal

This Article addresses whether WikiLeaks could claim a federal reporter's privilege if the U.S. government or a U.S. entity tried to compel one of the site's staff members to disclose the source(s) of any documents it has released. After exploring the origins of the First Amendment-based privilege, the Author argues that WikiLeaks would not be able to claim it. First, the website does not engage in investigative reporting. Second, it has not taken steps consistently to minimize harm. He also discusses congressional attempts to pass a federal shield law, paying special attention to H.R. 985 and S. 448, the two …

International Media Law Reform And First Amendment Agnosticism: Review Of Lee Bollinger’S Uninhibited, Robust, And Wide-Open: A Free Press For A New Century, Enrique Armijo

Federal Communications Law Journal

Lee Bollinger's Uninhibited, Robust, and Wide-Open argues that in an increasingly globalized world, the United States must seek to export First Amendment free press principles to other countries. His project, however, is belied by the fact that media law is a product of context and history as much as legalism. His proposals for reconceptualizing our own animating vision for a free press here in the States are also in many important respects inconsistent with the First Amendment itself.

Re-Solidifying Racial Bloc Voting: Empirics And Legal Doctrine In The Melting Pot, D. James Greiner

Indiana Law Journal

Racial bloc voting is the central concept in judicial regulation of redistricting. For the past several decades, the definition and proof of this concept have depended on two premises: that polities can be conceptualized in biracial terms and that nearly perfect information on voting patterns can be inexpensively obtained from simple statistical methods. In fact, however, neither premise has been true for some time, as the nation has become multiracial and allegations have increased that Caucasians vote less monolithically than before, with both assertions imposing severe stress on the simple statistical methods previously used to assess voting patterns. In this …

Abuse Of Power And Corruption In Kenya: Will The New Constitution Enhance Government Accountability, Migai Akech

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

This article suggests that corruption in the Kenyan government is largely an institutional problem, rather than a cultural one. It attributes such corruption to the predominance of arbitrary power, especially in the statutory (as opposed to constitutional) order. The statutory order grants executive, legislative, and judicial actors broad powers without establishing effective procedural mechanisms to circumscribe their exercise. In the absence of effective regulation, law often aids the abuse of power and corruption. Although the new constitution establishes principles and mechanisms that may enhance government accountability, the statutory order must be aligned with the values and principles of this new …

First Amendment Investigations And The Inescapable Pragmatism Of The Common Law Of Free Speech, Lawrence Rosenthal

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Costs Of Heightened Pleading, Alexander A. Reinert

Indiana Law Journal

In Conley v. Gibson, the Supreme Court announced its commitment to a liberal pleading regime in federal civil cases, and for decades thereafter was steadfast in resisting ad hoc heightened pleading rules adopted by lower courts. Thus, from 1957 until a few years ago, most litigants could count on surviving a motion to dismiss a complaint for failure to state a claim so long as their pleading provided some minimal notice to the defendant of the nature of their claim. Enter Ashcroft v. Iqbal and Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly. Iqbal and Twombly, by many accounts, two-stepped the Court from …

Signing Unconstitutional Laws, William Baude

Indiana Law Journal

It has become fairly common for Presidents to sign laws that they think are unconstitutional, at least in part. Some scholars argue that this is unconstitutional. Others defend it, but on pragmatic grounds, as if one cannot afford to be a constitutional formalist in today’s government.

Both sides are wrong. In a wide range of cases, there is nothing wrong with signing unconstitutional laws. Indeed, it is required. Yet the President must exercise this power responsibly. He must have other constitutional duties that justify signing the remainder of the bill into law, and he must be prepared to use his …

From Sovereignty To Responsibility: An Emerging International Norm And Its Call To Action In Burma, Alison Mccormick

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

"[O]ur struggle for democracy is a struggle for our everyday life." This, in the words of long-detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, describes the isolated pariah state of Burma. Under brutal military rule since 1962, Burma is still desperately trying to change its deplorable circumstances through the leadership of Suu Kyi, but continues to fail due to the regime-written "new" constitution that guarantees the regime's continued leading role in the state apparatus.2 Illegitimate elections and continued repression of the democratic opposition allow for the regime's violations of basic human rights to continue. Rights violations that include displacement, forced labor, …

A Review Of Beyond Citizenship: American Identity After Globalization, By Peter J. Spiro, Andy Williams

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

No abstract provided.

Democracy, Gender Equality, And Customary Law: Constitutionalizing Internal Cultural Disruption, Susan H. Williams

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

Customary law often includes gender discriminatory rules that violate women's rights under constitutional equality guarantees. Dialogic democracy theory offers valuable tools that can help a legal system both to protect customary law and to protect the equality of its women citizens. By focusing on the need for challenge and on the dialogue within the cultural community, the legal system can create incentives and conditions to support the capacity of women to shape the customary law of their own communities. This approach is necessary because legal rights for women, when imposed by the larger society, often result in backlash within minority …