Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Law Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

First Amendment

2017

UF Law Faculty Publications

Articles 1 - 4 of 4

Full-Text Articles in Law

Legislating The First Amendment: A Trio Of Recommendations For Lawmakers Targeting Free Expression, Clay Calvert Jan 2017

Legislating The First Amendment: A Trio Of Recommendations For Lawmakers Targeting Free Expression, Clay Calvert

UF Law Faculty Publications

This Article offers three recommendations for lawmakers attempting to restrict expression that is presumptively protected by the First Amendment. The proposals include: (1) embracing a ''prism of protection" through which all potential laws affecting expression are filtered prior to drafting; (2) mandating inclusion of sunset clauses in all statutes that may detrimentally impact free expression; and (3) adopting a comprehensive legislative oversight and review process for determining if an expired statute should be renewed, revised or abandoned. Although far from creating what Dean Roscoe Pound more than 100 years ago called a "science of legislation, " the proposals here nonetheless …


Can The Undue-Burden Standard Add Clarity And Rigor To Intermediate Scrutiny In First Amendment Jurisprudence? A Proposal Cutting Across Constitutional Domains For Time, Place & Manner Regulations, Clay Calvert, Minch Minchin Jan 2017

Can The Undue-Burden Standard Add Clarity And Rigor To Intermediate Scrutiny In First Amendment Jurisprudence? A Proposal Cutting Across Constitutional Domains For Time, Place & Manner Regulations, Clay Calvert, Minch Minchin

UF Law Faculty Publications

When the government regulates the time, place, or manner of speech, it must satisfy intermediate scrutiny and prove that (1) it has a significant interest, (2) the regulation is narrowly tailored, and (3) ample alternative channels of expression remain open. This article advocates simplifying and improving this test in First Amendment jurisprudence by replacing the often-confused second and third prongs with the far less deferential and much more rigorous undue-burden test embraced by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2016 in the abortion-regulation case of Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt. Incorporating the undue-burden standard maintains intermediate scrutiny’s balancing framework while …


The Government Speech Doctrine In Walker’S Wake: Early Rifts And Reverberations On Free Speech, Viewpoint Discrimination, And Offensive Expression, Clay Calvert Jan 2017

The Government Speech Doctrine In Walker’S Wake: Early Rifts And Reverberations On Free Speech, Viewpoint Discrimination, And Offensive Expression, Clay Calvert

UF Law Faculty Publications

This Article examines the immediate effects on free expression of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling in Walker v. Texas Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans, Inc. involving the government speech doctrine. In Walker, a sharply—and largely partisanly—divided Court upheld, in the face of a First Amendment challenge, Texas’s decision denying a private organization’s application for a specialty license plate featuring Confederate battle flag imagery. This Article initially reviews the government speech doctrine and Walker. It then analyzes Walker’s impact on cases that, like it, involve specialty license plate programs. Next, this Article explores lower court efforts stretching …


Beyond Trademarks And Offense: Tam And The Justices’ Evolution On Free Speech, Clay Calvert Jan 2017

Beyond Trademarks And Offense: Tam And The Justices’ Evolution On Free Speech, Clay Calvert

UF Law Faculty Publications

In Matal v. Tam , the Supreme Court threw out the “disparagement clause” of the Lanham Act, the federal trademark law, because trademarks are private speech and thus regulating them based on government determinations of offensiveness violates the First Amendment. The solid outcome here contrasts with the narrow, incremental results in some other recent First Amendment cases that reached the Court.