Constitutional Law Commons^™

The Constitutional Case For "Red Flag" Laws, Timothy Zick

Popular Media

No abstract provided.

The Long Road Back To Skokie: Returning The First Amendment To Mask Wearers, Rob Kahn

Journal of Law and Policy

When the Seventh Circuit upheld the First Amendment right of Nazis to march in Skokie, Illinois in 1978, the protection of mask wearers was not far behind. Since then, doctrinal paths have diverged. While the Supreme Court continues to protect hate speech, mask wearing has been increasingly placed outside First Amendment protection. This article seeks to get to the bottom of this doctrinal divergence by addressing the symbolic purposes of mask bans—rooted in repudiating the Ku Klux Klan—as well as the doctrinal steps taken over the past forty years to restrict the First Amendment claims of mask wearers. It also …

The Case Against Expanding Defamation Law, Yonathan A. Arbel, Murat C. Mungan

Faculty Scholarship

It is considered axiomatic that defamation law protects reputation. This proposition—commonsensical, pervasive, and influential—is faulty. Underlying this fallacy is the failure to appreciate audience effects: the interaction between defamation law and members of the audience.

Defamation law seeks to affect the behavior of speakers by making them bear a cost for spreading untruthful information. Invariably, however, the law will also affect members of the audience, as statements made in a highly regulated environment tend to appear more reliable than statements made without accountability. Strict defamation law would tend to increase the perceived reliability of statements, which in some cases can …

Left With No Name: How Government Action In Intra-Church Trademark Disputes Violates The Free Exercise Clause Of The First Amendment, Mary Kate Nicholson

Washington and Lee Law Review

The United States was founded in part on the principle of freedom of religion, where citizens were free to practice any religion. The founding fathers felt so strongly about this principle that it was incorporated into the First Amendment. The Free Exercise Clause states that “Congress shall make no law . . . prohibiting the free exercise thereof . . . .” The Supreme Court later adopted the neutral principles approach to avoid Free Exercise violations resulting from courts deciding real property disputes. Without the application of the same neutral principles to intellectual property disputes between churches, however, there is …

The Integrity Of Marriage, Kaiponanea T. Matsumura

William & Mary Law Review

While the Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges resolved a dispute about access to legal marriage, it also exposed a rift between the Justices about what rights, obligations, and social meanings marriage should entail. The majority opinion described marriage as a “unified whole” comprised of “essential attributes,” both legal and extralegal. The dissents, in contrast, were more skeptical about marriage’s inherent legal content. Justice Scalia, for instance, characterized marriage as a mere bundle of “civil consequences” attached to “whatever sexual attachments and living arrangements [the law] wishes.” This side debate has taken center stage in several recent disputes. In …

American Legion V. American Humanist Association, Seth T. Bonilla

Public Land & Resources Law Review

The separation of church and state is a key element of American democracy, but its interpretation has been challenged as the country grows more diverse. In American Legion v. American Humanist Association, the Supreme Court adopted a new standard to analyze whether a religious symbol on public land maintained by public funding violated the Constitution’s Establishment Clause.

Constitutional Moral Hazard And Campus Speech, Jamal Greene

William & Mary Law Review

One underappreciated cost of constitutional rights enforcement is moral hazard. In economics, moral hazard refers to the increased propensity of insured individuals to engage in costly behavior. This Essay concerns what I call “constitutional moral hazard,” defined as the use of constitutional rights (or their conspicuous absence) to shield potentially destructive behavior from moral or pragmatic assessment. What I have in mind here is not simply the risk that people will make poor decisions when they have a right to do so, but that people may, at times, make poor decisions because they have a right. Moral hazard is not …

The Post-Truth First Amendment, Sarah Haan

Indiana Law Journal

Post-truthism is widely viewed as a political problem. This Article explores posttruthism as a constitutional law problem, and argues that, because post-truthism offers a normative framework for regulating information, we should take it seriously as a basis for law.

In its exploration of the influence of post-truth ideas on law, the Article focuses on the compelled speech doctrine. When the State mandates disclosure, it pits the interests of unwilling speakers against the interests of listeners. In the twenty-first century, speakers who are targeted by mandatory disclosure laws are often organizational actors with informational advantages, such as corporations. Listeners who stand …

Regulating Habit-Forming Technology, Kyle Langvardt

Fordham Law Review

Tech developers, like slot machine designers, strive to maximize the user’s “time on device.” They do so by designing habit-forming products— products that draw consciously on the same behavioral design strategies that the casino industry pioneered. The predictable result is that most tech users spend more time on device than they would like, about five hours of phone time a day, while a substantial minority develop life-changing behavioral problems similar to problem gambling. Other countries have begun to regulate habit-forming tech, and American jurisdictions may soon follow suit. Several state legislatures today are considering bills to regulate “loot boxes,” a …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

No abstract provided.

What Standards Apply When Freedoms Collide?, Neal Devins

Neal E. Devins

No abstract provided.

Fighting For The Fourth "R", Neal Devins

Neal E. Devins

No abstract provided.

First Amendment Under Fire: Racial Justice And Hate Speech, Neal Devins, Wornie Reed, Susan Herman, Alex Tsesis

Neal E. Devins

No abstract provided.

Federal Funds To Religious Groups: Where Are The First Amendment Boundaries?, Neal Devins

Neal E. Devins

No abstract provided.

The First Amendment And The World, Timothy Zick

Timothy Zick

No abstract provided.

The First Amendment In Trans-Border Perspective: Toward A More Cosmopolitan Orientation, Timothy Zick

Timothy Zick

This Article examines the First Amendment’s critical trans-border dimension—its application to speech, association, press, and religious activities that cross or occur beyond territorial borders. Judicial and scholarly analysis of this aspect of the First Amendment has been limited, at least as compared to consideration of more domestic or purely local concerns. This Article identifies two basic orientations with respect to the First Amendment—the provincial and the cosmopolitan. The provincial orientation, which is the traditional account, generally views the First Amendment rather narrowly—i.e., as a collection of local liberties or a set of limitations on domestic governance. First Amendment provincialism does …

Space, Place, And Speech: The Expressive Topography, Timothy Zick

Timothy Zick

No abstract provided.

Rights Dynamism, Timothy Zick

Timothy Zick

No abstract provided.

Recovering The Assembly Clause, Timothy Zick

Timothy Zick

No abstract provided.

Property, Place, And Public Discourse, Timothy Zick

Timothy Zick

No abstract provided.

Professional Rights Speech, Timothy Zick

Timothy Zick

Some regulations of professional-client communications raise important, but sofar largely overlooked, constitutional concerns. Three recent examples of professional speech regulation-restrictions on physician inquiries regarding firearms, "reparative" therapy bans, and compelled abortion disclosures-highlight an important intersection between professional speech and constitutional rights. In each of the three examples, state regulations implicate a non-expressive constitutional right--the right to bear arms, equality, and abortion. States are actively, sometimes even aggressively, using their licensing authority to limit and structure conversations between professionals and their clients regarding constitutional rights. The author contends that government regulation of "professional rights speech" should be subjected to heightened First …

Practical Equality: Discussion With Author Robert L. Tsai, Timothy Zick, Robert L. Tsai

Timothy Zick

Professor Timothy Zick discusses a new book titled "Practical Equality: Forging Justice in a Divided Nation," with its author, Professor Robert L. Tsai of American University Washington College of Law. Timothy Zick is the John Marshall Professor of Government and Citizenship at William & Mary Law School. His scholarship has explored a wide variety of constitutional issues, with a special focus on the First Amendment. Robert L. Tsai is Professor of Law at American University and a prize-winning essayist in constitutional law and history. Recorded before a live audience at William & Mary Law School on March 14, 2019. The …

Cross Burning, Cockfighting, And Symbolic Meaning: Toward A First Amendment Ethnography, Timothy Zick

Timothy Zick

No abstract provided.

Professors Alan J. Meese And Nathan B. Oman On Why Hobby Lobby And For-Profit Corporations Are Rfra Persons, Alan J. Meese, Nathan B. Oman

Nathan B. Oman

No abstract provided.

The Story Of A Forgotten Battle, Nathan B. Oman

Nathan B. Oman

No abstract provided.

The Supreme Court's Theory Of Private Law, Nathan B. Oman, Jason M. Solomon

Nathan B. Oman

In this Article, we revisit the clash between private law and the First Amendment in the Supreme Court’s recent case, Snyder v. Phelps, using a private-law lens. We are scholars who write about private law as individual justice, a perspective that has been lost in recent years but is currently enjoying something of a revival.

Our argument is that the Supreme Court’s theory of private law has led it down a path that has distorted its doctrine in several areas, including the First Amendment–tort clash in Snyder. In areas that range from punitive damages to preemption, the Supreme Court has …

The (Hoped For) Shallowness Of Progressive Skepticism Towards Religious Freedom, Nathan B. Oman

Nathan B. Oman

No abstract provided.

The Empirical Irony Of The Conflict Between Antidiscrimination And Religious Freedom, Nathan B. Oman

Nathan B. Oman

No abstract provided.

Hobby Lobby, Corporate Law, And The Theory Of The Firm: Why For-Profit Corporations Are Rfra Persons, Alan J. Meese, Nathan B. Oman

Nathan B. Oman

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Law Leading Cases: Judicial Elections, Nathan B. Oman

Nathan B. Oman

No abstract provided.