Law Commons^™

What If I Want My Kids To Watch Pornography?: Protecting Children From "Indecent" Speech, Ashutosh Bhagwat

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

Under current First Amendment doctrine, a law directed at indecent speech is treated as "content-based" regulation of speech, and thus must satisfy the "strict scrutiny" test to survive constitutional challenge - the regulation must be narrowly tailored to advance a compelling state interest. A number of laws regulating indecent speech have been passed in recent years, and when challenged, the government has defended these regulations on the ground that the State has a compelling interest in the protection of children from harmful materials. Underlying this argument, however, is a deep ambiguity regarding the precise nature of the government's legitimate objectives …

Spheres Of Autonomy: Reforming The Content Neutrality Doctrine In First Amendment Jurisprudence, Steven J. Heyman

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

Modern First Amendment jurisprudence almost exclusively prohibits laws restricting freedom of speech based on the content of the speech. In this Article, Professor Steven Heyman takes exception to the content neutrality doctrine, arguing that its strict application both minimizes other interests competing with speech and fails to elevate the premises on which the First Amendment stands.

The Idea Of Public Reason Resuscitated, James P. Madigan

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

In this Article, James Madigan examines the role of public reason in a democratic government, including what views should play a role in determining public reason. Madigan criticizes John Rawls for including comprehensive views in constitutional debates, and argues that only reasons grounded in political values should be used when debating constitutional issues and fundamental rights.

Terrorism And The Bill Of Rights, Rodney A. Smolla

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

This year is the Tenth Anniversary of the William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal, and the Journal is very fortunate and honored to have Professor Rodney Smolla publish an article in this year's volume. Professor Smolla played an integral role in the founding and organizing of not only the Journal, but also the Institute of Bill of Rights Law at William & Mary Law School. The Journal extends its most appreciative thanks to Professor Smolla for all his help.

In this Article, Professor Smolla examines the right to free speech in the context of Black v. Commonwealth, a case …

Antebellum Perspectives On Free Speech, Mark A. Graber

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

In his book, Free Speech, "The People's Darling Privilege": Struggles for Freedom of Expression in American History, Professor Michael Kent Curtis documents the political struggles over free speech rights that took place between the ratification of the Bill of Rights in 1791 and the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868. Professor Curtis looks to these early free speech fights to help define the contours of contemporary speech rights. In this review, Professor Mark A. Graber discusses Professor Curtis's contribution to constitutional history, and the implications of The People's Darling Privilege for constitutional theorists

The Rhetoric Of Judicial Critique: From Judicial Restraint To The Virtual Bill Of Rights, Michael J. Gerhardt

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

Professor Michael Gerhardt traces the rhetoric employed by national leaders and commentators over the past century to describe popular conceptions of the judicial function. In particular, Professor Gerhardt examines the evolution of the terminology used in popular and political rhetoric, revealing their inconsistent application to political ideologies through time. Professor Gerhardt argues that such shifts in usage correspond with transfers of power between the political authorities controlling the central interests at stake in constitutional adjudication. Professor Gerhardt applies the shortcomings of traditional political rhetoric to the issues surrounding technological advancements, concluding that the proper treatment of technology by the Supreme …

Speech, Press, And Democracy, Paul Finkelman

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

Professor Michael Kent Curtis's latest book, Free Speech, "The People's Darling Privilege": Struggles for Freedom of Expression in American History, chronicles the efforts of ordinary Americans to protect their right to freedom of expression from 1791-1865. Professor Paul Finkelman reviews this book, focusing primarily on Curtis's discussions of suppression of speech prior to and during the Civil War period and additionally providing some thoughts concerning the appropriateness of revoking free speech rights during times of war.

The Constitution And The Other Constitution, Michael Kent Curtis

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

In this article, Professor Michael Kent Curtis examines how laws that shape the distribution of wealth intersect with and affect popular sovereignty and free speech and press. He presents this discussion in the context of the effect of the Other Constitution on The Constitution. Professor Curtis begins by taking a close-up look at the current campaign finance system and the concentration of media ownership in a few corporate bodies and argues that both affect the way in which various political issues are presented to the public, if at all. Professor Curtis continues by talking about the origins of our constitutional …

The Business Of Expression: Economic Liberty, Political Factions And The Forgotten First Amendment Legacy Of Justice George Sutherland, Samuel R. Olken

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

In The Business of Expression: Economic Liberty, Political Factions And The Forgotten First Amendment Legacy of Justice George Sutherland, Samuel Olken traces the dichotomy that emerged in constitutional law in the aftermath of the Lochner era between economic liberty and freedom of expression. During the 1930s, while a deeply divided United States Supreme Court adopted a laissez faire approach to economic regulation, it viewed with great suspicion laws that restricted the manner and content of expression. During this period, Justice George Sutherland often clashed with the majority consistently insisting that state regulation of private economic rights bear a close and …

Assessing The Legitimacy Of Governmental Regulation Of Modern Speech Aimed At Social Reform: The Importance Of Hindsight And Causation, Kenneth J. Brown

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

When governmental regulation or punishment of speech occurs subsequent to the speech itself, such regulation is conducted with the benefit of hindsight. This is important because hindsight enables us to discern whether the expression in question has caused any legally cognizable harm. When speech is responsible for such a harm, its punishment is justfied by this causal connection. Yet conversely, when we know that speech is consequence-free, its ex post punishment is conceptually indefensible. In the first part of this article, Mr. Brown criticizes the imminent lawless action standard articulated in Brandenburg v. Ohio for failing to embrace fully this …

The Right Of Expressive Association And Private Universities' Racial Preferences And Speech Codes, David E. Bernstein

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

The reaction to Boy Scouts of America v. Dale has divided along ideological lines. Conservatives generally support Dale because in their eyes it prevents the government from taking sides in the culture wars. "Progressives, "including many liberals who otherwise have strong civil libertarian instincts, oppose Dale because it inhibits the enforcement of antidiscrimination laws in some contexts. The underlying issue in Dale was whether a private, nonprofit expressive association has a First Amendment right to discriminate to prevent dilution of its message. Despite the ideological rancor over Dale, this right does not favor groups with any particular perspective, but protects …

The Corporate Defamation Plaintiff In The Era Of Slapps: Revisiting New York Times V. Sullivan, D. Mark Jackson

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

Corporations have increasingly used defamation suits as an offensive weapon. Many of these suits may be defined as SLAPP suits-Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation. These suits, often meritless, are designed to harass and silence a corporations' critics. Following a survey oft he history of defamation law and the protection of free speech, this Note argues that corporations should be treated as per se public figures in defamation suits. This derives from the uniquely public nature of a corporation and an assumption of the risk of defamatory falsehoods that arises from the act of incorporation.Treating corporations in this manner would place …

Protecting The Cellular Citizen-Critic: The State Of Political Speech From Sullivan To Popa, Clay Calvert

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

The 1999federal appellate court decision of United States v. Popa suggests the startling emergence of a nascent First Amendment right to engage in anonymous and racist telephonic harassment of government officials. Professor Calvert suggests that this decision sadly reflects the state of political discourse in the United States today, namely a dialectical free-for-all directly contrary to the vision of philosopher-educator Alexander Meiklejohn, a vision advanced by the United States Supreme Court in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan but rejected by the shout-and- attack cultures of cable news channel political talk shows and call-in radio programs. The Popa decision also …

Student Division Symposium Sponsored By The Institute Of The Bill Of Rights Law: Policing Obscenity And Pornography In An Online World, Ann Beeson, Deirdre Mulligan, Bruce Taylor, Bruce Watson, Jonathan Zittrain

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

Two Degrees Of Speech Protection: Free Speech Through The Prism Of Agricultural Disparagement Laws, Harold M. Wasserman

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

In the wake of a 1989 national television broadcast reporting the alleged cancer risk of a chemical applied to apples on trees, many states passed agricultural product disparagement (APD) statutes. These statutes grant civil causes of action to the growers and sellers of perishable food products, against anyone who speaks negatively or disparagingly, without basis in scientific evidence, about the product's safety. In this Article, Howard M Wasserman explores the interplay between the APD statutes and the First Amendment. First, Mr. Wasserman discusses the three categories of restrictions on the freedom of speech, focusing primarily on private civil tort actions …

Commercial Slogans: The First Amendment Should Shield Their Use In Campaign Speech, Raena L. Smith

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

Commercial slogans and trademarks are increasingly finding their way into every aspect of the American vernacular, including speech by political officials and candidates. A previous published Note in the Journal of Law and Politics has argued that such speech should be restricted as it infringes upon the copyright or trademark holder's rights established both under federal and state law. This Note takes the opposing view, arguing that, even if campaign speech falls under the purview of federal or state statutes, the First Amendment prevents the application of laws to restrict campaign speech.

Lincoln, Vallandingham, And Anti-War Speech In The Civil War, Michael Kent Curtis

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

In the early morning hours of May 5, 1863, Union soldiers forcibly arrested Clement L. Vallandigham, a prominent Democratic politician and former congressman, for an anti-war speech which he had given a few days earlier in Mount Vernon, Ohio. Vallandigham's arrest ignited debate about freedom of speech in a democracy during a time of war and the First Amendment rights of critics of an administration. This Article is one in a series by Professor Curtis which examines episodes in the history of free speech before and during the Civil War.

In this Article, Professor Curtis explores the First Amendment's guarantee …

The Moral Failure Of The Clear And Present Danger Test, David R. Dow

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

The clear and present danger test has been used for almost a century to determine the speech the government may restrain. This test assumes that at some point speech transforms into an act and at that moment the speech becomes punishable. Under the clear and present danger test, the First Amendment does not protect speech that is an incitement to imminent lawless action. Professor Dow suggests that the clear and present danger test protects too little speech. He posits that speech should be protected unless the following three conditions are met: (1) the speaker's specific intent in uttering the words …

Freedom To Speak Unintelligibly: The First Amendment Implications Of Government-Controlled Encryption, Jill M. Ryan

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

The emergence of the computer has revolutionized communications, allowing quick dissemination of information to large numbers of people. Information transmitted electronically is often safeguarded through a widely available method known as encryption, which renders the information unintelligible to anyone without the ability to decrypt the message. Law enforcement agencies argue that unregulated encryption hinders their ability to prevent crime by providing criminals with a method of communication that cannot be accessed by police departments and government agencies. Proponents of encryption argue that privacy, security, and constitutional concerns outweigh law enforcement's fears, guaranteeing the ability to communicate confidentially.

In 1994, the …

The Conflict Between "Fair Housing" And Free Speech, Mary Caroline Lee

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

Under the Fair Housing Act and its 1988 amendments, the Department of Housing and Urban Development has the power to investigate alleged discrimination in public housing. The targets of these investigations are often neighborhood organizations and community groups voicing their opposition to the placement of public housing in their neighborhoods. The alleged discrimination can be nothing more than group meetings and the petitioning of local government officials. Mindful that such investigations have sometimes adversely affected the exercise of First Amendment rights, in 1994 HUD issued guidelines for handling fair housing complaints when such rights are at issue.

This Note will …

Association, Advocacy, And The First Amendment, Victor Brudney

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

Monkey Trials: Science, Defamation, And The Suppression Of Dissent, Michael Kent Curtis

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

In 1992, Rolling Stone magazine published "The Origin of AIDS. ?" The article explored a controversial and unconfirmed theory that the AIDS epidemic had been an inadvertent result of a polio vaccine trial conducted in Africa in the late 1950s. The researcher who conducted the African trials discussed by Rolling Stone sued the magazine for libel. He alleged that the article should be interpreted as asserting that he had caused the epidemic, that the AIDS-polio vaccine theory was false, and that it defamed him. Monkey Trials explores the controversial theory of the origin of AIDS and considers whether discussion (or …

A Matter Of Opinion: Milkovich Four Years Later, Kathryn Dix Sowle

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

The H-Bomb And The First Amendment, Erwin Knoll

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

"Buying Up Speech": Active Government And The Terms Of The First Amendment And Fourteenth Amendments, William T. Mayton

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

Triangulating The Boundaries Of The Pentagon Papers, John Cary Sims

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

Obscenity, Pornography, And The First Amendment Theory, Arnold H. Loewy

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

The Virginia "Son Of Sam" Law: An Unconsitutional Approach To Victim Compensation, Kerry Casey

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

Where They're Calling From: Cultural Roots Of Rap, Jimmie L. Briggs Jr.

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.