Law Commons^™

An Imminent Substantial Disruption: Towards A Uniform Standard For Balancing The Rights Of Students To Speak And The Rights Of Administrators To Discipline., Allison G. Kort

Allison G Kort

ABSTRACT An Imminent Substantial Disruption: Toward a Uniform Standard for Balancing the Rights of Students to Speak and the Rights of Administrators to Discipline. By Allison Kort Twenty-five years before the Supreme Court’s landmark school speech decision in Tinker v. Des Moines, 393 U.S. 503, 504 (1969), the Court cautioned against placing too much discretion in the hands of school boards. In Tinker, when students wore black armbands to protest the Vietnam War, the Supreme Court determined that student speech may not be censored when the record demonstrates no facts which would reasonably have led school authorities to forecast a …

Of Locke And Valor: Why The Supreme Court's Decision In United States V. Alvarez Does Not Foreclose Congress's Ability To Protect The Property Rights Of Medal Of Honor Recipients, Timothy J. Geverd

Timothy J. Geverd

No abstract provided.

A Matter Of Context: Casey And The Constitutionality Of Compelled Physician Speech, Scott W. Gaylord

Scott W. Gaylord

The last few years have seen an increasing number of States seek to regulate abortion procedures—from heart auscultation statutes to admitting privileges to minimum facility standards. One such regulation has involved “speech-and-display” statutes, which require physicians to conduct an ultrasound, display the sonogram images to a woman considering an abortion, and describe the anatomical features that are visible in the image. In addition to asserting traditional due process claims, physicians have challenged these ultrasound requirements on First Amendment grounds, arguing that speech-and-display laws compel physicians to engage in speech activity against their will and (sometimes) against their medical judgment.

Although …

Anonymous Speech On The Internet: Why Current Efforts By States To Regulate Anonymous Speech Fail Constitutional Scrutiny, And How Courts Should Protect First Amendment Rights, Conor Francis Linehan

Conor Francis Linehan

The legislatures in New York and Illinois have attempted to regulate the speech of individuals on the Internet and threaten to void their anonymity. The legislatures are trying to reach the actionable or harmful speech that often shows up on websites like Reddit.com. However, the bills have reached too far, and encompass much speech that is absolutely protected. This note argues that the right of anonymous speech on the Internet should be protected from government encroachment, and the proper way to protect the interests of individuals who are the subject of libelous or damaging speech should be through a re-working …

The Church Of Animal Liberation: Animal Rights As “Religion” Under The Free Exercise Clause, Bruce Friedrich

Bruce Friedrich

In this article, I do two things: First, I argue that a belief in animal liberation constitutes religion under constitutional jurisprudence interpreting the Free Exercise Clause of the U.S. Constitution. Thus, every time a prison warden, teacher or school administrator, or government employer refuses to accommodate the ethical belief of an animal liberationist, they are infringing on that person’s religious freedom, and they should have to satisfy the same constitutional or statutory requirements that would adhere were the asserted interest based on more traditional religious exercise. Second, I suggest that one possible solution to the problem of widespread violation of …

Lethal Injection And The Right Of Access: The Intersection Of The Eighth And First Amendments, Timothy F. Brown

Timothy Brown

The Spring and Summer of 2014 have witnessed renewed debate on the constitutionality of the death penalty after a series of high profile legal battles concerning access to lethal injection protocols and subsequent questionable executions. Due to shortages in the drugs traditionally used for the lethal injection, States have changed their lethal injection protocols to shield information from both the prisoners and the public. Citing public safety concerns, the States refuse to release information concerning the procurement of the drugs to the public. Such obstruction hinders the public’s ability to determine the cruelty of the punishment imposed and creates the …