Law Commons^™

First Amendment; Freedom Of The Press; Erosion Of New York Times Co. V. Sullivan; Herbert V. Lando, Edward Howlett

Akron Law Review

In Herbert v. Lando the Supreme Court announced that the first amendment does not require a constitutional privilege foreclosing direct inquiry into the editorial process. While the decision may seem correct in its overturning of the absolute privilege afforded to the editorial process by the Second Circuit, nevertheless, by refusing to grant even a qualified privilege to the editorial process the Court may have upset the delicate balance between an individual's interest in his reputation and society's interest in a free flow of information recognized in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan.

Justice Brennan's Gender Jurisprudence, Rebecca Korzec

Akron Law Review

However, less attention has been focused on Justice Brennan's dramatic impact on the Supreme Court's gender jurisprudence. More than any other member of the Court, Justice Brennan recognized the complexity and pervasiveness of sex discrimination and its costs to society as a whole. Brennan's opinions recognized that sex differentiation is largely cultural in origin, rather than based on "real" gender differences. As a result, Justice Brennan created a truly independent gender jurisprudence, eventually emerging as the architect of the Supreme Court's contemporary test for evaluating claims of sex-based discrimination.

Understanding the significance of Brennan's contribution requires an appreciation of the …

Defamatory Non-Media Speech And First Amendment Methodology, Steven H. Shiffrin

Steven H. Shiffrin

In the course of his eloquent commentary upon New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, the late Professor Kalven enthused that the Court had written "an opinion that may prove to be the best and most important it has ever produced in the realm of freedom of speech." This excitement was generated not by the Court's rather narrow holding but rather by the hope that Sullivan would serve as the opening wedge to dislodge the clear and present danger test, to dismantle the "two-level" approach to first amendment analysis (reflected in cases such as Chaplinsky, Beauharnais, and Roth), and instead to …

The Stealth Press Clause, Sonja R. West

Scholarly Works

In this piece, however, I pause to push back on the conventional wisdom that the Court actually has refused to view the press as constitutionally special. Contrary to what we have been told, I contend the Supreme Court has indeed recognized the press as constitutionally unique from nonpress speakers. The justices have done so implicitly and often in dicta, but nonetheless they have continually and repeatedly treated the press differently. While rarely acknowledged explicitly, this "Stealth Press Clause" has been hard at work carving out special protections for the press,guiding the Court's analysis and offering valuable insights into how we …

First Amendment Equal Protection: On Discretion, Inequality, And Participation, Daniel P. Tokaji

Michigan Law Review

The tension between equality and discretion lies at the heart of some of the most vexing questions of constitutional law. The considerable discretion that many official decisionmakers wield raises the spectre that violations of equality norms will sometimes escape detection. This is true in a variety of settings, whether discretion lies over speakers' access to public fora, implementation of the death penalty, or the recounting of votes. Is the First Amendment violated, for example, when a city ordinance gives local officials broad discretion to determine the conditions under which political demonstrations may take place? Is equal protection denied where the …

The Heroes Of The First Amendment, Frederick Schauer

Michigan Law Review

In 1950, Felix Frankfurter famously observed that "[i)t is a fair summary of history to say that the safeguards of liberty have frequently been forged in controversies involving not very nice people." The circumstances of Justice Frankfurter's observation were hardly atypical, for his opinion arose in a Fourth Amendment case involving a man plainly guilty of the crime with which he had been charged - fraudulently altering postage stamps in order to make relatively ordinary ones especially valuable for collectors. Indeed, Fourth Amendment cases typically present the phenomenon that Frankfurter pithily identified, for most of the people injured by an …

The Constitution As A Whole: A Partial Political Science Perspective, Mark A. Graber

University of Richmond Law Review

The Bill of Rights: Creationand Reconstruction ("The Bill of Rights")' is a professionally rewarding and disturbing masterpiece. The work is professionally rewarding because Professor Akhil Amar develops a meticulously detailed, historically sophisticated, and largely persuasive account of how the liberties set out in the Bill of Rights were originally understood and the original relationship between the Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment. This is state of the art legal scholarship that will no doubt influence the way the next generation of constitutional lawyers and historians study fundamental constitutional rights. Professor Amar's book is professionally disturbing in part because, having …

On Balancing Scales, Kaleidoscopes, And The Blurred Limits Of Academic Freedom, Harry F. Tepker Jr., Joseph Harroz Jr.

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Matter Of "Governing' Importance": Providing Business Defamation And Product Disparagement Defendants Full First Amendment Protection, Lisa Magee Arent

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

A Prior Restraint By Any Other Name: The Judicial Response To Media Challenges Of Gag Orders Directed At Trial Participants, René L. Todd

Michigan Law Review

Gag orders directed at trial participants do not directly intrude into the media's editorial process, but instead result in a reduction of the total communication available regarding trial proceedings. In this way, participant-directed gag orders are effective, albeit indirect, restraints upon the media. This Note examines the dynamics of these participant-directed restrictions and their consequent effect upon the media. Part I examines participant-directed gag orders in relation to traditional prior restraint doctrine. After discussing the history of prior restraint doctrine and the present standard of prior restraint analysis, Part I relates efforts by courts to apply. prior restraint doctrine to …

Defamation—A Standard Of Review For Constitutional Facts, Susan Stevens

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Free Speech And Intellectual Values, Lee C. Bollinger

Faculty Scholarship

In the preface to his book, The Negro and the First Amendment, Harry Kalven observed that the idea of free speech was marked by an unusually keen "quest for coherent general theory." Every area of the law, Kalven puzzled, was rife with inconsistency and ambiguity, yet inexplicably there was little tolerance· for anomalies in the field of free speech. As to why this was so, Kalven speculated that "free speech is so close to the heart of democratic organization that if we do not have an appropriate theory for our law here, we feel we really do not understand the …

Public Figures And Malice: Recent Supreme Court Decisions Restricting The Constitutional Privilege, Ann M. Annase, Scott A. Milburn

University of Richmond Law Review

Historically, Americans have placed great importance on both their good name and their right to free speech. "As ingrained as both of these ideals are in the very fabric of our society, they sometimes run counter to each other." The Supreme Court has tried to balance these conflicting ideals in libel cases involving the first amendment's protection of freedom of the press. In the 1964 case of New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, the Court held that the first amendment's constitutional privilege extends to those publishing defamatory statements concerning official conduct, and that a plaintiff in such a case could …

The Applicability Of The Constitutional Privilege To Defame: Question Of Law Or Question Of Fact?, Christopher G. Scanlon

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Defamatory Non-Media Speech And First Amendment Methodology, Steven H. Shiffrin

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

In the course of his eloquent commentary upon New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, the late Professor Kalven enthused that the Court had written "an opinion that may prove to be the best and most important it has ever produced in the realm of freedom of speech." This excitement was generated not by the Court's rather narrow holding but rather by the hope that Sullivan would serve as the opening wedge to dislodge the clear and present danger test, to dismantle the "two-level" approach to first amendment analysis (reflected in cases such as Chaplinsky, Beauharnais, and Roth …

Constitutional Law-First Amendment-Newspaper Advertisement Of Abortion Referral Service Entitled To First Amendment Protection

University of Richmond Law Review

Controversies involving the first amendment rights of freedom of press and speech are not confined to reporters vowing to protect the identities of their sources against government prosecutors or committees attempting to identify them. An area of conflict of equal import is the degree of protection, if any, afforded commercial speech by the Constitution. In 1942, the Supreme Court in Valentine v. Chrestensen enunciated the commercial speech doctrine which has been used, despite subsequent criticism and attempts to limit the holding, to remove commercial adver- tisement from the ambit of constitutional protection.

Problems In Defining The Institutional Status Of The Press, Andrew A. Jaxa-Debicki

University of Richmond Law Review

This comment will deal with the concept of freedom of the press within the context of recent Supreme Court rulings which have directly or indirectly involved definitions of the role of the organized press in the governmental framework established by the Constitution. Specifically, the focus will be in the areas of the law dealing with defamation, testimonial privilege and the fair trial-free press controversy. The purpose will be to discern whether the Supreme Court is developing a concept of freedom of the press which is distinguishable from the general guarantee of freedom of speech and which derives its rationale from …

Unconstitutional Conditions Upon Public Employment: New Departures In The Protection Of First Amendment Rights, Harold H. Bruff

Publications

No abstract provided.

The First Amendment And Protection Of Reputation And Privacy--New York Times Co. V. Sullivan And How It Grew, William O. Bertelsman

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.