Law Commons^™

Speech Beyond Borders: Extraterritoriality And The First Amendment, Anna Su

Vanderbilt Law Review

Does the First Amendment follow the flag? In Boumediene v. Bush, the Supreme Court categorically rejected the claim that constitutional rights do not apply at all to governmental actions taken against aliens located abroad. Instead, the Court made the application of such rights, the First Amendment presumably included, contingent on "objective factors and practical concerns." In addition, by affirming previous decisions, Boumediene also extended its functional test to cover even U.S. citizens, leaving them in a situation where they might be without any constitutional recourse for violations of their First Amendment rights. But lower courts have found in the recent …

The Institutional Progress Clause, Jake Linford

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

There is a curious anomaly at the intersection of copyright and free speech. In cases like Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the United States Supreme Court has exhibited a profound distaste for tailoring free speech rights and restrictions based on the identity of the speaker. The Copyright Act, however, is full of such tailoring, extending special rights to some classes of copyright owners and special defenses to some classes of users. A Supreme Court serious about maintaining speaker neutrality would be appalled.

A set of compromises at the heart of the Copyright Act reflects interest-group lobbying rather than a …

"What He Said." The Transformative Potential Of The Use Of Copyrighted Content In Political Campaigns--Or--How A Win For Mitt Romney Might Have Been A Victory For Free Speech, Deidre A. Keller

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

In January 2012, Mitt Romney's campaign received a cease-and-desist letter charging, among other things, that its use of news footage concerning Newt Gingrich's ethics problems in the House of Representatives constituted a violation of NBC's copyright. This is just the latest such charge and came amidst similar allegations against the Gingrich and Bachmann campaigns and in the wake of similar allegations against both the McCain and Obama campaigns in 2008. Such allegations have plagued political campaigns as far back as Reagan's in 1984. The existing literature is nearly devoid of a consideration of such uses as political speech protected by …