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Full-Text Articles in Law
You Can't Ask (Or Say) That: The First Amendment And Civil Rights Restrictions On Decisionmaker Speech, Helen L. Norton
You Can't Ask (Or Say) That: The First Amendment And Civil Rights Restrictions On Decisionmaker Speech, Helen L. Norton
Faculty Scholarship
Many antidiscrimination statutes limit speech by employers, landlords, lenders, and other decisionmakers in one or both of two ways: (1) by prohibiting queries soliciting information about an applicant's disability, sexual orientation, marital status, or other protected characteristic; and (2) by proscribing discriminatory advertisements or other expressions of discriminatory preference for applicants based on race, sex, age, sexual orientation, or other protected characteristics.
This Article explores how we might think about these laws for First Amendment purposes. Part I outlines the range of civil rights restrictions on decisionmaker speech, while Part II identifies the antidiscrimination and privacy concerns that drive their …
Privacy Rights Versus Foia Disclosure Policy: The "Uses And Effects" Double Standard In Access To Personally-Identifiable Information In Government Records, Michael Hoefges, Martin E. Halstuk, Bill F. Chamberlin
Privacy Rights Versus Foia Disclosure Policy: The "Uses And Effects" Double Standard In Access To Personally-Identifiable Information In Government Records, Michael Hoefges, Martin E. Halstuk, Bill F. Chamberlin
UF Law Faculty Publications
The U.S. government maintains a vast amount of personally-identifiable information on millions of American citizens. Much of this information is contained in electronic databases maintained by federal agencies. Various Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requesters, such as journalists, marketers, and union organizers seek this information for different purposes including investigative reporting and targeted solicitations. These kinds of uses are known as "derivative uses" because this government-compiled information is requested for purposes other than the official purposes for which the information was originally gathered. These and other derivative uses of personally-identifiable information often implicate privacy concerns. Conversely, restrictions on public access …
Smolla Argues Before The Highest Court: Cross-Burning Case Explores Free-Speech Controversy, John G. Douglass
Smolla Argues Before The Highest Court: Cross-Burning Case Explores Free-Speech Controversy, John G. Douglass
Law Faculty Publications
A First Amendment advocate's greatest burden can be his own client. Those clients range from the offbeat to the dangerous, from pornographers to neo-Nazis. Yet in standing up for the disreputable client, the free speech advocate stands for one of more cherished freedoms: "If there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that the Government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable." Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397, 414 (1989). As one of the nation's leading First Amendment advocates, Allen Professor Rodney Smolla understands that burden …
Cross-Burning Case Explores Free-Speech Controversy, John G. Douglass
Cross-Burning Case Explores Free-Speech Controversy, John G. Douglass
Law Faculty Publications
Virginia v. Black was Smolla's first oral argument before the Supreme Court, but his appearance on the national stage of First Amendment controversy was nothing new. Among academics, Smolla has long been regarded as a leading First Amendment voice. His publications include a widely-used casebook, top law review articles, plays, short stories, a forthcoming novel, and a nonfiction work that became the script for a popular movie. As a litigator of two decades experience, he has argued First Amendment appeals in dozens of state and federal courts around the nation. Early in his career, he had a knack for finding …
Right To Write - Free Expression Rights Of Pennsylvania's Creative Students After Columbine, Barbara Brunner
Right To Write - Free Expression Rights Of Pennsylvania's Creative Students After Columbine, Barbara Brunner
Journal Articles
This comment analyzes the current state of students' free speech rights in the context of creative writing assignments and examines potential First Amendment applications to the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA), a statewide, mandatory, standards-based exam administered to Pennsylvania public school students. The PSSA, which currently contains a writing assessment for students in sixth, ninth, and eleventh grades requiring students to write essays in response to prompts, is scored anonymously by private entities under contract with the Pennsylvania Department of Education. Those private subcontractors have "red-flagging" procedures in place to identify essays containing imagery or themes that indicate imminent …
Public Importance: Balancing Proprietary Rights And The Right To Know, Eric Easton
Public Importance: Balancing Proprietary Rights And The Right To Know, Eric Easton
All Faculty Scholarship
Articulating a coherent, all-encompassing First Amendment doctrine for freedom of speech and of the press has so far eluded every scholar who has tried, not least because of the variety of analytical approaches and potentially dispositive factors in Supreme Court jurisprudence. For example, the same regulation might be enforceable in one medium, but not another; in one forum, but not another. Enforceability may depend on the regulator's purpose and drafting skill, or not, depending in turn on whether the speech deserves full protection, some protection, or no protection at all. Sometimes enforceability depends on the speaker's intent, or knowledge, or …
You Can't Ask (Or Say) That: The First Amendment And Civil Rights Restrictions On Decisionmaker Speech, Helen Norton
You Can't Ask (Or Say) That: The First Amendment And Civil Rights Restrictions On Decisionmaker Speech, Helen Norton
Publications
Federal, state, and local civil rights laws regulate private decisionmaking about whom an employer may hire or fire, to whom a landlord may rent an apartment, or to whom a creditor may extend credit. In prohibiting discriminatory conduct, however, these laws also limit the speech of those making these decisions. In this Article, Professor Norton explores how we might think about these civil rights laws in the context of the First Amendment, and their place within the Supreme Court's commercial speech jurisprudence. She concludes that the speech restricted by these laws may be characterized as falling outside the protection of …
Six Opinions By Mr. Justice Stevens: A New Methodology For Constitutional Cases?, Robert F. Nagel
Six Opinions By Mr. Justice Stevens: A New Methodology For Constitutional Cases?, Robert F. Nagel
Publications
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