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Articles 1 - 16 of 16
Full-Text Articles in Law
Assumptions About Terrorism And The Brandenburg Incitement Test, Christina E. Wells
Assumptions About Terrorism And The Brandenburg Incitement Test, Christina E. Wells
Faculty Publications
The incitement standard announced in Brandenburg v. Ohio is one of the most familiar tests in the Supreme Court's jurisprudence. It prohibits government officials from punishing advocacy of illegal activity unless it is directed and likely to imminently incite such activity. Brandenburg's standard has become a pillar of free speech law, allowing government officials to protect public safety by punishing only speech intended and likely to create an imminent danger of harm, while protecting even the most abhorrent of speakers from suppression of their speech simply because government officials fear or dislike it. Terrorist advocacy, however, is putting pressure on …
#I U: Considering The Context Of Online Threats, Lyrissa Lidsky
#I U: Considering The Context Of Online Threats, Lyrissa Lidsky
Faculty Publications
The United States Supreme Court has failed to grapple with the unique interpretive difficulties presented by social media threats cases. Social media make hateful and threatening speech more common but also magnify the potential for a speaker's innocent words to be misunderstood People speak differently on different social media platforms, and architecturalf eatures ofplatforms, such as character limits, affect the meaning of speech. The same is true of other contextual clues unique to social media, such as gifs, hashtags, and emojis. Only by understanding social media contexts can legal decision-makers avoid overcriminalization of speech protected by the First Amendment. This …
Free Speech Hypocrisy: Campus Free Speech Conflicts And The Sub-Legal First Amendment, Christina E. Wells
Free Speech Hypocrisy: Campus Free Speech Conflicts And The Sub-Legal First Amendment, Christina E. Wells
Faculty Publications
This Article is modest in scope. It seeks primarily to illuminate the role of free speech conflicts, especially those involving contentious speech, within the Court's jurisprudence, and to illustrate how arguments characterizing the protestors' speech as censorship misperceive the important role such conflicts play. Using both the Court's doctrinal framework and conflict resolution literature, this article attempts to bring deeper understanding to the purposes for the Court's approach, the context underlying the current conflicts, and the flaws underlying the argument that the protestors' actions are censorial. Part I briefly reviews three illustrative free speech conflicts at the University of Missouri, …
U.S. Media Law Update, Lyrissa Lidsky, Racheal Jones
U.S. Media Law Update, Lyrissa Lidsky, Racheal Jones
Faculty Publications
In June 2015 the United States Supreme Court completed what was hailed as its most ‘liberal term of the ages’, issuing major decisions on controversial issues, such as same-sex marriage, affirmative action and the Affordable Care Act. The Court’s free press jurisprudence, however, remained largely unchanged after its last term. The Court did not decide any significant press cases. Instead, the Court sidestepped the opportunity to resolve important questions about the constitutional limits on the prosecution of threats made via social media in one notable case, and set a new, more speech-protective standard for determining when a law is content-based …
From Keyboard To Schoolhouse: Student Speech In An Age Of Pervasive Technology, Erin M. Leach
From Keyboard To Schoolhouse: Student Speech In An Age Of Pervasive Technology, Erin M. Leach
Missouri Law Review
To most Americans, the First Amendment's Free Speech Clause is among the most sacred provisions of the Constitution. At first reading, it seems a broad guarantee of the right of citizens to speak their mind without limitation. But the jurisprudence on the clause shows that the law governing free speech is far from uncomplicated. The analysis is made more complex in the context of student speech due to a different set of standards governing the rights of students while they are under the care of their schools. S.J.W ex rel. Wilson v. Lee's Summit R-7 School District, a recent Eighth …
Social Networking And Freedom Of Speech: Not Like Old Times , Zachary Shklar
Social Networking And Freedom Of Speech: Not Like Old Times , Zachary Shklar
Missouri Law Review
In Bland v. Roberts, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia was presented with the issue of whether “liking” a page on Facebook is speech protectable by the First Amendment. This Note argues that the court’s holding, that “liking” something on Facebook is not worthy of First Amendment protection, is a disturbing result that endangers one of our most fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution. In Part II, this Note analyzes the facts and holding of Bland v. Roberts. Next, in Part III, this Note describes in detail how Facebook operates and explains the legal background …
Defining Religion Down: Hasanna-Tabor, Martinez, And The U.S. Supreme Court, Carl H. Esbeck
Defining Religion Down: Hasanna-Tabor, Martinez, And The U.S. Supreme Court, Carl H. Esbeck
Faculty Publications
While two recent Supreme Court cases on religious freedom appear sharply at odds, in one material respect they harmonize around an understanding that religion is fully protected only when exercised in private. CLS v. Martinez involved Hastings College of Law. Hastings' regulation of extracurricular organizations was unusual in requiring that any student can join an organization. This all-comers rule had a discriminatory impact on organizations with exclusionary memberships, such as the Christian Legal Society (CLS) which required subscribing to a statement of faith and conduct. The Court acknowledged the discriminatory effect, but said that the Free Speech Clause protects speech …
All Those Like You: Identity Aggression And Student Speech , Ari Ezra Waldman
All Those Like You: Identity Aggression And Student Speech , Ari Ezra Waldman
Missouri Law Review
This Article answers two categories of questions, one social and another legal. The first series of questions is about the sociology of identity aggression and it seeks to determine whether there is a difference between, say, calling someone a "faggot" and calling someone a "dork." If there is a difference, to what extent is there empirical evidence that suggests that one is more harmful to the victim, to his community, and to his school? The legal problem flows directly from the relative harm posed by identity aggression: it is too simplistic to see the Court's student speech jurisprudence like a …
Giving A Voice To The Inanimate: The Right Of A Corporation To Political Free Speech, Alex Osterlind
Giving A Voice To The Inanimate: The Right Of A Corporation To Political Free Speech, Alex Osterlind
Missouri Law Review
This Note examines the concept of corporate personhood and whether the state-created corporate entity is contemplated by the First Amendment. To discuss this controversy in relation to federal election laws constraining corporate financing, this Note first explains the particulars giving rise to the Citizens United case. Next, this Note examines the legislative and judicial treatment of corporate financing laws in regard to elections. Building upon this milieu, this Note presents the viewpoints of both those opposed to unrestricted corporate political speech as well as those championing a broad interpretation of the First Amendment that encompasses the corporate entity. Finally, this …
Educating The United States Supreme Court At Summers' School: A Lesson On The "Special Character Of The Animal", Rafael Gely, Ramona L. Paetzold, Leonard Bierman
Educating The United States Supreme Court At Summers' School: A Lesson On The "Special Character Of The Animal", Rafael Gely, Ramona L. Paetzold, Leonard Bierman
Faculty Publications
In this article, we explore the implications that Professor Summers' insights regarding public employment have for the Garcetti and Davenport decisions. In particular, we focus on the extent to which the political nature of public employment affects public employees' rights to freedom of speech as well as matters regarding the representational functions of public employee unions.
First Amendment And Specialty License Plates: The Choose Life Controversy, The, Stephanie S. Bell
First Amendment And Specialty License Plates: The Choose Life Controversy, The, Stephanie S. Bell
Missouri Law Review
This summary will examine the models of specialty license plate creation, the history of "Choose Life" specialty license plates, the litigation surrounding the controversy, and the two differing standards courts have used to distinguish government and private speech: the Fourth Circuit's four-factor test and the Johanns test.
Privacy And Funeral Protests, Christina E. Wells
Privacy And Funeral Protests, Christina E. Wells
Faculty Publications
This article examines the free speech implications of funeral protest statutes. Enacted in response to the Westboro Baptist Church, whose members protest at funerals to spread their antigay message, such statutes restrict a broad array of peaceful expressive activity. This Article focuses on the states’ interest underlying these statutes - protecting mourners’ right to be free from unwanted intrusions while at funeral services. Few would argue against protecting funeral services from intrusive protests. These statutes, however, go far beyond that notion and protect mourners from offensive, rather than intrusive, protests. As such, they do not conceive of privacy as protection …
Residential Privacy And Free Speech: Competing Interests In Charitable Solicitation Regulation, Marcus Wilbers
Residential Privacy And Free Speech: Competing Interests In Charitable Solicitation Regulation, Marcus Wilbers
Missouri Law Review
Although these two quotations represent society's mixed feelings toward charity, they also represent a distinction people often make between a charity's aims and its means. Charitable organizations have the potential to spread hope, re-allocate societal resources, and advocate societal values. How they go about accomplishing these noble goals, however, is sometimes the subject of public frustration and annoyance. This creates a tension between admiring the charity's philanthropy and becoming irritated with the means used to achieve it. Undoubtedly, one of the most unwelcome guests in any household is a telemarketer. In fact, 98% of 1.78 million respondents to a recent …
Honk To Remove This Demonstration: The Eighth Circuit Adopts A Heckler's Veto, Aaron E. Schwartz
Honk To Remove This Demonstration: The Eighth Circuit Adopts A Heckler's Veto, Aaron E. Schwartz
Missouri Law Review
Freedom of speech is a pillar of American ideology, providing protection from rule by the majority and allowing those with minority opinions to participate in political dialog. Generally, the courts have allowed extremely limited restrictions. However, in Frye v. Kansas City Police Department, the Eighth Circuit appears decide the opposite, placing convince for the many over the rights of the few.
Another Worthy Tradition: How The Free Speech Curriculum Ignores Electronic Media And Distorts Free Speech Doctrine, Marvin Ammori
Another Worthy Tradition: How The Free Speech Curriculum Ignores Electronic Media And Distorts Free Speech Doctrine, Marvin Ammori
Missouri Law Review
This Article argues that there are two traditions in American free speech scholarship that result in two opposing speech doctrines, but that American law students are exposed to only one of them. Without a complete understanding of speech doctrine, current law students are unprepared to guide American jurisprudence on the issue.
Reinvigorating Autonomy: Freedom And Responsibility In The Supreme Court's First Amendment Jurisprudence, Christina E. Wells
Reinvigorating Autonomy: Freedom And Responsibility In The Supreme Court's First Amendment Jurisprudence, Christina E. Wells
Faculty Publications
Part I of this Article explores the conception of autonomy that scholars have generally attributed to the Court and discusses problems with that conception. Part II sets forth an alternative, Kantian conception of autonomy and discusses its implications for a system of laws regulating free expression. Part III analyzes the Court's free speech jurisprudence and its autonomy rationale. It specifically examines both the Court's distinction between content-based and content-neutral regulations of speech and its approach to low-value speech, demonstrating that they reflect a Kantian notion of autonomy. Finally, Part IV discusses the implications of Kantian autonomy for hate speech regulation, …