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Duke Law Journal

Journal

2011

Freedom of speech

Articles 1 - 3 of 3

Full-Text Articles in Law

Myspace, Yourspace, But Not Theirspace: The Constitutionality Of Banning Sex Offenders From Social Networking Sites, Jasmine S. Wynton May 2011

Myspace, Yourspace, But Not Theirspace: The Constitutionality Of Banning Sex Offenders From Social Networking Sites, Jasmine S. Wynton

Duke Law Journal

In recent years there has been intense public pressure to enact increasingly restrictive and intrusive sex offender laws. The regulation of sex offenders has now moved online, where a growing amount of protected expression and activity occurs. The latest trend in sex offender policy has been the passage of state laws prohibiting sex offenders from visiting social networking sites, such as Myspace or Facebook. The use of these websites implicates the First Amendment right of expressive association. Broad social-networking-site bans threaten the First Amendment expressive association rights of sex offenders, who do not lose all of their constitutional rights by …


Transmitting, Editing, And Communicating: Determining What “The Freedom Of Speech” Encompasses, Stuart Minor Benjamin May 2011

Transmitting, Editing, And Communicating: Determining What “The Freedom Of Speech” Encompasses, Stuart Minor Benjamin

Duke Law Journal

How much can one say with confidence about what constitutes "the freedom of speech" that Congress shall not abridge? In this Article, I address that question in the context of the transmission of speech specifically, the regulation of Internet access known as net neutrality. This question has implications both for the future of economic regulation, as more and more activity involves the transmission of bits, and for First Amendment interpretation. As for the latter, the question is what a lawyer or judge can conclude without having to choose among competing conceptions of speech. How far can a basic legal toolkit …


“There Is Something Unique … About The Government Funding Of The Arts For First Amendment Purposes”: An Institutional Approach To Granting Government Entities Free Speech Rights, Leslie Cooper Mahaffey Feb 2011

“There Is Something Unique … About The Government Funding Of The Arts For First Amendment Purposes”: An Institutional Approach To Granting Government Entities Free Speech Rights, Leslie Cooper Mahaffey

Duke Law Journal

The common understanding of the First Amendment is that its purpose is primarily libertarian, serving to protect private citizens' expression from government censorship. In the modern era, however, the government's pervasive presence-especially in the role of funder of private activity-has blurred the lines between governmental and private speech. Further, the relatively new, increasingly influential government speech doctrine-which dictates that the government will not be subjected to First Amendment scrutiny when it is engaging in communication-has been the Supreme Court's guidepost of late when the Court has been confronted with a case involving expression with both private and public elements. The …