Law Commons^™

The Rehnquist Court And The Groundwork For Greater First Amendment Scrutiny Of Intellectual Property, Mark P. Mckenna

Journal Articles

This contribution to the Washington University School of Law conference on the Rehnquist Court and the First Amendment addresses the Rehnquist Court's view of the role of the First Amendment in intellectual property cases. It argues that, while the Rehnquist Court was not eager to find a conflict between intellectual property laws and the First Amendment, there is reason to believe that it set the stage for greater First Amendment scrutiny of intellectual property protections. At the very least, the Court left that road open to future courts, which might be inclined to view intellectual property more skeptically.

Changing Minds: Proselytism, Freedom, And The First Amendment, Richard W. Garnett

Journal Articles

Proselytism is, as Paul Griffiths has observed, a topic enjoying renewed attention in recent years. What's more, the practice, aims, and effects of proselytism are increasingly framed not merely in terms of piety and zeal; they are seen as matters of geopolitical, cultural, and national-security significance as well. Indeed, it is fair to say that one of today's more pressing challenges is the conceptual and practical tangle of religious liberty, free expression, cultural integrity, and political stability. This essay is an effort to unravel that tangle by drawing on the religious-freedom-related work and teaching of the late Pope John Paul …

Jaycees Reconsidered: Judge Richard S. Arnold And The Freedom Of Association, Richard W. Garnett

Journal Articles

In Roberts v. United States Jaycees, the Supreme Court reversed Judge Richard S. Arnold's decision for the Court of Appeals and held­ - without dissent - that the First Amendment did not shield the Jaycees' men-only membership policy from the non-discrimination requirements of the Minnesota Human Rights Act. The claim in this essay is that Judge Arnold's position and decision in the Jaycees case deserved, and still deserve, more thoughtful and sympathetic treatment. Even some of Judge Arnold's many friends and fans tend to treat as something of an embarrassing lapse or anomalous error his conclusion in that case that, …

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 …

Your Money Or Your Speech: The Children's Internet Protection Act And The Congressional Assault On The First Amendment In Public Libraries, Steven D. Hinckley

Journal Articles

This article examines the inherent conflict between This article examines the inherent conflict between two Congressional approaches to public access to the Internet - the provision of federal funding support to schools and public libraries to ensure broad access to online information regardless of financial means, and federal restrictions on children's use of school and public library computers to access content that the government feels could be harmful to them. It analyzes the efficacy and constitutionality of the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA), Congress's attempt to use its powers of the purse to control objectionable online content in the very …

The Right Questions About School Choice: Education, Religious Freedom, And The Common Good, Richard W. Garnett

Journal Articles

As this Essay goes to press, the Supreme Court is considering whether Ohio's school-choice program violates the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. In my view, the Ohio program is sound public policy, and it is consistent with the Justices' present understanding of the Establishment Clause. I also believe that the Court will and should permit this experiment, and our conversations about its merits, to continue. The purpose of this Essay, though, is not to predict or evaluate ex ante the Court's decision. Instead, my primary aim is to suggest and then sketch a few broad themes that--once the …

Voluntary Campaign Finance Reform, John C. Nagle

Journal Articles

Any effort to achieve voluntary campaign finance reform raises two questions: Is it really voluntary, and does it really work? In Part I of this Essay, I examine the voluntariness of "voluntary" campaign finance reform. Agreements like that reached by Clinton and Lazio last year—what I term "purely voluntary agreements"—satisfy most legal tests for voluntariness. By contrast, the voluntariness of spending limits and other campaign restrictions that are imposed as a condition for receiving government funding of a political campaign—what I term "governmentally induced agreements"—is more doubtful. The extant jurisprudence recognizes that Buckley prohibits governmental actions that are more coercive …

Common Schools And The Common Good: Reflections On The School-Choice Debate, Richard W. Garnett

Journal Articles

Thank you very much for this timely and important discussion on school choice, religious faith, and the public good.

First things first—Steven Green is right: The Cleveland school-voucher case is headed for the Supreme Court. And I am afraid that Mr. Green is also correct when he observes that the question whether the First Amendment permits States to experiment with meaningful choice-based education reform will likely turn on Justice O'Connor's fine-tuned aesthetic reactions to the minutiae of Ohio's school-choice experiment.

Putting aside for now the particulars of the Cleveland case, though, I would like to propose for your consideration a …

The Primacy Of Political Actors In Accommodation Of Religion, William K. Kelley

Journal Articles

This article focuses on the relationship between freedom of religion and the norm against non-establishment of religion in the context of government efforts to accommodate religious practices. It analyzes First Amendment doctrine in this area, and concludes that the Supreme Court has consistently been generous in permitting accommodations of religion when they are the product of judicial decisions; in other words, at least until recently the Court has been open to mandatory accommodations so long as they are ordered by judges. By contrast, the Court has long been suspicious of - and far from generous in permitting - accommodations as …

Is The New York Times "Actual Malice" Standard Really Necessary? A Comparative Perspective, Geoffrey Bennett, Russell L. Weaver

Journal Articles

In New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, the United States Supreme Court extended First Amendment guarantees to defamation actions. Many greeted the Court's decision with joy. After the decision, many years elapsed during which "there were virtually no recoveries by public officials in libel actions."

The most important component of the New York Times decision was its "actual malice" standard. This standard provided that, in order to recover against a media defendant, a public official must demonstrate that the defendant acted with "malice." In other words, the official must show that the defendant knew that the defamatory statement was false …

Protecting Religious Liberty: Judicial And Legislative Responsibilities, Gerard V. Bradley

Journal Articles

Is the First Amendment hostile to religion? Answering that question requires at least the usual professorial ration of caveats. I assure you that I will directly answer the question. I submit, though, that the caveats constitute a more important, deeper response, a response which questions the question itself. Were I more radical in my intellectual sympathies, I would propose to deconstruct the question.

The Meaning Of "Religion" In The School Prayer Cases, Charles E. Rice

Journal Articles

It is not my purpose here to discuss the possible extensions of the school prayer decisions. Rather, I am concerned only with the thought that the unqualified incorporation of the broad definition of religion into the establishment clause is perhaps the root fallacy in the Court's reasoning. In order to avoid an institutionalization of agnosticism as the official public religion of this country, the Court ought to acknowledge that nontheistic religions are not entitled to such unqualified recognition under the establishment clause as to bar even a simple governmental affirmation that in fact the Declaration of Independence is true when …