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Articles 1 - 30 of 107
Full-Text Articles in Law
The Private Abridgment Of Free Speech, Erin L. Miller
The Private Abridgment Of Free Speech, Erin L. Miller
William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal
This Article challenges the orthodoxy that First Amendment speech rights can bind only the state. I argue that the primary justification for the freedom of speech is to protect fundamental interests like autonomy, democracy, and knowledge from the kind of extraordinary power over speech available to the state. If so, this justification applies with nearly equal force to any private agents with power over speech rivaling that of the state. Such a class of private agents, which I call quasi-state agents, turns out to be a live possibility once we recognize that state power is more limited than it seems …
Harmonizing Freedom Of Speech And Free Exercise Of Religion, John Fee
Harmonizing Freedom Of Speech And Free Exercise Of Religion, John Fee
William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal
[...]The close relationship between the free exercise of religion and the freedom of speech points to the sensible assumption that they should receive similar interpretation when dealing with parallel types of problems, or at least that differences in interpretation should be carefully justified.
With this premise, this Article compares freedom of speech and free exercise jurisprudence in various parallel applications, with the suggestion of harmonizing them more closely. While other commentators have compared freedom of speech and free exercise case law with a narrower focus (most commonly, focusing on the incidental burdens issue presented in [Employment Division v. Smith] …
Originalism V. Originalism: How James Madison's Understanding Of The Establishment Clause Can Help Combat Christian Nationalism, Patrick Sawyer
Originalism V. Originalism: How James Madison's Understanding Of The Establishment Clause Can Help Combat Christian Nationalism, Patrick Sawyer
William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal
This Note will focus on what can be done to prevent Christian Nationalism from ending the Establishment Clause. Part I will focus on the cases that defined former Establishment Clause doctrine and how recent cases have done away with the parameters laid out in those earlier cases. Part II will focus on the understanding that James Madison had about the Establishment Clause. Part III will argue that Madison’s understanding of complete separation can and should be codified either under Congress’ enforcement power under the Fourteenth Amendment or the Spending Power of Article I. Part IV will consider how a statute …
On Inmates And Friendship, Jared Deeds
On Inmates And Friendship, Jared Deeds
William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal
That humanity both cherishes friendship and finds it to be fundamental for its own good should be reason enough to justify its legal protection. Yet, there is a serious deficiency of legal discourse on the rights and liberties of friends in America’s courts. In the absence of such discourse—perhaps partially because of it—friendship as a social institution experiences a lack of legal protection in the United States. Though all friends may be exposed to abuses as a result of deficient safeguards, inmates and their unincarcerated friends suffer with particular severity.
[...]
Part I of this Note will further discuss the …
Serious Value, Prurient Appeal, And "Obscene" Books In The Hands Of Children, Todd E. Pettys
Serious Value, Prurient Appeal, And "Obscene" Books In The Hands Of Children, Todd E. Pettys
William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal
Controversy has erupted across the country concerning sexually explicit books that are available to children in bookstores, schools, and libraries. Many have called for tough enforcement of obscenity laws, with some saying librarians and schoolteachers who distribute certain books to children should face jail time. Using four controversial books as examples, this Article takes today’s book wars as an opportunity to achieve two things. First, the Article explains the narrow circumstances in which the First Amendment permits the government to block the distribution of books to children due to concerns about the books’ prurient appeal. The Article’s second aim is …
Indoctrination By Elimination: Why Banning Critical Race Theory In Public Schools Is Unconstitutional, Emma Postel
Indoctrination By Elimination: Why Banning Critical Race Theory In Public Schools Is Unconstitutional, Emma Postel
William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal
This Note argues that Texas public school students’ First Amendment Rights have been violated by the passage of Senate Bill 3 (SB 3), which bans the teaching of Critical Race Theory (CRT) in K–12 public schools. The First Amendment is violated here because (1) students have a First Amendment right to speech, and this law bans protected speech; (2) students have a right to receive information, and this ban prevents them from receiving information; and (3) schools are meant to be the marketplace of ideas for students and banning CRT amounts to unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination. This Note does not suggest …
The First Amendment Weaponized: When Guns Become Public Discourse, Danny Li
The First Amendment Weaponized: When Guns Become Public Discourse, Danny Li
William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal
This Article discusses First Amendment challenges asserted against gun control measures—inside and outside our courts. It explains at length why existing doctrinal approaches to resolving these challenges fail, providing an alternative account of why the First Amendment should not be construed liberally to protect the open carry of firearms. As guns in public spaces and protests become commonplace, we can expect not only continual First Amendment challenges to gun control measures, but also the growing prevalence of First Amendment claims asserted in the public by advocates and gun owners to justify open carry—and the forging of new constitutional meanings and …
The Coddling Of The American Worker's Mind: The Anti-Free Speech Nature Of Popular Labor Law Reforms, Daniel V. Johns
The Coddling Of The American Worker's Mind: The Anti-Free Speech Nature Of Popular Labor Law Reforms, Daniel V. Johns
William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal
As the nation enters an era in which a new presidential administration will likely push such labor law reforms, it is worth considering whether transparently anti-free speech reform measures make sense for the future of labor policy and law. This Article argues that they do not. Because employee free choice is furthered, not diminished, by hearing both sides of an issue, American workers should have the opportunity to hear and evaluate employer speech in the course of union campaigns. Only then can employees make an informed decision about their workplace future. In the end, freedom of speech furthers employee freedom …
Ridden With Controversy: Applying The Public Forum Doctrine To Public Transit Advertising, Remy T. B. Oliver
Ridden With Controversy: Applying The Public Forum Doctrine To Public Transit Advertising, Remy T. B. Oliver
William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal
This Note tackles the application of the First Amendment to public transit advertising. Under the current judicial framework, the First Amendment is filtered through the "public forum doctrine" when discussing the rights of citizens to utilize government property for expressive purposes. The Note will argue that public transit advertising constitutes a "designated public forum" in most (if not all) cases. That characterization would force any content-based restrictions to be narrowly tailored to serve a compelling government interest. The natural result is a significant expansion of access to public transit advertising by interested parties. If the U.S. Supreme Court were to …
Manipulation And The First Amendment, Helen Norton
Manipulation And The First Amendment, Helen Norton
William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal
This Article examines new conceptual tools for understanding manipulation and its harms. More specifically, Part I draws from ethicists' insights to explain how manipulation can inflict harms distinct from those imposed by coercion and deception, and to explain why addressing these distinct harms is a government interest sufficiently strong to justify appropriately tailored interventions.
Part II explores how these conceptual tools also help us understand when, how, and why government can regulate manipulation consistent with the First Amendment. As a threshold matter, note that manipulative online interfaces and related design choices may be better understood as conduct, rather than speech …
Speech Regulation By Algorithm, Enrique Armijo
Speech Regulation By Algorithm, Enrique Armijo
William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal
The rapid convergence of speech and technology on social media platforms means it is likely the case that, either now or soon, more expressive activity will be regulated by Artificial Intelligence (AI) than by any legislature, regulator, or other government entity. Mark Zuckerberg has repeatedly told Congress and other audiences that AI is the key to resolving Facebook's content moderation challenges, envisioning a moderation regime where algorithms detect and take down speech infringing Facebook's Community Standards ex ante, that is, prior to its public posting and before it reaches other users. According to Zuckerberg, this would eventually replace its initial …
Fixing False Truths: Rethinking Truth Assumptions And Free-Expression Rationales In The Networked Era, Jared Schroeder
Fixing False Truths: Rethinking Truth Assumptions And Free-Expression Rationales In The Networked Era, Jared Schroeder
William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal
The First Amendment makes no mention of truth. Assumptions about truth, however, have become the foundations for free-expression rationales, the very bases for such freedoms in a democratic society. The Supreme Court gradually, over time, wedded Enlightenment assumptions about truth to the marketplace of ideas rationale for free expression. This Article examines, in light of massive, widespread adoption of networked technologies and AI and Supreme Court decisions that have undermined the distinctive role of truth, whether truth should be removed or replaced as a crucial, justifying concept in freedom of expression. The Article examines the marketplace approach’s history and assumptions, …
Deepfakes: A New Content Category For A Digital Age, Anna Pesetski
Deepfakes: A New Content Category For A Digital Age, Anna Pesetski
William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal
Technology has advanced rapidly in recent years, greatly benefitting society. One such benefit is people’s ability to have quick and easy access to information through news and social media. A recent concern, however, is that manipulated media, otherwise known as “deepfakes,” are being released and passed off as truth. These videos are crafted with technology that allows the creator to carefully change details of the video’s subject to make him appear to do or say things that he never did. Deepfakes are often depictions of political candidates or leaders and have the potential to influence voter choice, thereby altering the …
The Pure-Hearted Abrams Case, Andres Yoder
The Pure-Hearted Abrams Case, Andres Yoder
William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal
One hundred years ago, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes changed his mind about the right to free speech and wound up splitting the history of free speech law into two. In his dissent in Abrams v. United States, he called for the end of the old order—in which courts often ignored or rejected free speech claims—and set the stage for the current order—in which the right to free speech is of central constitutional importance. However, a century on, scholars have been unable to identify a specific reason for Holmes’s Abrams transformation, and have instead pointed to more diffuse influences. By …
Not Gill-Ty: Challenging And Providing A Workable Alternative To The Supreme Court's Gerrymandering Standing Analysis In Gill V. Whitford, Colin Neal
William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal
No abstract provided.
Information Gathering Or Speech Creation: How To Think About A First Amendment Right To Record, Jared Mullen
Information Gathering Or Speech Creation: How To Think About A First Amendment Right To Record, Jared Mullen
William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal
No abstract provided.
Saving The Marketplace From Market Failure: Reorienting Marketplace Theory In The Era Of Ai Communicators, Jared Schroeder
Saving The Marketplace From Market Failure: Reorienting Marketplace Theory In The Era Of Ai Communicators, Jared Schroeder
William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal
Artificially Intelligent (AI) communicators represent a new type of actor within public discourse. These entities have played influential roles in recent elections in the U.S. and Europe. This Article examines expression rights for AI actors through the lenses provided by the foundational assumptions of the marketplace of ideas theory and existing free-expression-related rationales regarding non-human actors in the U.S. and European legal systems. The Article contends that the fundamental assumptions of the marketplace model must be revised to focus on the flow of information, the development of truth, rather than the more Enlightenment-oriented competition of ideas that leads to the …
The Bad News Of Good News Club: Obliterating The Wall Between Church & State, Kevin W. Connell
The Bad News Of Good News Club: Obliterating The Wall Between Church & State, Kevin W. Connell
William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal
No abstract provided.
Contracting Away The First Amendment?: When Courts Should Intervene In Nondisclosure Agreements, Abigail Stephens
Contracting Away The First Amendment?: When Courts Should Intervene In Nondisclosure Agreements, Abigail Stephens
William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal
No abstract provided.
Considerations Of History And Purpose In Constitutional Borrowing, Robert L. Tsai
Considerations Of History And Purpose In Constitutional Borrowing, Robert L. Tsai
William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal
No abstract provided.
Sex-Segregation, Economic Opportunity, And Roberts V. U.S. Jaycees, Elizabeth Sepper
Sex-Segregation, Economic Opportunity, And Roberts V. U.S. Jaycees, Elizabeth Sepper
William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal
No abstract provided.
Constitutional Conflict And Sensitive Places, Darrell A. H. Miller
Constitutional Conflict And Sensitive Places, Darrell A. H. Miller
William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal
No abstract provided.
Political And Non-Political Speech And Guns, Gregory P. Magarian
Political And Non-Political Speech And Guns, Gregory P. Magarian
William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal
No abstract provided.
The Deliberative-Privacy Principle: Abortion, Free Speech, And Religious Freedom, B. Jessie Hill
The Deliberative-Privacy Principle: Abortion, Free Speech, And Religious Freedom, B. Jessie Hill
William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal
No abstract provided.
Four Responses To Constitutional Overlap, Michael Coenen
Four Responses To Constitutional Overlap, Michael Coenen
William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal
Sometimes government action implicates more than one constitutional right. For example, a prohibition on religious expression might be said to violate both the Free Speech Clause and the Free Exercise Clause, a rule regarding same-sex marriage might be said to violate both equal protection and substantive due process, an exercise of the eminent domain power might be said to violate both procedural due process and the Takings Clause, a disproportionate criminal sentence based on judge-found facts might be said to violate both the defendant’s right to trial by jury and that defendant’s right against cruel and unusual punishment, and so …
Doctrinal Dynamism, Borrowing, And The Relationship Between Rules And Rights, Joseph Blocher, Luke Morgan
Doctrinal Dynamism, Borrowing, And The Relationship Between Rules And Rights, Joseph Blocher, Luke Morgan
William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal
The study of “Rights Dynamism,” exemplified in Timothy Zick’s new book on the First Amendment’s relationship with the rest of the Bill of Rights, can enrich our understanding of constitutional rights. It also opens a door to another potentially fruitful arena: what we call “Doctrinal Dynamism.” Constitutional rights often interact and generate new meanings and applications by way of importing and exporting one another’s doctrinal rules, even when the rights themselves do not intersect directly in the context of a single case. Focusing on these doctrinal exchanges can illuminate the strengths and weaknesses of various rules, the specific interests underlying …
The Conscience Of The Baker: Religion And Compelled Speech, Ashutosh Bhagwat
The Conscience Of The Baker: Religion And Compelled Speech, Ashutosh Bhagwat
William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal
No abstract provided.
The Esquire Case: A Lost Free Speech Landmark, Samantha Barbas
The Esquire Case: A Lost Free Speech Landmark, Samantha Barbas
William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal
No abstract provided.
Silencing State Courts, Jeffrey Steven Gordon
Silencing State Courts, Jeffrey Steven Gordon
William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal
In state courts across the Nation, an absolutist conception of the First Amendment is preempting common law speech torts. From intentional infliction of emotional distress and intrusion upon seclusion, to intentional interference with contractual relations and negligent infliction of emotional distress, state courts are dismissing speech tort claims on the pleadings because of the broad First Amendment defense recognized by Snyder v. Phelps in 2011. This Article argues, contrary to the scholarly consensus, that Snyder was a categorical departure from the methodology adopted by New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, the landmark 1964 case that first applied the First …
Beyond Headlines & Holdings: Exploring Some Less Obvious Ramifications Of The Supreme Court’S 2017 Free-Speech Rulings, Clay Calvert
Beyond Headlines & Holdings: Exploring Some Less Obvious Ramifications Of The Supreme Court’S 2017 Free-Speech Rulings, Clay Calvert
William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal
Digging behind the holdings, this Article analyzes less conspicuous, yet highly consequential aspects of the United States Supreme Court’s First Amendment rulings during the opening half of 2017. The four facets of the opinions addressed here—items both within individual cases and cutting across them—hold vast significance for future free-speech battles. Nuances of the justices’ splintering in Matal v. Tam, Packingham v. North Carolina, and Expressions Hair Design v. Schneiderman are examined, as is the immediate impact of Justice Anthony Kennedy’s Packingham dicta regarding online social networks. Furthermore, Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s solo concurrence in the threats case of Perez …