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Spheres Of Autonomy: Reforming The Content Neutrality Doctrine In First Amendment Jurisprudence, Steven J. Heyman

All Faculty Scholarship

In recent decades, the doctrine of content neutrality has become the cornerstone of First Amendment jurisprudence. In the leading case of Police Department v. Mosley (1972), the Supreme Court declared that speech may "never" be regulated because of its content, for that would be "the essence of . . . censorship." If this view were taken literally, however, it would disable government from regulating speech even when necessary to prevent serious injury to individuals or society. In response to this concern, the Court has carved out several exceptions to the neutrality doctrine. Yet the Justices have never succeeded in explaining …