Law Commons^™

Environmental Aesthetics And Free Speech: Toward A Consistent Content Neutrality Standard For Outdoor Sign Regulation , Brian J. Connolly

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

First Amendment challenges by billboard companies and other sign owners to local sign regulations have become a frequent occurrence in the past thirty years. The stakes are high for both commercial sign owners and local governments. Sign control has emerged as an important front in the environmental protection movement, as it focuses on the visual or scenic quality of the environment. Courts have begun to recognize and accept local governments’ interest in controlling the proliferation of signage as part of their efforts to improve environmental quality, but courts have applied First Amendment doctrine in an inconsistent manner. The courts’ inconsistent …

No Cause Of Action: Video Surveillance In New York City, Olivia J. Greer

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

In 2010, New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly announced a new network of video surveillance in the City. The new network would be able to prevent future terrorist attacks by identifying suspicious behavior before catastrophic events could take place. Kelly told reporters, "If we're looking for a person in a red jacket, we can call up all the red jackets filmed in the last 30 days," and "[w]e're beginning to use software that can identify suspicious objects or behaviors." Gothamist later made a witticism of Kelly's statement, remarking, "Note to terrorists: red jackets are not a good look for …

Free Speech Federalism, Adam Winkler

Michigan Law Review

For decades, constitutional doctrine has held that the Constitution's guarantee of freedom of speech applies equally to laws adopted by the federal, state, and local governments. Nevertheless, the identity of the government actor behind a law may be a significant, if unrecognized, factor in free speech cases. This Article reports the results of a comprehensive study of core free speech cases decided by the federal courts over a 14-year period. The study finds that speech-restrictive laws adopted by the federal government are far more likely to be upheld than similar laws adopted by state and local governments. Courts applying strict …

Conditions On Taking The Initiative: The First Amendment Implications Of Subject Matter Restrictions On Ballot Initiatives, Anna Skiba-Crafts

Michigan Law Review

Nearly half of U.S. states offer a ballot initiative process that citizens may use to pass legislation or constitutional amendments by a popular vote. Some states, however, impose substantive restrictions on the types of initiatives citizens may submit to the ballot for a vote-precluding, for example, initiatives lowering drug penalties or initiatives related to religion. Circuit courts are split on whether and how such restrictions implicate the First Amendment. This Note argues that-rather than limiting "expressive conduct" protected only minimally by the First Amendment, or limiting pure conduct that does not garner any First Amendment protectionsubject matter restrictions on ballot …

The Unconstitutionality, Ineffectiveness, And Alternatives Of Gang Injunctions, Thomas A. Myers

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

Gang violence across America puts in jeopardy the peace and tranquility of neighborhoods. Cities are challenged to keep their communities safe from gang violence. One common way in which cities attempt to combat violent gang activity is by using gang injunctions. Gang injunctions are court orders that prohibit gang members from conducting already-illegal activities such as vandalism, loitering, and use or possession of illegal drugs or weapons within a defined area. These injunctions, however, also prohibit otherwise legal activity such as associating with others within the restricted area of the injunction, using words or hand gestures, and wearing certain clothing. …

The United Mall Of America: Free Speech, State Constitutions, And The Growing Fortress Of Private Property, Jennifer Niles Coffin

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Scholars have called the shopping mall the modern replacement for the traditional town square, a claim that is supported by both public investment in infrastructure through municipal and state bond issues and by the presence of public services and events in many malls. Mall owners and tenants have exploited this quasi public character by inviting government agencies to become tenants in the malls ("City Hall at the Mall") despite claiming that malls are private property where constitutionally protected freedoms do not apply. After an initial and shortlived ruling that mall visitors do indeed have free speech rights, the Supreme Court …

Restricting Adult Access To Material Obscene As To Juveniles, Ann H. Coulter

Michigan Law Review

This Note considers whether state regulations that restrict juvenile access to material that is obscene as to minors unconstitutionally encroach upon the first amendment rights of adults. Part I briefly describes the Court's opinion in Ginsberg. Part II introduces the "O'Brien analysis" and discusses the aspects of juvenile access restrictions that tend to make O'Brien scrutiny applicable. In this context the frequently relaxed judicial review of governmental restrictions on sexually related material will be discussed. Having concluded that the O'Brien analysis is applicable to access restrictions, Part III applies the test and ultimately concludes that juvenile access restrictions survive …

State And Local Limitations On Ballot Measure Contributions, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

This Note's thesis is that ballot measure limitations unconstitutionally infringe upon the rights of free speech and association. Part I analyzes Buckley and concludes that the CARC court misapplied its distinction between contributions and direct expenditures. Part II tests ballot measure limitations against Buckley's "exacting scrutiny" standard. It identifies the state interests asserted in defense of ballot measure limitations - lessening abuse by narrow interest groups, reducing apathy, and equalizing political expression - and concludes that ballot measure limitations do not permissibly further these governmental interests.

Restrictions On Electric Utility Advertising, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

This Note reconsiders the constitutionality of New York's restriction on advertising by electric utilities. Section I explains how and why the Supreme Court's current analysis of the first amendment distinguishes commercial speech from other forms of speech. Section II looks at what protection is due commercial speech and weighs the competing interests in the specific context of utility advertising. The Note concludes that states may restrict utility advertising to encourage energy conservation.

Constitutional Law-Prohibition Of Advertisement Of Prices By Barbers - Improper Police Regulation - Denial Of Freedom Of Speech, Elbridge D. Phelps

Michigan Law Review

Defendant was convicted of violating an ordinance of the City of Long Beach. That ordinance related exclusively to the barber trade and made it a misdemeanor, punishable by fine or imprisonment or both, to advertise prices of services in any publication, handbill, or notice whatsoever, provided, however, that prices might be displayed within a barber shop in such manner as not to be visible from the outside, and provided further that no advertising of prices should be allowed on the windows or on the outside of the shop, or on the adjacent sidewalk or street. Held, the ordinance was …

Constitutional Law - Freedom Of The Press - Restraints On Publication, Maurice S. Culp

Michigan Law Review

A recent Supreme Court decision establishes a new concept of freedom of the press, and adds new meaning to the liberty safeguarded by the Fourteenth Amendment. The defendant, Near, was enjoined from publishing his newspaper because it was alleged that the paper was largely devoted to the publication of malicious, scandalous, and defamatory articles about the grand jury, public officials, and others. The injunction was granted pursuant to a statute which made the publication of a malicious, scandalous, or defamatory newspaper, magazine, or periodical a nuisance subject to abatement by injunction. The Supreme Court of the United States decided that …

Constitutional Law-Municipal Corporations-Police Power

Michigan Law Review

The defendants circulated, on the streets of Milwaukee, hand bills which set forth the political and economic views of their group. An ordinance made it unlawful for any person "to circulate or distribute any circular, hand bills, cards, posters, dodgers, or other printed or advertising matter, * * * in or upon any sidewalk, street, * * * or other public place, park or ground within the City of Milwaukee." The defendants were arrested and convicted of violating this ordinance. There was no charge that the ordinance was enforced in any unreasonable or discriminatory manner, or that its purpose was …

A Treatise On The Constitutional Limitations Which Rest Upon The Legislative Power Of The States Of The American Union, Thomas M. Cooley, Victor H. Lane

Books

“At the request of the late Judge Cooley I have undertaken the preparation of this edition of the Constitutional Limitations. It seemed desirable, in view of all the circumstances, that the text of the last edition should stand as the text for this, and the work of the present editor has been confined to the bringing of the book down to date, by the addition of such matter to the notes as will fairly present the development of this branch of the law since the publication of the last edition.” --Preface to the Seventh Edition, Victor H. Lane, Ann Arbor, …

A Treatise On The Constitutional Limitations Which Rest Upon The Legislative Power Of The States Of The American Union, Thomas M. Cooley

Books

In the Preface to the first edition of this work. the author stated its purpose to be, to furnish to the practitioner and the student of the law such a presentation of elementary constitutional principles as should serve, with the aid of its references to judicial decisions, legal treatises, and historical events, as a convenient guide in the examination of questions respecting the constitutional limitations which rest upon the power of the several State legislatures. …

Preface to the 4th Edition: "New topics in State Constitutional Law are not numerous; but such as are suggested by recent decisions have been …

A Treatise On The Constitutional Limitations Which Rest Upon The Legislative Power Of The States Of The American Union, Thomas M. Cooley

Books

In the Preface to the first edition of this work. the author stated its purpose to be, to furnish to the practitioner and the student of the law such a presentation of elementary constitutional principles as should serve, with the aid of its references to judicial decisions, legal treatises, and historical events, as a convenient guide in the examination of questions respecting the constitutional limitations which rest upon the power of the several State ·legislatures. In the accomplishment of that purpose, the author further stated that he had faithfully endeavored to give the law as it had been settled by …

A Treatise On The Constitutional Limitations Which Rest Upon The Legislative Power Of The States Of The American Union, Thomas M. Cooley

Books

“In these pages the author has faithfully endeavored to state the law as it has been settled by the authorities, rather than to present his own views. At the same time he will not attempt to deny -- what will probably be sufficiently apparent -- that he has written in full sympathy with all those restraints which the caution of the fathers has imposed upon the exercise of the powers of government, and with greater faith in the checks and balances of our republican system, and in correct conclusions by the general public sentiment, than in a judicious, prudent, and …