First Amendment Commons^™

The Internet As Marketplace Of Madness— And A Terrorist’S Best Friend, Thane Rosenbaum

Fordham Law Review

The panel I was assigned to, for this distinguished gathering of scholars at Fordham Law School, where I had previously been a professor for twentythree years, was given the name, “Caution Against Overreaching.” Overreaching and the caution it occasions, in this case, refer to the First Amendment, a uniquely American absolutist, legalistic obsession. For many who fixate on such matters, the government must never be allowed to trample upon the unfettered free speech rights guaranteed under America’s first, and most favorite, Amendment.

Terror On Your Timeline: Criminalizing Terrorist Incitement On Social Media Through Doctrinal Shift, Zachary Leibowitz

Fordham Law Review

The United States faces a barrage of threats from terrorist organizations on a daily basis. The government takes some steps to prevent these threats from coming to fruition, but not much is being done proactively. Any person can log into a social media account to preach hate and incite violence against the United States and its citizenry, and sometimes these words result in action. When speakers are not held accountable, they can continue to incite the masses to violent action across the United States. This Note proposes a new incitement doctrine to prevent these speakers from being able to spread …

Free Speech And The Confluence Of National Security And Internet Exceptionalism, Alan K. Chen

Fordham Law Review

In this Article, I argue that, notwithstanding these contemporary developments, the Court got it mostly right in Brandenburg. Or, I want to at least suggest that it is premature to reconstruct the Brandenburg test to address perceived changes in our global environment. For the most part, Brandenburg has succeeded in mediating the balance between protecting political or ideological advocacy and enabling the government to regulate actual incitement, even in the contemporary era. Moreover, I argue that society should be especially wary of calls to narrow Brandenburg’s speech-protective standard because such changes might be significantly influenced by the confluence of two …

The Role Of Internet Intermediaries In Tackling Terrorism Online, Raphael Cohen-Almagor

Fordham Law Review

Gatekeeping is defined as the work of third parties “who are able to disrupt misconduct by withholding their cooperation from wrongdoers.”1 Internet intermediaries need to be far more proactive as gatekeepers than they are now. Socially responsible measures can prevent the translation of violent thoughts into violent actions. Designated monitoring mechanisms can potentially prevent such unfortunate events. This Article suggests an approach that harnesses the strengths and capabilities of the public and private sectors in offering practical solutions to pressing problems. It proposes that internet intermediaries should fight stringently against terror and further argues that a responsible gatekeeping approach is …

Social Media Accountability For Terrorist Propaganda, Alexander Tsesis

Fordham Law Review

Terrorist organizations have found social media websites to be invaluable for disseminating ideology, recruiting terrorists, and planning operations. National and international leaders have repeatedly pointed out the dangers terrorists pose to ordinary people and state institutions. In the United States, the federal Communications Decency Act’s § 230 provides social networking websites with immunity against civil law suits. Litigants have therefore been unsuccessful in obtaining redress against internet companies who host or disseminate third-party terrorist content. This Article demonstrates that § 230 does not bar private parties from recovery if they can prove that a social media company had received complaints …

Free Speech And National Security Bootstraps, Heidi Kitrosser

Fordham Law Review

It is troubling that courts treat administrative designations—specifically, both FTO determinations and information classification—as bootstraps by which to yank speech restrictions from the clutches of probing judicial scrutiny. This Article builds on existing scholarly critiques to identify and examine the common thread of national security bootstrapping that runs through both sets of cases. The hope is that in so doing, some greater light may be shed both on the cases themselves and, more broadly, on the costs and benefits of judicial deference to executive national security claims where civil rights and civil liberties are at stake.

Government Speech And The War On Terror, Helen Norton

Fordham Law Review

This Article examines how the government’s speech in the War on Terror can threaten free speech, equal protection, and due process values. It focuses primarily on the constitutional harms threatened by the government’s speech itself (what some call a form of “soft law”), rather than on situations in which the government’s speech may be evidence of a constitutionally impermissible motive for its “hard law” actions.

Terrorizing Advocacy And The First Amendment: Free Expression And The Fallacy Of Mutual Exclusivity, Martin H. Redish, Matthew Fisher

Fordham Law Review

Traditional free speech doctrine is inadequate to account for modern terrorist speech. Unprotected threats and substantially protected lawful advocacy are not mutually exclusive. This Article proposes recognizing a new hybrid category of speech called “terrorizing advocacy.” This is a type of traditionally protected public advocacy of unlawful conduct that simultaneously exhibits the unprotected pathologies of a true threat. This Article explains why this new category confounds existing First Amendment doctrine and details a proposed model for how the doctrine should be reshaped.

Jailing The Twitter Bird: Social Media, Material Support To Terrorism, And Muzzling The Modern Press, Rachel E. Vanlandingham

Cardozo Law Review

Social media companies such as Facebook and Twitter are vulnerable to federal criminal prosecution under 18 U.S.C. § 2339B, the material support to terrorism statute, for providing a means for terrorists and their sympathizers to glorify and pursue their violence on social media. This Article exposes that vulnerability as well as the material support statute's conflicts with the First and Fifth Amendments in this context, such as the statute's chilling effect. In particular, the Article explores how social media providers have responded to threats from the U.S. government by suspending hundreds of thousands of user accounts, effectively censoring constitutionally protected …

Human Torts, Lisa J. Laplante

Cardozo Law Review

Human Torts is the first article to describe how ordinary municipal tort lawsuits in the United States provide essential remedies for human rights abuses. Despite the rising level of hate crimes, bullying, corporate malfeasance, and other private acts that result in great harm and can lead to civil litigation, American scholars have never explored how everyday tort claims grounded in purely domestic common law doctrine between private, non-state actors are in fact human rights claims even if never pleaded as such in U.S. courts. Framing tort litigation as a form of human rights protection may appear to be a novel …

Cyberspace…The Final Frontier: How The Communications Decency Act Allows Entrepreneurs To Boldly Go Where No Blog Has Gone Before, Aaron Jackson

Oklahoma Journal of Law and Technology

No abstract provided.

Amend The Communications Decency Act To Protect Victims Of Sexual Exploitation, Samantha Vardaman

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

No abstract provided.

Sony, Cyber Security, And Free Speech: Preserving The First Amendment In The Modern World, Conrad Wilton

Pace Intellectual Property, Sports & Entertainment Law Forum

Reprinted from 16 U.C. Davis Bus. L.J. 309 (2016). This paper explores the Sony hack in 2014 allegedly launched by the North Korean government in retaliation over Sony’s production of The Interview and considers the hack’s chilling impact on speech in technology. One of the most devastating cyber attacks in history, the hack exposed approximately thirty- eight million files of sensitive data, including over 170,000 employee emails, thousands of employee social security numbers and unreleased footage of upcoming movies. The hack caused Sony to censor the film and prompted members of the entertainment industry at large to tailor their communication …

Is Your Health Data Really Private? The Need To Update Hipaa Regulations To Incorporate Third-Party And Non-Covered Entities, Latena Hazard

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

This note argues that the current framework that governs health care applications and consumer privacy is slacking and outlines strategies to ensure protection against third party accessibility of information that consumers deem private.

Table Of Contents

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

No abstract provided.

Masthead

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

No abstract provided.

Section 337 Of The Tariff Act Of 1930 And Its Impacts On China, Yiqing Yin

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

337 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (“Section 337”) is one of the statutes that prohibit unfair trade or unfair competition in importation, and it aims at protecting intellectual property at the United States borders. Because of the international impacts of Section 337 and the injunctive nature of its remedies, the application of the statute has profound impacts on the trade between U.S. and other countries.

China is a country that has enormous trade with the U.S and imports large amounts of goods to the U.S. each year. Moreover, the weak intellectual property protection in China has been a serious …

Examining The Legalization Of Daily Fantasy Sports, Mark Dourmashkin

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

No abstract provided.

How Might The Supreme Court, If It Reviews The Federal Communication's 2015 Open Internet Order, Utilize The Chevron And Arbitrary And Capricious Tests?, John B. Meisel

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

The article focuses on two Supreme Court decisions, King v. Burwell and FCC v. Fox Televisions Stations, Inc., that provide diametrically different models for how deferential a court should be when it reviews administrative action. The former case addresses how deferential a court should be for an agency’s statutory interpretation of an ambiguous statute for a question that has significant economic and political effects but Congress had not expressly delegated the question to the agency. The latter case addresses how deferential a court should be when an agency’s changes a policy that is within its statutory authority. These two …

#Cautionbusinesses: Using Competitors' Hashtags Could Possibly Lead To Trademark Infringement, Debbie Chu

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

No abstract provided.

Candidate Appearances, Equal Time, And The Fcc's Online Public File Database: Empirical Data On Tv Station Compliance During The 2016 Presidential Primary, Christopher Terry

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

Following the appearances of presidential candidates Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton on episodes of Saturday Night Live, local television affiliates were required to upload documents related to the appearances to the FCC’s online public file database. After discussing the FCC’s database, the Bona Fide News Exception and the modern application of Section 315’s Equal Time Requirements, this study examines the compliance by the local NBC affiliates in the top 100 television markets with the public file requirements for candidate appearances and subsequent equal time requests as a test of station compliance with the requirements of the FCC’s online …

Protecting Privacy In The Era Of Smart Toys: Does Hello Barbie Have A Duty To Report, Corinne Moini

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

No abstract provided.

Nobody Puts Blockchain In A Corner: The Disruptive Role Of Blockchain Technology In The Financial Services Industry And Current Regulatory Issues, Elizabeth Sara Ross

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

This Note examines the disruptive effects that distributed ledger technology will have on payment systems and the financial services industry. It discusses how financial technology companies and banks will need to adapt to ensure that American consumers and banks, as well as the American economy at large, remain secure and efficient within an increasingly online and global financial system. This Note argues that the disjointed digital currency licensing regimes and complex landscape of state-by-state money transmission licensing directly threaten to stifle innovation, capital formation, consumer protection, and national cybersecurity. To ensure the U.S. remains competitive in the global financial revolution, …

The Commercial Difference, Felix T. Wu

Articles

When it comes to the First Amendment, commerciality does, and should, matter. This Article develops the view that the key distinguishing characteristic of corporate or commercial speech is that the interest at stake is “derivative,” in the sense that we care about the speech interest for reasons other than caring about the rights of the entity directly asserting a claim under the First Amendment. To say that the interest is derivative is not to say that it is unimportant, and one could find corporate and commercial speech interests to be both derivative and strong enough to apply heightened scrutiny to …

Denial Of Harm: Sex Trafficking, Backpage, And Free Speech Absolutism, Jody Raphael

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

No abstract provided.

Schools, Speech, And Smartphones: Online Speech And The Evolution Of The Tinker Standard, Aleaha Jones

Duke Law & Technology Review

Under the Supreme Court’s holding in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, public schools may only restrict student speech where the speech is reasonably forecasted to cause a “substantial and material disruption.” With online forums calling into question who may control speech and forecast its impact, the circuit courts have granted public schools broad authority to monitor, and punish, their students for online activity that occurs off-campus. The Supreme Court recently declined the opportunity to reverse this disturbing trend by denying certiorari for Bell v. Itawamba County. As a result, questions remain unanswered regarding students’ right to free …

Rethinking Children's Advertising Policies For The Digital Age, Angela J. Campbell

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This article describes major changes in how video content and advertising is delivered to consumers. Digital technologies such as broadband allow consumers to stream or download programming. Smart phones and tablets allow consumers to view screen content virtually anywhere at any time. Advertising has become personalized and integrated with other content.

Despite these major changes in the media markets, the framework for regulating advertising to children has not changed very much since the 1990s. This article argues that the existing regulatory framework must be reinvented to protect children in the digital age. It uses Google’s recently introduced YouTube Kids app …

Manhattan_Project.Exe: A Nuclear Option For The Digital Age, David Laton

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

This article explores the possible implications and consequences arising from the use of an artificial intelligence construct as a weapon of mass destruction. The digital age has ushered in many technological advances, as well as certain dangers. Chief among these pitfalls is the lack of reliable security found in critical information technology systems. These security gaps can give cybercriminals unauthorized access to highly sensitive computer networks that control the very infrastructure of the United States. Cyberattacks are rising in both frequency and severity and the response by the U.S. has been ineffective. A cyber-weapon of mass destruction (CWMD) implementing an …

Table Of Contents

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

No abstract provided.

Targeted Advertising And The First Amendment: Student Privacy Vs. Protected Speech, Marco Crocetti

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

No abstract provided.