First Amendment Commons^™

From Widmar To Mergens: The Winding Road Of First Amendment Analysis, Rosemary C. Salomone

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

In 1981, the Supreme Court decided Widmar v. Vincent, holding that a state university that created a "limited open forum" by opening its facilities to student organizations must grant equal access to religiously affiliated groups. The university's failure to do so constituted content-based discrimination that violated the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. The Court rejected the university's argument that its policy to disallow religious meetings on campus was implemented to avoid contravening establishment clause principles. The Court's opinion was inconclusive as to whether the Widmar rationale would apply to secondary schools.

During the same period, Congress …

Justice Harlan And The Bill Of Rights: A Model For How A Classic Conservative Court Would Enforce The Bill Of Rights, Nadine Strossen

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

A Proposal To Curb Congressional Interference With The National Endowment-For The Arts, Nancy Ravitz

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Post-Riley Era: An Analysis Of First Amendment Protection Of Charitable Fundraising, Stephen H. Block

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Limiting Disclosure Of Rape Victims' Identities, Paul Marcus, Tara L. Mcmahon

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Sex, Lies And Videotape: The Pornographer As Censor, Marianne Wesson

Publications

The legal branch of the women's movement, although of one mind on some subjects, is divided on the proper approach to pornography. Some feminists oppose the imposition of any legal burdens on pornography because they fear that feminist speech will be caught in the general suppression, and others believe that any such burdens must violate the first amendment. Professor Wesson suggests that pornography should be defined to include only those materials that equate sexual pleasure with the infliction of violence or pain, and imply approval of conduct that generates the actor's arousal or satisfaction through this infliction. So defined, pornography …

Freedom Of Speech And The Flag Anti-Desecration Amendment: Antinomies Of Constitutional Choice, William W. Van Alstyne

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

To Stimulate, Provoke, Or Incite? Hate Speech And The First Amendment, Kenneth Lasson

All Faculty Scholarship

If protecting freedom of speech is one of mankind's noblest pursuits, then restricting it is the most difficult. Yet limit we must: even the purest civil libertarian will concede that false shouts of fire cannot be countenanced nor broadcasts of wartime troop movements; even those who object to obscenity laws recognize the need for enabling redress of libel; and even those who would protect the right to be insulting do not defend inflammatory words spit out nose-to-nose. Now a spate of "speech codes" on college campuses has once again brought the first amendment to the fore, part of a simmering …

Beguiled: Free Exercise Exemptions And The Siren Song Of Liberalism, Gerard V. Bradley

Journal Articles

From all the talk about our religious pluralism—how extensive, indelible, inarbitrable it is—one would expect that establishing one definition of religious liberty would be the mother of all civic disturbances. Wrong. We have a common definition of religious liberty. I can demonstrate our agreement with one exhibit: the immensely broad based denunciation of the 1990 Supreme Court decision, Employment Division v. Smith. Two counsellors at a drug rehabilitation center (Alfred Smith and Galen Black) appealed Oregon’s denial of unemployment benefits. Oregon cited the “misconduct” that led to their discharges. Their “misconduct” consisted of using the hallucinogenic drug peyote. Peyote …

Passive Communication In Public Fora: The Case For First Amendment Protection Of Newsracks, Sandra L. Cobden

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Making Sense Of Billboard Law: Justifying Prohibitions And Exemptions, R. Douglass Bond

Michigan Law Review

Part I of this Note surveys the trends in the aesthetic regulation of billboards, culminating in the Supreme Court of California's decision in Metromedia, Inc. v. City of San Diego, and the Supreme Court's review of that decision. Part II analyzes the five Metromedia opinions in order to present properly the contemporary debate over billboard law. It inquires whether a sign prohibition should hinge on the commercial or noncommercial status of the targeted signs. Part III indicates how ambiguities in the Metromedia plurality opinion have produced the conflict in lower courts between the commercial/noncommercial distinction and the onsite/ off …

Academic Freedom, Hate Speech, And The Idea Of A University, Rodney A. Smolla

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Speaking And Writing Against Hate, Martha Minow

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

The New Politics Of Pornography, René L. Todd

Michigan Law Review

A Review of The New Politics of Pornography by Donald A. Downs

No More Teachers' Dirty Looks -- Now They Sue: Analysis Of Plaintiff Status Determinations In Defamation Actions By Public Educators, Richard E. Johnson

Florida State University Law Review

The constitutionalization of defamation law in 1964 created a revolution in first amendment jurisprudence. The United States Supreme Court established protection for statements concerning public officials unless the statements were made with actual malice, i.e., knowledge of falsity or reckless disregard of truth or falsity. Later, the Court extended much of that protection to statements about public figures who are not government employees. Though the Court eventually narrowed the scope of its public figure doctrine, it never receded from the protection accorded to statements about public officials. The author of this Article contends that this distinction has eluded many state …

Religious Accommodation And Criminal Liability, Christine A. Clark

Florida State University Law Review

Florida's religious accommodation statute leads some parents to believe that they are free to rely on spiritual healing in lieu of medical treatment for their ill children. However, the statute fails to protect these parents in a criminal prosecution arising from their children's deaths. The author of this Article describes the various types of accommodation statutes, analyzes a recent prosecution, and concludes that such prosecutions are unconstitutional. The author also proposes revisions to Florida's law designed to eliminate ambiguities about what protections it provides.

Texas V. Johnson, 109 S. Ct. 2533 (1989), Deborah Tully Eversole

Florida State University Law Review

Constitutional Law-A VOYAGE THROUGH MURKY WATERS: ASSESSING FLAG MISUSE PROHIBITIONS IN THE WAKE OF Texas v. Johnson, 102 S. Ct. 2533 (1989)

A Prior Restraint By Any Other Name: The Judicial Response To Media Challenges Of Gag Orders Directed At Trial Participants, René L. Todd

Michigan Law Review

Gag orders directed at trial participants do not directly intrude into the media's editorial process, but instead result in a reduction of the total communication available regarding trial proceedings. In this way, participant-directed gag orders are effective, albeit indirect, restraints upon the media. This Note examines the dynamics of these participant-directed restrictions and their consequent effect upon the media. Part I examines participant-directed gag orders in relation to traditional prior restraint doctrine. After discussing the history of prior restraint doctrine and the present standard of prior restraint analysis, Part I relates efforts by courts to apply. prior restraint doctrine to …

Humor, Defamation And Intentional Infliction Of Emotional Distress: The Potential Predicament For Private Figure Plaintiffs, Catherine L. Amspacher, Randel Steven Springer

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Religious Free Speech Rights Of Students In Public Schools: The Educator's Dilemma, Rosalie Levinson

Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Equal Access Controversy: A Battle For Freedom Of Religious Speech In Public Secondary Schools, Michael D. Rouse

Florida State University Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Prosecution Of Religious Fraud, Stephen Senn

Florida State University Law Review

The first amendment to the United States Constitution protects the religious freedom of individuals through its establishment and free exercise clauses. Should the government's hands-off policy under the free exercise clause provide a protective blanket for fraudulent moneymaking schemes carried out in the name of religion? The author of this Article argues that the protection of religious freedom can comfortably coexist with protection from religious fraud where courts employ a "sincerity test." He concludes that with appropriate procedural safeguards, courts can use this test to distinguish sincere religious exercise from criminally fraudulent enterprise.

Florida Star V. B.J.F.: The Rape Of The Right To Privacy, 23 J. Marshall L. Rev. 731 (1990), Barbara Lynn Pedersen

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Judicial Postscript To The Church-State Debates Of 1989: How Porous The Wall, How Civil The State?, William W. Van Alstyne

Faculty Scholarship

This work is a continuation of the debate regarding the Establishment Clause. The focus lies with Justice O’Connor’s concurrence in County of Allegheny v. ACLU and how this opinion harkens back to a concept shared by Jefferson and Madison, that the establishment clause is designed to prevent government favoritism.

Constitutional Law—Freedom Of Religion—Requiring Reports Of Religious Counseling Sessions Under Child Abuse Reporting Statutes Does Not Violate The First Amendment. State V. Motherwell, 114 Wash. 2d 353, 788 P.2d 1066 (1990)., Mona J. Mcnutt

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Case Against A Right To Religion-Based Exemptions, Ellis M. West

Political Science Faculty Publications

When, if ever, does the free exercise clause of the first amendment give an individual or organization the right to disobey with impunity a valid law of the state? This question is being discussed with increasing frequency and intensity because of the growing number of persons and groups who are going to the courts and claiming such a right on the grounds that the application of certain laws to them would burden their free exercise of religion. Almost all the individuals and some of the groups who claim such a right do so because the laws to which they object …

Curran Versus Catholic University Of America, Gerard V. Bradley

Journal Articles

From the Introduction

America's most celebrated recent episode of ecclesiastical « dissent » reached its legal conclusion in Curran v. Catholic University of America. Fr. Curran says he will not pursue appellate review. Consequently, Judge Weisberg's ruling in favor of CUA, plus Fr. Curran's refusal to teach anything but Catholic theology, mean that the « dissenter » will pursue his academic career elsewhere. But, while conclusive, the ruling is hardly the « landmark decision » one Catholic editor termed it.

How could a theological and ecclesiological controversy of such magnitude be emptied of its sacred content? How could Judge …

Is This The End Of American Indian Site Specific Free Exercise Claims?: Lyng V. Northwest Indian Cemetery Protection Association, Joseph Tomkiewicz

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Insults And Epithets: Are They Protected Speech?, Kent Greenawalt

Faculty Scholarship

It is a privilege to offer a lecture in this series named for Edward J. Bloustein. Not many lecture series honor sitting university presidents who deliver the first lecture in the series; but President Bloustein is the very rare president whose long tenure in office has been accompanied by continuing academic productivity. That achievement is remarkable.

When I tentatively chose this topic a year ago, I knew it involved the application of philosophical insights to serious practical questions, the kind of work that President Bloustein has done so well. I also knew that the search for those aspects of human …

Art, Obscenity And The First Amendment, Judith Bresler

Articles & Chapters

Symposium on Law and the Visual Arts: Art, the First Amendment and the NEA Controversy