First Amendment Commons^™

Freedom From Obscenity, Norman A. Erbe, Arlo F. Craig Jr.

Cleveland State Law Review

Interest in obscenity laws, in the reason and purpose for their being, their efficacy in achieving the ends for which they are intended, the threat their existence and enforcement pose to the freedoms of speech and press, and the attitude of the courts toward them, seems to be at a new high. Obscenity is universally condemned throughout the United States. Yet law enforcement officers who attempt to enforce obscenity laws invariably are accused of "censoring" and "book burning."' A good many of such charges come from persons whose ox is being gored-persons who have a pecuniary interest in having obscenity …

Book Review, Jack F. Smith

Cleveland State Law Review

Reviewing James Jackson Kilpatrick, The Smut Peddlers, Doubleday & Co., 1960

The Supreme Court - October 1958 Term, Bernard Schwartz

Michigan Law Review

The Supreme Court, reads a famous passage by Bryce, "feels the touch of public opinion. Opinion is stronger in America than anywhere else in the world, and judges are only men. To yield a little may be prudent, for the tree that cannot bend to the blast may be broken."

The history of the highest Court bears constant witness to the truth of Bryce's statement. Supreme Court action which has moved too far in one direction has always ultimately provoked an equivalent reaction in the opposite direction. Even an institution as august as the high tribunal cannot escape the law …

Abstracts Of Recent Cases, W. E. M.

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Book Reviews, Albert S. Abel, Breck P. Mcallister, W. Friedmann, Rex A. Collings Jr., Frank J. Trelease, Elden S. Magaw, Albert A. Ehrenzweig, Reginald Heber Smith, Ilmar Tammelo, Jo Desha Lucas

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

"Congress Shall Make No Law…":Ii, O. John Rogge

Michigan Law Review

The framers of the federal bill of rights by the First and Tenth Amendments sought to deny Congress power over utterances unless they were connected with criminal conduct other than advocacy. Any power over such utterances was to reside in the states. However, the Supreme Court departed from the framers' intent.

One of the factors in this development was the emergence of an undefined federal police power. This occurred largely under the commerce and postal clauses. It began over a century ago. As early as 1838 Congress passed a law requiring the installation of safety devices upon steam vessels. Beginning …

"Congress Shall Make No Law..."*, O. John Rogge

Michigan Law Review

It is the position of the writer that, at least so far as Congress is concerned, speech is as free as thought, and that unless and until speech becomes a part of a course of conduct which Congress can restrain or regulate no federal legislative power over it exists. State power, despite the Fourteenth Amendment, may be somewhat more extensive. Certainly the framers of the First Amendment intended that it should be. This article will deal with federal power over speech.

Voice Identification, Writing Exemplars And The Privilege Against Self-Incrimination, Russell J. Weintraub

Vanderbilt Law Review

The problems involved in defining the nature of the privilege against self-incrimination and in setting its limits have been much mooted in recent years. Though these problems have been brought into sharp focus by the present very urgent and certainly justified concern for our national security, they are problems which are inherent in the privilege itself. They have been with us for a long time.

One of these problems concerns the extent to which a person may refuse to participate in criminal proceedings brought against him. Doubtless not even the most liberal proponent of the privilege would claim that an …

Compelling The Testimony Of Political Deviants, O. John Rogge

Michigan Law Review

Besides the two specific problems which the new federal act presents, namely, whether it imposes nonjudicial functions on federal courts, and whether it should, does and can protect against the substantial danger of state prosecution, there is a general objection that one can raise against it, and to other acts of the same type: they relate to the area of belief and opinion, the very area which was involved when the English people, spearheaded by the Puritans, engaged in the struggle with the Crown that finally resulted in the establishment of a right of silence. At least if we are …

Criminal Procedure - Standing Of The Press To Protest Exclusion Of Public From Criminal Trial By Order Of The Trial Judge, M. Fred Mallender, Ii

Michigan Law Review

Defendant judge, believing that great harm to public morals and decency was to be apprehended from the testimony in the vice trial of Minot F. Jelke, exercised his discretion to exclude the general public including plaintiff newspapers from the court room during the state's case. The family and friends of the accused along with officers of the court, witnesses, and jury were not excluded. The plaintiffs applied for a writ of prohibition to restrain the defendant from enforcing his order. The court denied the application on the grounds that the defendant judge had the power to make the exclusion order …

Note And Comment, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Lawyers and Jurists at the Exposition; Convention of the Commercial Law League of America; The Philippine Island Cases in the Supreme Court of the United States; The Writ of Habeas Corpus in Chinese Exclusion Cases; What is a "Crime" Within the Meaning of the Constitution?; Due Process of Law; Winding up Proceedings; Literary Criticism and the Law of Libel; The New Japanese Civil Code;