First Amendment Commons^™

God, Jesus, Allah And Yahweh Should Be Government Employees: How Zelman V. Simmons-Harris Can Establish A Constitutional Framework For Government Funding Of Faith-Based Services, Craig A. Newell Jr.

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Institutional Academic Freedom - A Constitutional Misconception: Did Grutter V. Bollinger Perpetuate The Confusion?, Richard H. Hiers

UF Law Faculty Publications

This article begins with a review of language that eventually gave rise to the concept of institutional academic freedom, and includes a summary of lower court decisions embracing that concept or notion. The second part identifies certain constitutional problems in connection with the idea that institutional academic freedom can somehow be derived from or based upon the First Amendment. The third part describes and analyzes language in the Court's Grutter decision, language that may or may not have the effect of validating the concept of institutional academic freedom under the First Amendment.

Constitutional Law—True Threat Doctrine And Public School Speech—An Expensive View Of A School's Authority To Discipline Allegedly Threatening Student Speech Arising Off Campus. Doe V. Pulaski County Special School District, 306 F.3d 616 (8th Cir. 2002)., William Bird

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Academics, Public Employee Speech, And The Public University, Jennifer Elrod

Buffalo Public Interest Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Sticks And Stones: The First Amendment And Campus Speech Codes, 37 J. Marshall L. Rev. 205 (2003), Lee Ann Rabe

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Jon Newman’S Theory Of Disparagement And The First Amendment In The Administrative State, Edward L. Rubin

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Darwin, Design, And Disestablishment: Teaching The Evolution Controversy In Public Schools, Jay D. Wexler

Faculty Scholarship

The controversy over teaching evolution in public schools is once again hot news. Ever since the Supreme Court decided in 1987 that Louisiana could not constitutionally require teachers to give equal time to teaching creation science and evolution, critics of evolution have adopted a variety of new strategies to change the way in which public schools present the subject to their students. These strategies have included teaching evolution as a "theory" rather than as a fact, disclaiming the truth of evolutionary theory, teaching arguments against evolution, teaching the allegedly nontheistic theory of intelligent design instead of creationism, removing evolution from …

The First Amendment And The Socialization Of Children: Compulsory Public Education And Vouchers, Steven H. Shiffrin

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Criticism of American public schools has been a cottage industry since the Nineteenth Century. In recent years the criticism has gone to the roots. Critics charge that to leave children imprisoned in the public school monopoly is to risk the standardization of our children; it is to socialize them in the preferred views of the State. They argue that it would be better to adopt a system of vouchers or private scholarships to support a multiplicity of private schools. A multiplicity of such schools, it is said, would enhance parental choice, would foster competition, and would promote a diversity of …

School Vouchers And The Constitution - Permissible, Impermissible, Or Required?, Gary J. Simson

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Lavine V. Blaine School District: Fear Silences Student Speech In The Ninth Circuit, Shannon M. Mcminimee

Washington Law Review

In LaVine v. Blaine School District, the Ninth Circuit allowed a school to expel a student for writing a poem about a school shooting. The court held that the school did not violate the student's First Amendment rights because the school could reasonably forecast that the student would cause a substantial disruption or material interference with school activities. This Note argues that the LaVine court incorrectly applied the established standards for evaluating the constitutionality of a school's decision to expel a student. The LaVine court also unwisely extended the Tinker doctrine to a new area of student speech. In …

The Right Questions About School Choice: Education, Religious Freedom, And The Common Good, Richard W. Garnett

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Freedom Of The Private-University Student Press: A Constitutional Proposal, 36 J. Marshall L. Rev. 139 (2002), Brian J. Steffen, John E. Ferguson

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Applying The Good News Club Decision In A Manner That Maintains The Separation Of Church And State In Our Schools, James L. Underwood

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

The Courts' Inconsistent Treatment Of Bethel V. Fraser And The Curtailment Of Student Rights, 36 J. Marshall L. Rev. 181 (2002), David L. Hudson

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Zelman V. Simmons-Harris And The Private Choice Doctrine, Laura T. Rahe

Cleveland State Law Review

In Zelman, the Court examined the constitutionality of an Ohio pilot program that took effect in the Cleveland City School District. One of the program's provisions permitted parents to use a tuition voucher for their children to attend public or private schools, including religious schools. The statute authorizing the program ensured that participating private schools remained affordable for the most disadvantaged children, and required that the schools refrain from "advocat[ing] or foster[ing] unlawful behavior or teach[ing] hatred of any person or group on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin or religion." The Cleveland program exemplifies one attempt, informed by …

The Right Questions About School Choice: Education, Religious Freedom, And The Common Good, Richard W. Garnett

Journal Articles

As this Essay goes to press, the Supreme Court is considering whether Ohio's school-choice program violates the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. In my view, the Ohio program is sound public policy, and it is consistent with the Justices' present understanding of the Establishment Clause. I also believe that the Court will and should permit this experiment, and our conversations about its merits, to continue. The purpose of this Essay, though, is not to predict or evaluate ex ante the Court's decision. Instead, my primary aim is to suggest and then sketch a few broad themes that--once the …

An Unconstitutional Stereotype: Catholic Schools As Pervasively Sectarian, Gerard V. Bradley

Journal Articles

The Supreme Court first held public assistance to religious schools unconstitutional in 1971 in Lemon v. Kurtzman. From then until now the concept of “pervasively sectarian” has played a central role in “parochaid” jurisprudence; every holding against “direct” aid has rested upon it as a necessary premise. “Pervasively sectarian” refers to the assertedly religious (“sectarian”) character of the entire curriculum at parochial schools. Religion, it is said, so permeates the whole educational program that “direct aid” to any aspect of that program inescapably aids religion itself. And that, it is said, violates the Establishment Clause. Because aid statutes typically aim …

Their Own Preposessions: The Establishment Clause 1999-2000, Leslie C. Griffin

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Alan Isaacman And The First Amendment: A Candid Interview With Larry Flynt's Attorney, Clay Calvert, Robert D. Richards

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Common Schools And The Common Good: Reflections On The School-Choice Debate, Richard W. Garnett

Journal Articles

Thank you very much for this timely and important discussion on school choice, religious faith, and the public good.

First things first—Steven Green is right: The Cleveland school-voucher case is headed for the Supreme Court. And I am afraid that Mr. Green is also correct when he observes that the question whether the First Amendment permits States to experiment with meaningful choice-based education reform will likely turn on Justice O'Connor's fine-tuned aesthetic reactions to the minutiae of Ohio's school-choice experiment.

Putting aside for now the particulars of the Cleveland case, though, I would like to propose for your consideration a …

Chandler V. James: Welcoming Student Prayer Back In The Schoolhouse Gate, Sarah Beth Mabery

Mercer Law Review

In Chandler v. James, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the district court's order permanently enjoining enforcement of an Alabama statute that permitted student-initiated religious speech in public schools. The court of appeals concluded that permitting student initiated religious speech did not violate the Establishment Clause and such speech is protected by the Free Exercise and Free Speech Clauses of the First Amendment.

Keeping The Sex In Sex Education: The First Amendment's Religion Clauses And The Sex Education Debate, Gary J. Simson, Erika A. Sussman

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Comment: Separation And Schools, Kent Greenawalt

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Religious Clubs In The Public Schools: What Happened After Mergens?, Dena S. Davis

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

The Equal Access Act, upheld by the Supreme Court in Board of Education v. Mergens, requires public secondary schools to allow access to religiously based student groups on the same basis as other student clubs. Mergens presents many challenges to civil libertarians, who may find their traditional sympathies aligned on both sides of the issue. This article seeks to throw light on some of those issues by reporting on a research project that ascertained the actual effect of the Act on public high schools in Ohio.

Religion And Education: Whither The Establishment Clause?, Martha Mccarthy

Indiana Law Journal

Symposium: Religious Liberty at the Dawn of a New Millennium held at Indiana University School of Law-Bloomington on April 9, 1999.

What Is The Matter With Equality?: An Assessment Of The Equal Treatment Of Religion And Nonreligion In First Amendment Jurisprudence, William P. Marshall

Indiana Law Journal

Symposium: Religious Liberty at the Dawn of a New Millennium held at Indiana University School of Law-Bloomington on April 9, 1999.

The Constitutionality Of Mandatory Public School Community Service Programs, Rodney A. Smolla

Law Faculty Publications

Proposals for public service programs have long had currency in America, and may be gaining a certain millennium momentum in current public debate. While proposals for national public service programs of varying ambition and scope continue to be debated, at the local level a growing number of U.S. public school districts are implementing community service programs for high school students. Community service programs generally require students to complete a specified number of hours of service as a condition for graduation. In a typical program, a student may be required to complete forty to sixty hours of community service with organizations …

School Choice, The First Amendment, And Social Justice, Nicole Stelle Garnett, Richard W. Garnett

Journal Articles

This Article is intended to be a primer on the legality and morality of educational choice—"School Choice in a Nutshell," if you will. We are resigned to being pre-empted by the tireless work of grassroots activists, the choices of voters, and the decisions of judges. Still, we hope, in somewhat polemical fashion, to establish two basic claims. First, school choice, properly understood, is constitutional. And second, school choice is both sensible and just.

In the end, we believe "school choice . . . is essential to achieving equality of opportunity for American children, rich or poor. School choice treats the …

Life On Campus Really Ain't So Bad, Avern Cohn

Michigan Law Review

The Shadow University is a highly tendentious account of Alan Charles Kors and Harvey A. Silverglate's view of academic and student life in America's colleges and universities over the last twenty years. Kors and Silverglate see these colleges and universities turning from promoting personal and academic freedom to suppressing open expression and denying basic liberties to students and faculty alike. To make their point, they have scoured college and university campuses from coast to coast to find incidents involving student speech code violations, as well as student and faculty discipline and misbehavior proceedings. They also examine multicultural and diversity programs …

Section 1: Mitchell V. Helms, Institute Of Bill Of Rights Law, William & Mary Law School

Supreme Court Preview

No abstract provided.