First Amendment Commons^™

Section 4: First Amendment, Institute Of Bill Of Rights Law, William & Mary Law School

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Some Effects Of Identity-Based Social Movements On Constitutional Law In The Twentieth Century, William N. Eskridge Jr.

Michigan Law Review

What motivated big changes in constitutional law doctrine during the twentieth century? Rarely did important constitutional doctrine or theory change because of formal amendments to the document's text, and rarer still because scholars or judges "discovered" new information about the Constitution's original meaning. Precedent and common law reasoning were the mechanisms by which changes occurred rather than their driving force. My thesis is that most twentieth century changes in the constitutional protection of individual rights were driven by or in response to the great identity-based social movements ("IBSMs") of the twentieth century. Race, sex, and sexual orientation were markers of …

Revenue Bonds And Religious Education: The Constitutionality Of Conduit Financing Involving Pervasively Sectarian Institutions, Trent Collier

Michigan Law Review

The Establishment Clause - and particularly the issue of government funding of religious education - is one of the murkiest areas of Supreme Court jurisprudence. The Supreme Court has acknowledged as much, and the sharp divide in the Court's most recent forays into Establishment Clause territory illustrates the point that the current jurisprudential standards allow for a broad range of interpretation. There is some hope that the Supreme court will provide further clarification of its Establishment Clause standard in the near future. For now, however, it appears that the dominant mode of the Establishment Clause analysis is the examination of …

The Business Of Expression: Economic Liberty, Political Factions And The Forgotten First Amendment Legacy Of Justice George Sutherland, Samuel R. Olken

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

In The Business of Expression: Economic Liberty, Political Factions And The Forgotten First Amendment Legacy of Justice George Sutherland, Samuel Olken traces the dichotomy that emerged in constitutional law in the aftermath of the Lochner era between economic liberty and freedom of expression. During the 1930s, while a deeply divided United States Supreme Court adopted a laissez faire approach to economic regulation, it viewed with great suspicion laws that restricted the manner and content of expression. During this period, Justice George Sutherland often clashed with the majority consistently insisting that state regulation of private economic rights bear a close and …

The Business Of Expression: Economic Liberty, Political Factions And The Forgotten First Amendment Legacy Of Justice George Sutherland, 10 Wm. & Mary Bill Rts. J. 249 (2002), Samuel R. Olken

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

In The Business of Expression: Economic Liberty, Political Factions And The Forgotten First Amendment Legacy of Justice George Sutherland, Samuel Olken traces the dichotomy that emerged in constitutional law in the aftermath of the Lochner era between economic liberty and freedom of expression. During the 1930s, while a deeply divided United States Supreme Court adopted a laissez faire approach to economic regulation, it viewed with great suspicion laws that restricted the manner and content of expression. During this period, Justice George Sutherland often clashed with the majority consistently insisting that state regulation of private economic rights bear a close and …

Brief Of The Becket Fund For Religious Liberty As Amicus Curiae In Support Of Petitioners, Richard W. Garnett, Kevin J. Hasson, Eric W. Treene, Roman P. Storzer, Anthony R. Picarello Jr.

Court Briefs

Nos. 00-1751, 00-1777, 00-1779
Susan Tave Zelman v. Doris Simmons-Harris

On Writ of Certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit

From the Summary of the Argument

Petitioners and other amici undoubtedly will address fully how the program at issue in this case should be upheld on the grounds that it involves the same principle that led to this Court upholding the aid in Mueller v. Allen, 463 U.S. 388 (1983), Witters v. Washington Dept. of Services for the Blind, 474 U.S. 481 (1986), and Zobrest v. Catalina Foothills Sch. Dist., 509 U.S. …

A Political History Of The Establishment Clause, John C. Jeffries Jr., James E. Ryan

Michigan Law Review

Now pending before the Supreme Court is the most important church-state issue of our time: whether publicly funded vouchers may be used at private, religious schools without violating the Establishment Clause. The last time the Court considered school aid, it overruled precedent and upheld a government program providing computers and other instructional materials to parochial schools. In a plurality opinion defending that result, Justice Thomas dismissed as irrelevant the fact that some aid recipients were "pervasively sectarian." That label, said Thomas, had a "shameful pedigree." He traced it to the Blaine Amendment, proposed in 1875, which would have altered the …

Section 6: First Amendment, Institute Of Bill Of Rights Law, William & Mary Law School

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How To Apply The Religious Freedom Restoration Act To Federal Law Without Violating The Constitution, Gregory P. Magarian

Michigan Law Review

Learned commentators have called the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 ("RFRA" or "the Act") "perhaps the most unconstitutional statute in the history of the nation" and "the most egregious violation of the separation of powers doctrine in American constitutional history." In the 1997 case of City of Boerne v. Flores, the Supreme Court struck down the Act in its applications to state and local governments, declaring that "RFRA contradicts vital principles necessary to maintain separation of powers and the federal balance." The Act's applications to federal law, however, survived Boerne, which means that plaintiffs with religious freedom claims against …

Criminalization Of True Anonymity In Cyberspace, The, George F. Du Pont

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

The question of whether a state or the federal government can create a narrowly tailored restriction on cyberspace anonymity without violating the First Amendment remains unresolved[...]The Supreme Court has not directly addressed the issue, but it may soon consider the constitutionality of criminalizing certain kinds of cyber-anonymity in light of the unique nature of cyberspace. This comment explores the various forms of anonymity, examines the First Amendment status of anonymity in and outside of cyberspace, analyzes relevant scholarly commentary, and concludes that a narrowly tailored legislative restriction on "true" anonymity in cyberspace would not violate the First Amendment.

Miranda, The Constitution, And Congress, David A. Strauss

Michigan Law Review

Are Miranda warnings required by the Constitution, or not? If they are, why has the Supreme Court repeatedly said that the rights created by Miranda are "not themselves rights protected by the Constitution"? If not, why can't an Act of Congress, such as 18 U.S.C. 3501, declare them to be unnecessary? These were the central questions posed by United States v. Dickerson. It is not clear that the majority opinion ever really answered them. The majority said that "Miranda is constitutionally based," that Miranda has "constitutional underpinnings," that Miranda is "a constitutional decision," and that Miranda "announced a constitutional rule." …

Religion And The First Amendment: Some Causes Of The Recent Confusion, Carl H. Esbeck

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Section 1983, The First Amendment, And Public Employee Speech: Shaping The Right To Fit The Remedy (And Vice Versa), Michael L. Wells

Georgia Law Review

Constitutional rights have little value in the absence of effective remedies for their violation, includingsuitsfor damages to redress past constitutional wrongs and for injunctive relief to prevent continuing and future violations. Recognizing this, the Supreme Court has, especially over the past forty years, constructed an elaborate body of remedial doctrine. The Court has often acted on the premise that the remedial law should be more or less the same across the whole range of constitutional rights. The problem with this approach is that, from a remedial perspective, there are differences among the real world contexts in which constitutional violations occur. …

"Closet Case": Boy Scouts Of America V. Dale And The Reinforcement Of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, And Transgender Invisibility, Darren L. Hutchinson

Faculty Articles

This Article argues that the Supreme Courts decision in Boy Scouts of America v. Dale misapplies and ignores controlling First Amendment precedent and incorrectly dermes "sexual identity" as a clinical or biological imposition that exists apart from expression or speech. This Article provides a doctrinal alternative to Dale that would protect vital interests in both equality and liberty and that would not condition, as does Dale, sexual "equality" upon the silencing of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender individuals.

Regulation Of Religious Proselytism In The United States, Howard O. Hunter, Polly J. Price

Faculty Articles

This article will consider various aspects of the U.S. legal system that affect proselytism. Although the United States has had a longstanding constitutional guarantee of the “free exercise” of religion, there are nonetheless significant constraints upon free exercise directly relating to proselytism. Some legal commentators, including Douglas Laycock, have argued that our decentralized system of government leads to insufficient protection of religious liberty, especially for religious minorities.Most case law on the subject in the United States, as well as most attempts to regulate behavior by ordinance or statute, have developed in response to groups or individuals that are outside the …

Brief Amici Curiae Of Christian Legal Society And Union Of Orthodox Jewish Congregations Of America In Support Of Petitioners, Richard W. Garnett, Nathan J. Diament, Carl H. Esbeck

Court Briefs

No. 99-2036
The Good News Club v. Milford Central School

On Writ Of Certiorari To The United States Court Of Appeals For The Second Circuit

From the Summary of the Argument

The parties agree that Milford's Community Use Policy creates a limited public forum. See, e.g., Pet. A13 ("We think it clear that the Community Use Policy has created a limited public forum in the Milford school facilities."). And the parties agree that any content restrictions in such fora must be "viewpoint neutral" and constitutionally "reasonable." Pet. A14 & n.8 ("If the Club's use is not a 'religious use' but …

Proactive Legislation And The First Amendment, Stuart Minor Benjamin

Michigan Law Review

It is a commonplace that the world is changing rapidly, with whole sectors of the economy being transformed. New forms of communication, like the World Wide Web, e-mail, and satellite television, have risen from obscurity to ubiquity in less than a decade. The speed of these changes has led some to express concern about the ability of governments to respond. The fear is that governments cannot keep up with developments as they occur and thus get hopelessly behind. The solution, according to some, is for the government to act proactively - before a harm has arisen, so that the government …

Section 5: First Amendment, Institute Of Bill Of Rights Law, William & Mary Law School

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Peaches, Speech, And Clarence Thomas: Yes, California, There Is A Justice Who Understands The Ramifications Of Controlling Commercial Speech, Jennifer R. Franklin

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Petition For Writ Of Certiorari, Richard W. Garnett, Michael Stokes Paulsen, David C. Gibbs Jr., David C. Gibbs Iii, Charlotte A. Cover, Barbara J. Weller

Court Briefs

No. 00-131
K.D.M. v. Reedsport School District

On Petition for Writ of Certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

From the Reasons for Granting the Writ

The Ninth Circuit conceded that the regulation at issue below " 'discriminates' against students in religious schools, i.e., treats them differently by denying them state services on the school grounds." KDM, 196 F.2d 1046, 1051 (9th Cir. 1999) (App. B at 11 a). This, then, is a case about admitted discrimination - discrimination against "religious ideas, religious people, [and] religious schools." Board of Educ. of Kiryas Joel v. …

Incitement To Violence On The World Wide Web: Can Web Publishers Seek First Amendment Refuge?, Lonn Weissblum

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

The purpose of this comment is to analyze the potential First Amendment implications of the appearance of bomb-making instructions on the Web in the United States. Moreover, this comment will ultimately consider the notion that "because Brandenburg allows consideration of all the unique characteristics of the Web, there is no reason to formulate new jurisprudence merely because of new technology." Part II examines the seminal cases in the area of speech action, including Schenck v. United States, Hess v. Indiana, and Brandenburg v. Ohio, and the adulations and criticisms that resulted from these cases. Part III discusses the civil cases …

Dissent, Free Speech, And The Continuing Search For The "Central Meaning" Of The First Amendment, Ronald J. Krotoszynski Jr.

Michigan Law Review

Since the Warren Court's expansive construction of the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment, there has been no shortage of legal scholarship aimed at justifying the remarkably broad protections afforded the freedom of speech under landmark cases such as Brandenburg v. Ohio, New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, and Virginia State Board of Pharmacy v. Virginia Citizens Consumer Council, Inc. At the same time, in recent years, a growing chorus of free speech skeptics have made their voices heard.5 These legal scholars have questioned why a commitment to freedom of expression should displace other (constitutional) values such as equality, …

The Importance Of Being Biased, Anthony M. Dillof

Michigan Law Review

The war against bias crimes is far from finished. In contrast, the battle over bias-crime laws is largely over. Bias-crime laws, as commonly formulated, increase the penalties for crimes motivated by bias. The Supreme Court has held that such laws do not violate the First Amendment. Virtually every state has enacted some sort of biascrime law. Even the federal government, which may consider itself without power to enact a general bias-crime law, has made bias a sentence-aggravating factor for the range of federal criminal offenses. Bias-crime laws thus are an established feature of the legal landscape. Against this background, Frederick …

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 …

Francis Bacon Takes On The Ghouls: The "First Principles" Of Religious Freedom, Richard W. Garnett

Journal Articles

John Witte, Jr.
Religion and the American Constitutional Experiment:
Essential Rights and Liberties
Westview Press 2000

From the Review

This is a great time for students of the First Amendment's Religion Clauses and of what Professor John Witte calls the American "experiment" with religious freedom. We've been blessed these past few years with an in-print seminar - an upper-division offering, team-taught by faculty heavyweights - on this experiment, its products and prospects, and the values that have shaped it. Our teachers and texts have included, to name just a few, Professor Steven Smith's Foreordained Failure: The Constitutional Quest for a …

Brief Amici Curiae Of Christian Legal Society And The National Association Of Evangelicals In Support Of Respondent, Kimberlee Wood Colby, Gregory S. Baylor, Carl H. Esbeck, Richard W. Garnett, Michael Stokes Paulsen

Court Briefs

No. 99-138
Jenifer and Gary Troxel v. Tommie Granville

From the Summary of the Argument

Our argument that the decision below should be affirmed rests on a few basic points, none of which necessarily prejudices the case for a grandparent-visitation statute that is narrowly tailored to serve a compelling state interest. First, the statutes at issue are not grandparent-visitation statutes. Even if they were, the Petitioners and their amici have not pointed to any other visitation statutes that share the objectionable and unconstitutional features of Washington's particular statutes.

Petitioners' Reply Brief, William H. Meub, Orland Campbell Jr., Richard W. Garnett, Michael Stokes Paulsen

Court Briefs

No. 99-628
Cynthia Andrews v. Vermont Department of Education

On Petition For A Writ Of Certiorari To The Vermont Supreme Court

From the Petitioners' Reply Brief

The question presented in this case is whether the First Amendment allows government to discriminate on the basis of religion in funding school-choice education programs that include private schools. In the Petition, we showed (1) that this issue is nationally important; (2) that this issue is recurrent; and (3) that this issue has generated extraordinary and pervasive conflicts among lower and federal state courts, and between decisions of lower courts and this Court.

Zoning Speech On The Internet: A Legal And Technical Model, Lawrence Lessig, Paul Resnick

Michigan Law Review

Speech, it is said, divides into three sorts - (1) speech that everyone has a right to (political speech, speech about public affairs); (2) speech that no one has a right to (obscene speech, child porn); and (3) speech that some have a right to but others do not (in the United States, Ginsberg speech, or speech that is "harmful to minors," to which adults have a right but kids do not). Speech-protective regimes, on this view, are those where category (1) speech predominates; speech-repressive regimes are those where categories (2) and (3) prevail. This divide has meaning for speech …

Petition For A Writ Of Certiorari, William H. Meub, Orland Campbell Jr., Richard W. Garnett, Michael Stokes Paulsen

Court Briefs

No. 99-628
Cynthia and Douglas Andrews v. Chittenden Town School District

On Petition For A Writ Of Certiorari To The Vermont Supreme Court

From the Reasons for Granting the Writ

This is a case about discrimination - discrimination against "religious ideas, religious people, [and] religious schools." Board of Educ. of Kiryas Joel v. Grumet, 512 U.S. 687, 717 (1994) (O'Connor, J., concurring in part and concurring in the judgment). Vermont provides an immensely valuable benefit - tuition - to eligible residents and their high-school-age children. Petitioners have been denied this educational benefit solely because they have chosen a religious …

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

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