First Amendment Commons^™

Intentional Infliction Of Emotional Distress By Spiritual Counselors: Can Outrageous Conduct Be "Free Exercise"?, Lee W. Brooks

Michigan Law Review

Part I explains the extent to which courts are competent to decide the threshold question of whether particular conduct is religious. Part II describes the balancing test put forward by the Supreme Court for evaluating free exercise claims, and derives criteria relevant to spiritual counseling from cases involving such claims. Part III summarizes the pertinent criteria and reviews the ways they may be employed to systematize the treatment of spiritual counseling cases.

Published Consentless Sexual Portrayals: A Proposed Framework For Analysis, Ruth Colker

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Greenmoss Builders, Inc. V. Dun & (And) Bradstreet Inc. Invites Controversy, 19 J. Marshall L. Rev. 929 (1986), Elmer Gertz

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Statements Of Fact, Statements Of Opinion, And The First Amendment, Jeffrey E. Thomas

Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Public Officials And Libel: In Defense Of New York Times Co. V. Sullivan, Marc A. Franklin

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Products Liability And The First Amendment: The Liability Of Publishers For Failure To Warn, Lisa A. Powell

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Tort Liability Of Investigative Reporters, John W. Wade

Vanderbilt Law Review

One of the most significant developments in recent years, in both constitutional and tort law, began with the holding in New York Times v. Sullivan that the first amendment places substantial restrictions on the common law tort action for defamation. Although the ramifications of New York Times are still developing,that continuing reform of the law of defamation will result is to be expected. The readjustment of the balancing of conflicting interests that New York Times represents came about at the behest of the press,and the press have been the primary beneficiaries of these developments. Indeed, some commentators contend that the …

Comments On Judicial Nullification Of Jury Awards In Public Official And Public Figure Libel Suits, William P. Murphy

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Press Privacy And Malice: Reflections On New York Times Co. V. Sullivan, Irving R. Kaufman

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Florida Defamation Law And The First Amendment: Protecting The Reputational Interests Of The Private Individual, Joseph Kent Brown

Florida State University Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Right Of Publicity: A "Haystack In A Hurricane", Richard C. Ausness

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Over the years, entertainers, athletes and other celebrities have sought legal protection for a variety of occupationally related injuries. By virtue of being in the public eye, celebrities often complain that their private lives have somehow been invaded. This concept of invasion of privacy involves damages for mental anguish suffered by virtue of the unwarranted disturbance. However, performers may also suffer injury of an economic, rather than personal, nature. For example, an individual's performance may be used without his or her consent. People will normally pay to watch that entertainer, but where the performance is misappropriated, he is unable to …

"Deprogramming": From The Defense Counsel's Perspective, Albert R. Vermeire

West Virginia Law Review

We begin with the proposition that the right of freedom of thought protected by the First Amendment against State action includes both the right to speak freely and the right to refrain from speaking at all. A system which secures the right to proselytize religious, political and ideological causes must also guarantee the concomitant right to decline to foster such concepts. The right to speak and the right to refrain from speaking are complementary components of the broader concept of 'individual freedom of mind.' Anguished parents and sympathetic judges; concerned attorneys and psychologists; reality-inducing therapists, police officers and adult or …

Strict Liability Versus Negligence: An Economic Analysis Of The Law Of Libel, Gary L. Lee

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Propriety Of Granting Summary Judgment For Defendants In Defamation Suits Involving Actual Malice, Kevin Gerard Amadio

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Defamation And The First Amendment: Protecting Speech On Public Issues, Bruce J. Borrus

Washington Law Review

The common law of defamation collided with the United States Constitution in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, and aftershocks from that collision have been rumbling for sixteen years. Ever since the New York Times Court asserted that the first and fourteenth amendments impose restraints on a state's power to afford a civil remedy for wrongful injury to reputation, the Supreme Court has been torn between its concern for personal reputation and its competing concern for free expression. The difficulty of resolving the conflict between these two concerns has forced the Court to decide a long line of cases …

Defamation And The First Amendment: Protecting Speech On Public Issues, Bruce J. Borrus

Washington Law Review

The common law of defamation collided with the United States Constitution in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, and aftershocks from that collision have been rumbling for sixteen years. Ever since the New York Times Court asserted that the first and fourteenth amendments impose restraints on a state's power to afford a civil remedy for wrongful injury to reputation, the Supreme Court has been torn between its concern for personal reputation and its competing concern for free expression. The difficulty of resolving the conflict between these two concerns has forced the Court to decide a long line of cases in …

Constitutional Law-Defamation-The Supreme Court Places Further Limitations On Designation As A "Public Figure" In Libel Actions- Wolston V. Reader's Digest Association, 443 U.S. 147 (1979)

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Judge Gurfein And The Pentagon Papers, James L. Oakes

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Nathaniel Goldstein Memorial Lecture, Murray I. Gurfein

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Confessions Of A Horizontalist: A Dialogue On The First Amendment, Larry Yackle

Faculty Scholarship

It is hardly surprising that the Supreme Court has never developed a satisfying theory of the first amendment. Free speech and press problems are many and varied, demanding the most delicate balance of interests in order to preserve a system of freedom of expression and at the same time afford proper respect for competing governmental objectives. Doctrine adapted to one medium of expression may not sit well when applied to others. With the passage of time, changes in technology, economic conditions, and the very nature of expression tend to outstrip the Court's ability to keep pace with doctrinal innovations. There …

Media Lability For Libel Of Newsworthy Persons: Before And After Time, Inc. V. Firestone, Thomas E. Wheeler, Jr.

Florida State University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Performer's Right Of Publicity: A Limitation On News Privilege, Becky Moses

Cleveland State Law Review

The right of publicity protects an individual's right to control the use of a personal asset such as his name, likeness, or performance, which has acquired pecuniary value through the investment of time, effort, or money. Although this right has gained increasing recognition since the 1950's, it has often been confused with the right of privacy, out of which the right of publicity evolved. In Zacchini v. Scripps-Howard Broadcasting Co., the United States Supreme Court held that the news media is not privileged under the first and fourteenth amendments to broadcast a performer's entire act without his consent. It is …

Constitutional Privilege To Republish Defamation, Leslie Levin

Faculty Articles and Papers

Underlying the development of the law of defamation is a tension between two broad societal interests: protecting the reputation of individuals and safeguarding the free flow of discussion and information. The common law heavily favored the protection of reputation, offering only limited concessions to the competing interest. In recent years, however, the Supreme Court has refashioned the law of defamation to conform to a first amendment mandate that "debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust and wide-open." In New York Times Co. v. Sullivan and subsequent cases, the Court established that public officials and public figures may not recover …

State Court Reactions To Gertz V. Robert Welch,Inc.: Inconsistent Results And Reasoning, Charles W. Gerdts, Iii, Kevin J. Wolff

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Recent Development will examine the state court reactions to Gertz, describe the reasons for the lack of uniformity in their conclusions, and suggest an approach to balancing the first amendment and reputational interests.

Revitalizing The Clear-And-Present-Danger Test: Toward A Principled Interpretation Of The First Amendment, Jeffrey M. Shaman

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Recent Cases, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

Conflict of Laws--Torts--Lex Loci Delicti Is Proper Law When Parties Are Domiciled in Different Jurisdictions Unless Displacing That Law Advances Forum State's Substantive Law Purposes Without Impeding Interstate Relations or Predictability of Result

Plaintiff, an Ontario domiciliary, brought an action in New York for the wrongful death of her husband, also a domiciliary of Ontario,who was killed in a collision in that province' while a passenger in an automobile driven by defendant's intestate, a New York domiciliary. Defendant pleaded as an affirmative defense the Ontario guest statute, which restricts a guest's recovery to damages for injuries sustained only as a …

Libel Per Quod In Florida, Richard C. Ausness

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

The purpose of this article is to trace the development of the rules of defamation with particular reference to extrinsic fact. A defamatory communication is one that tends to diminish the esteem, respect, good will, or confidence in which a person is held or to excite adverse, derogatory, or unpleasant feelings or opinions against him. To be actionable under the modem law, however, the defendant's statement must be capable of a defamatory meaning in the sense normally understood.

Defamation consists of the separate torts of libel and slander. Historically, these torts evolved independently of each other, and as a result …

Libelous Ridicule By Journalists, James M. Naughton, Eric R. Gilbertson

Cleveland State Law Review

Proof of actual malice, or even establishing that an attack in ridicule bears no relation to public conduct, seems at best, extremely difficult to bring out. The public interest in protecting itself, through criticism of those in prominence, weighs much more heavily on the scales of justice than does the interest of public figures in protecting themselves from personal attack. So go ahead and draw your cartoons, Conrad. Keep sticking pins in the kewpie dolls of America, Art Buchwald. And tell it like it is, Pogo.

Newspaper Immunity In Reporting Judicial Proceedings, James W. Adams

Cleveland State Law Review

Ordinarily, there is a legally enforceable right to recover damages for libelous statements. On the other hand, newspapers enjoy a constitutionally guaranteed right of free press. Free press however is not synonymous with a license to libel and newspapers normally stand in no better position than any other member of the community in defense of libel suits.

How Far May Newspapers Go In Criticizing, Richard Szilagyi

Cleveland State Law Review

Any written or printed article which is false and is conveyed by publication to third parties is defamatory or "libelous." That is, it is actionable if it tends to subject the plaintiff to hatred, scorn, ridicule, public contempt or disgrace; or if it induces a substantial number of respectable community members to avoid, shun, or deprive him of their friendly association, even though the defamation imputes no moral turpitude to him. Despite a long history of judicial decisions and numerous discussions and writings by the legal profession, there are few areas of the law so unsettled as the law of …