First Amendment Commons^™

The Justice Department’S Bid To Avoid Accountability, Bruce A. Green, Rebecca Roiphe

Other Publications

No abstract provided.

Dignity And Deepfakes, Michael Goodyear

Articles & Chapters

Today, we face a dangerous technosocial combination: AI-generated deepfakes and the Internet. Believable and accessible, these deepfakes have already spread sex, lies, and false advertisements across the Internet and targeted everyone from Taylor Swift to middle school students. Dissemination of deepfakes inflicts multifarious dignitary harms against their victims—especially women and LGBTQ+ persons—stripping them of control over their own identities, harming their reputations, and ostracizing them from society through shame.

Yet this is not the first time a new technology for capturing one’s likeness and a method for disseminating images threatened individuals’ dignity. In the late nineteenth century, the right of …

My Father Survived The Holocaust. Censorship Didn’T Stop The Nazis, It Helped Them, Nadine Strossen

Other Publications

No abstract provided.

Defending Pornography: Free Speech, Sex, And The Fight For Women's Rights (2024), Nadine Strossen

Books

Named a Notable Book by The New York Times Book Review in 1995, Defending Pornography examines a key question that has divided feminists for decades: is censoring pornography good or bad for women? Nadine Strossen makes a powerful case that increasing government power to censor sexual expression, beyond the limits that the First Amendment sensibly permits (for example, outlawing child pornography) would do more harm than good for women and others who have traditionally been marginalized due to sex or gender, She explains how the very anti-porn laws pushed by some feminists have led to the censorship of LGBTQ+ and …

Offend No One But The Truth: The Second Half Of 2023, Jethro K. Lieberman

Other Publications

No abstract provided.

Same-Sex Family Recognition And Anti- Discrimination Law: A Free Speech Battleground, Arthur S. Leonard

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

The Great American Word Purge, Jethro K. Lieberman

Other Publications

No abstract provided.

Feminist Legal Theory And #Metoo: Revisiting Tarana Burke's Vision Of Empowerment Through Empathy, Penelope Andrews

Articles & Chapters

It is my purpose to ground this article in ubuntu and the politics of radical love as applied to the goals of #MeToo and its pursuit of redress for victims of sexual harms. Part II explores the convergences and divergences of #MeToo with feminist campaigns of an earlier era. Part III questions whether a renewed quest for gender equality, largely spawned by a Twitter/social media campaign, may lead to sustainable change built on notions of empathy and restorative justice, which influenced Tarana Burke when she founded #MeToo. Part IV examines restorative justice approaches in the South African Truth and Reconciliation …

Some Notes On Word Purging, Jethro K. Lieberman

Other Publications

No abstract provided.

Who Really Benefits From The First Amendment?, Nadine Strossen

Other Publications

No abstract provided.

Anti-Speech Acts And The First Amendment, Richard K. Sherwin

Articles & Chapters

In many states today, there are laws on the books designed to protect the legitimacy and fairness of elections by barring the knowing or reckless dissemination of demonstrably false statements. Regulating this kind of deliberate deception protects the public against the erosion of First Amendment freedoms – such as the freedom to think and express one’s own thoughts and to meaningfully deliberate in an electoral process free from deliberate efforts to flood the zone of public discourse with confusion and mistrust based on deliberate and provable falsehoods. Some of these regulations, however, have been successfully challenged on First Amendment grounds. …

Tell Elon Musk, The Hell With It, Jethro K. Lieberman

Other Publications

No abstract provided.

Private And Public Sector Models For Entrepreneur, Small Business Owner, And Investor Immigration Pathways, Shane Dizon

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Aba Model Rule 8.4(G), Discriminatory Speech, And The First Amendment, Bruce Green, Rebecca Roiphe

Articles & Chapters

The ABA adopted Model Rule 8.4(g), which targets certain speech and conduct that are based on “race, sex, religion, national origin, ethnicity, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status or socioeconomic status.” In particular, according to the accompanying comment, Rule 8.4(g) reaches speech that is “derogatory and demeaning” or that “manifests bias or prejudice towards others” and is “harmful” (including, presumably, emotionally harmful). This rule targets a significant amount of speech that would be constitutionally protected if it were uttered by a nonlawyer. This article argues that there is no justification for treating lawyers differently from others in many …

Lost In The Bubble, Jethro K. Lieberman

Other Publications

No abstract provided.

Lawyers And The Lies They Tell, Bruce Green, Rebecca Roiphe

Articles & Chapters

Noting that the First Amendment protects lies about the government made in the public square, this article explores whether lawyers’ free speech rights ought to be different from that of other speakers. The law holds lawyers to a more demanding standard of conduct than others when it comes to aspects of lawyers’ fiduciary relationships with courts and clients. But how much more demanding can the law be when it comes to lawyers’ speech — in this case, false political speech? Applying the current First Amendment framework, we question the bar’s assumption that lawyers’ speech outside of these contexts can be …

The Paradox Of Free Speech In The Digital World: First Amendment Friendly Proposals For Promoting User Agency, Nadine Strossen

Articles & Chapters

The United States Supreme Court has continued a speech-protective trend dating back to the 1960s, safeguarding even the most controversial speech from government regulation, including speech that critics of this trend label with the stigmatizing terms "hate speech," "disinformation," "misinformation," "extremist speech," and "terrorist speech." In contrast, as dominant online platforms have become increasingly important forums for both individual self-expression and democratic discourse, the platforms have been issuing and enforcing increasing restrictions on their users' speech pursuant to each platform's content moderation policies. These restrictions often suppress speech that the U.S. Constitution bars government from suppressing. As private sector entities, …

Disinfo V. Democracy, Nadine Strossen

Other Publications

Using accusations of ‘disinformation’ to suppress scientific criticism, steer media coverage, and silence political opponents is not part of the operating system of a free society

Virginia Court Reinstates Teacher Suspended For Opposing Trans Inclusion Policy, Arthur S. Leonard

Other Publications

No abstract provided.

Court Rejects Web Designer’S Challenge To Colorado Anti-Discrimination Law, Arthur S. Leonard

Other Publications

No abstract provided.

Fields V. Speaker Of Pennsylvania House Of Representatives, Heidi Moore

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

United Nations Free Speech Standards As The Global Benchmark For Online Platforms' Hate Speech Policies, Nadine Strossen

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

The Interdependence Of Racial Justice And Free Speech For Racists, Nadine Strossen

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Is There No Way To The Truth? Copyright Liability As A Model For Restricting Fake News [Notes], Michael Goodyear

Articles & Chapters

A proliferation of fake news has flooded U.S. websites and social media. From misinformation affecting the 2016 election to individuals making profits off of creating false stories, the United States desperately needs a legal response to the fake news crisis. However, U.S. law has effectively forestalled any attempts to bring fake news to heel. The First Amendment has been held to protect fake news. The Communications Decency Act, codified as Section 230, protects online platforms from the remaining potential sources of vicarious liability for fake news. Instead, gradually, self-regulation by websites has started to fill this void.

Proposed solutions have …

Gillis V. Miller, Anna Tichy

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Hargis V. Bevin, Gabriella Castellano

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Transfixed In The Camera's Gaze: Foster V. Svenson And The Battle Of Privacy And Modern Art, Michael Goodyear

Articles & Chapters

The battle between First Amendment expression and privacy interests in twenty-first century America is in full force. In Foster v. Svenson, a photographer used a high-powered camera to take snapshots of his neighbors. The New York court ruled that it was art and therefore immune from New York’s privacy statute. Constrained by New York’s ineffective privacy statute, the court’s ruling included a cry for the New York legislature to act.

Privacy has become an increasingly powerful right in American law, especially with the growth of technology. Yet the problem with Foster and the New York statute is that the sole …

Safe Social Spaces, Ari Ezra Waldman

Articles & Chapters

Technologies that mediate social interaction can put our privacy and our safety at risk. Harassment, intimate partner violence and surveillance, data insecurity, and revenge porn are just a few of harms that bedevil technosocial spaces and their users, particularly users from marginalized communities. This Article seeks to identify the building blocks of safe social spaces, or environments in which individuals can be free of privacy and safety dangers. Relying on analogies to offline social spaces—Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, teams of coworkers, and attorney-client relationships—this Article argues that if a social space is defined as an environment characterized by disclosure, then a …

Legal Vs. Non-Legal Responses To Hateful Expression, Nadine Strossen

Articles & Chapters

This chapter explains the understanding of all who seek to advance both free speech and equality anywhere in the world. It discusses supports the conclusions of many expert individuals and organizations around the world – that counterspeech and other non-censorial alternatives are much more likely than hate speech laws to prove effective in limiting hate speech and its possible harmful effects. Social scientists have confirmed that counterspeech by leaders in the pertinent community is especially persuasive in rebutting hateful speech and in countering its potential harmful effects. Speech that counters the potentially harmful impact of hate speech comprises a broad …

Justice Anthony Kennedy's Free Speech Legacy [Comments], Nadine Strossen

Articles & Chapters

Justice Kennedy has been hailed by free speech advocates as a leading free speech champion. In contrast, other experts have not only criticized particular opinions and votes by Justice Kennedy that rejected free speech claims, but they also have maintained that Justice Kennedy specifically declined to protect speech that was at odds with his conservative political and religious views. It is certainly true that Justice Kennedy did not uphold freedom of speech in some important contexts, including when the Government asserted countervailing national security or "War on Drugs" concerns. However, in other important cases, Justice Kennedy showed courage in defending …