First Amendment Commons^™

The First Amendment And The Free Press: A Comment On Some New Trends And Some Old Theories, William W. Van Alstyne

Faculty Scholarship

Responding to the trend of media rights being subjugated through the legal process, this article examines Justice Stewart's suggestion that the media should be treated with extra deference in First Amendment cases. This examination looks at the sufficiency of the press's claim of judicial harshness, whether the press should be treated differently than other speakers, and also compares press freedom in foreign nations.

Balancing Freedom Of Speech, David S. Bogen

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Standing Up For Flast: Taxpayer And Citizen Standing To Raise Constitutional Issues, David S. Bogen

Faculty Scholarship

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 …

First Amendment Ancillary Doctrines, David S. Bogen

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Supreme Court's Interpretation Of The Guarantee Of Freedom Of Speech, David S. Bogen

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Search And Seizure Of The Media: A Statutory, Fourth Amendment And First Amendment Analysis, James S. Liebman

Faculty Scholarship

On the evening of October 10, 1974, police appeared at radio station KPFK-FM in Los Angeles with a warrant authorizing them to search the premises for a New World Liberation Front (NWLF) "communique" that took credit for a recent bombing. The officers conducted an intensive 8-hour search-combing files, listening to tapes, and looking through reporters' notes – finally concluding that the NWLF letter was not at the station. The KPFK search warrant was one of six that California law enforcement officials have executed at press offices since 1972. The circumstances surrounding the incident illustrate the rationale behind the recent development …

Freedom Of The Press And Public Access: Toward A Theory Of Partial Regulation Of The Mass Media, Lee C. Bollinger

Faculty Scholarship

During the past half century there have existed in this country two opposing constitutional traditions regarding the press. On the one hand, the Supreme Court has accorded the print media virtually complete constitutional protection from attempts by government to impose affirmative controls such as access regulation. On the other hand, the Court has held affirmative regulation of the broadcast media to be constitutionally permissible, and has even suggested that it may be constitutionally compelled. In interpreting the first amendment, the Court in one context has insisted on the historical right of the editor to be free from government scrutiny, but …

First Amendment Protection For Commercial Advertising: The New Constitutional Doctrine, Thomas W. Merrill

Faculty Scholarship

Governmental regulation of commercial advertising has become a major focus of challenges to established first amendment doctrine. An increasing number of suits have raised constitutional objections to regulations of false or deceptive advertising, regulations of offensive advertising, prohibitions of commercial advertising in certain forums, prohibitions of price advertising for particular products or services, and prohibitions of all advertising for particular products or services.' Until recently, the majority of courts upheld such regulations under the Supreme Court's ruling in Valentine v. Chrestensen that "purely commercial advertising" is unprotected by the first amendment.

In the last two years the Court has subjected …

The Espionage Statutes And Publication Of Defense Information, Harold Edgar, Benno C. Schmidt Jr.

Faculty Scholarship

We began this lengthy study of the espionage statutes with grand designs. Our original goal, suggested by the Pentagon Papers litigation, was to elaborate the extent to which constitutional principles limit official power to prevent or punish public disclosure of national defense secrets. But this plan was short-lived. The more we considered the problem, the more convinced we became that the central issues are legislative. The first amendment provides restraints against grossly sweeping prohibitions, but it does not, we believe, deprive Congress of considerable latitude in reconciling the conflict between basic values of speech and security.

Bringing The Vagueness Doctrine On Campus, George A. Bermann, Ballard Jamieson Jr.

Faculty Scholarship

Although students have traditionally paid little attention to university disciplinary codes, recent campus disturbances have given these codes unprecedented significance. Those subjected to disciplinary proceedings have charged, among other things, that the provisions which regulate their behavior are too vague to inform them of what they may and may not do. Arguing that a broadly-worded code of conduct is necessary to govern, university administrators, however, have refused to make their regulations more precise.

First Amendment "Due Process", Henry Paul Monaghan

Faculty Scholarship

A number of recent Supreme Court opinions, primarily in the obscenity area, have fastened strict procedural requirements on governmental action aimed at controlling the exercise of first amendment rights. Professor Monaghan believes that there are two basic principles that can be distilled from these cases: that a judicial body, following an adversary hearing, must decide on the protected character of the speech, and that the judicial determination must either precede or immediately follow any governmental action which restricts speech. The author argues that these two broad principles should limit any governmental activity which affects freedom of speech, no matter how …

Public Support And The Sectarian University, Walter Gellhorn, Kent Greenawalt

Faculty Scholarship

In mid-1968 we undertook to advise Fordham University concerning steps that might be appropriate to establish its eligibility for public assistance. As part of that task we tried to determine the extent to which present law requires official differentiation between Church-related and other institutions of higher learning. Since the University sought a wholly detached consideration of its legal posture, our conclusions in this article represent our best judgment of the present state of the law and its probable development. We have avoided indicating our own personal position on debatable legal and ethical issues.

The Constitutional Rights Of Public Employees: A Comment On The Inappropriate Uses Of An Old Analogy, William W. Van Alstyne

Faculty Scholarship

Beginning with Justice Douglass's assertion that the State is bound in the same ways when acting as an employer as it is when acting as a governing body, this examination delves deeper to determine how this doctrine actually limits the government when it acts as an employer. This article endorses the theory of examining these limits not in the context of if the government is allowed to enforce them in the public sphere, but if the government may mandate such limits in the private sphere

Book Review, Michael E. Tigar

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Symposium: Student Rights And Campus Rules, Michael E. Tigar

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Obscenity, 1966: The Marriage Of Obscenity Per Se And Obscenity Per Quod, Henry Paul Monaghan

Faculty Scholarship

In a widely admired article, Harry Kalven argued that the New York Times case embodies the "central meaning" of the First Amendment. On his view, in a free, open society, maximum protection must be accorded to "political" speech. He concluded that the right freely to criticize the government must lie at the center of any adequate theory of the First Amendment.

It is not so easy to make a comparable claim about the relationship between obscenity and the First Amendment. The Supreme Court's conception of obscenity is partially responsible. While the Court in Roth v. United States (1957) explicitly barred …