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Michigan Law Review

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Articles 241 - 265 of 265

Full-Text Articles in First Amendment

Freedom Of The Press-Administrative Censorship-The "Esquire" Decision, John B. Waite Jun 1945

Freedom Of The Press-Administrative Censorship-The "Esquire" Decision, John B. Waite

Michigan Law Review

One of the most important cases before the courts was decided by the Circuit Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia on June 4--a case involving asserted absolute discretion in a government official to determine the right to second-class mail privileges, and thereby, indirectly, to censor the press. The background facts of the case are essential to appreciation of its importance.


Constitutional Law-Freedom Of Speech For Labor Organizers-Registration Requirement Invalid, Francis Powers Jun 1945

Constitutional Law-Freedom Of Speech For Labor Organizers-Registration Requirement Invalid, Francis Powers

Michigan Law Review

Collins v. Thomas decided by the Supreme Court in January is a decision of great practical importance in that it falls at a point where three recently developed constitutional doctrines enmesh or intersect with one another. The case makes it necessary that the Court integrate these doctrines and distinguish the areas in which they are respectively applicable.


Constltutional Law - Labor Unions - Injunction Feb 1944

Constltutional Law - Labor Unions - Injunction

Michigan Law Review

Complainants owned and operated a small cafeteria conducting the business without the aid of any employees. Defendants, a labor union and its president, picketed the cafeteria in an attempt "to organize it." The picketing was carried on by parade of one person at a time in front of the premises, at all times in an "orderly and peaceful" manner. Signs were carried which tended to give the impression that the complainants were "unfair" to organized labor and that the pickets "had been previously employed in the cafeteria." These representations were knowingly false in that there had been no employees in …


Constitutional Law - Freedom Of Religion - Compulsory Flag Salute, Michigan Law Review Oct 1943

Constitutional Law - Freedom Of Religion - Compulsory Flag Salute, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

The state of West Virginia enacted an amendment to its statutes in 1941 requiring all schools to conduct courses in history and civics for the purpose of fostering "the ideals, principles and spirit of Americanism," and pursuant thereto the Board of Education adopted a resolution ordering that the flag salute and declaration of allegiance should be a regular part of the program of activities in the public schools. Expulsion from school was provided for nonconformity- and until compliance the child was considered unlawfully absent from school and the parents were liable to fine and imprisonment for causing child delinquency. Appellees …


Constitutional Law-Right To Impose A License Tax Upon Dissemination Of Religious Literature - Jones V. Opelika Reversed, Michigan Law Review Aug 1943

Constitutional Law-Right To Impose A License Tax Upon Dissemination Of Religious Literature - Jones V. Opelika Reversed, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Petitioners were members of the religious sect "Jehovah's Witnesses," who "sold" and/ or donated religious tracts and literature, and in connection therewith used phonographs and records, in their door to door activities to spread their religious beliefs. They failed to obtain a license for the privilege of canvassing and soliciting, as required of all persons by an ordinance of the city of Jeannette, Pennsylvania, and were convicted and fined for violation thereof. Petitions for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania were denied; the case came before the United States Supreme Court on petition for writ of certiorari. …


In Defense Of The Supreme Court's Picketing Doctrine, Louis L. Jaffe Jun 1943

In Defense Of The Supreme Court's Picketing Doctrine, Louis L. Jaffe

Michigan Law Review

Picketing, pursued by state prohibition, has now found sanctuary in the Constitution. The Fourteenth Amendment recognizes it as free speech. But not always, says the majority of the Court. There has been sharp fire from both the Right and the Left. The criticism runs much as it did against the Duke of York's generalship of his men. "When they were half-way up they were neither up nor down." In a recent article Mr. Teller argues that picketing is not an exercise of free speech and should never have been constitutionally guaranteed as such. It was the first mistake of the …


Labor Law - Secondary Picketing - Unity Of Interest Between Manufacturer And Retailer, Michigan Law Review Feb 1942

Labor Law - Secondary Picketing - Unity Of Interest Between Manufacturer And Retailer, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A manufacturer of burglar alarm systems installed one in complainant's retail haberdashery store, and entered into an agreement, renewable annually, for maintenance of the apparatus. In furtherance of a strike against the manufacturer of the alarm, defendant union representatives picketed complainant's store in a peaceful and orderly manner, carrying signs which read, "Maintenance of Burglar Alarm in this store unfair to Local No. 3." Defendants were convicted of disorderly conduct tending to a breach of the peace under the New York Penal Code. Held, on appeal from reversal of such convictions by the court of special sessions, reversal affirmed. …


Labor Law - Constitutional Law - National Labor Relations Act- Right Of Employer To Disparage Labor Unions And To Advise His Employees Against Joining Them, William C. Wetherbee Feb 1941

Labor Law - Constitutional Law - National Labor Relations Act- Right Of Employer To Disparage Labor Unions And To Advise His Employees Against Joining Them, William C. Wetherbee

Michigan Law Review

In the spring of 1937 the respondent distributed anti-union literature to its employees. Some of the material specifically denied any design on the part of the employer to prevent the employees from joining a union, and none of the literature pretended to be more than the advice and opinions of the employer. Nevertheless, the unions were thoroughly condemned as rackets, controlled by Communists, which deprive the workingman of his economic freedom and force him to pay for the privilege of working. The National Labor Relations Board found that the distribution of this literature interfered with, restrained, and coerced the employees …


Constitutional Law - Due Process - Freedom Of Religion And Conscience - Compulsory Flag Salute, William F. Andersen Nov 1940

Constitutional Law - Due Process - Freedom Of Religion And Conscience - Compulsory Flag Salute, William F. Andersen

Michigan Law Review

The minor plaintiffs, aged twelve and thirteen, had been excluded from the public school because of repeated refusal to salute the national flag and recite the pledge of allegiance in accordance with an authorized order of the school board. They sought an injunction in the federal district court against such prohibition, alleging that the order violated the Fourteenth Amendment as an infringement on the free exercise of religion in that their beliefs forbade the revering of anything but God. The injunction was granted and the decree was affirmed by the circuit court of appeals. A writ of certiorari was granted …


Constitutional Law-Freedom Of The Press-Freedom Of Speech And Assembly-Police Power, John N. Seaman Feb 1939

Constitutional Law-Freedom Of The Press-Freedom Of Speech And Assembly-Police Power, John N. Seaman

Michigan Law Review

The recent decision by the federal district court in the case of Committee for Industrial Organization v. Hague has brought the civil liberties issue to the forefront again. Acting under a city ordinance, defendant's mayor, director of public safety, and chief of police refused to issue a permit to plaintiff labor union to distribute circulars, hold public meetings, or display placards in Jersey City, and excluded plaintiff's members from the city, acting under the belief that their doctrines were "un-American," and that their presence and activities were likely to provoke the city's inhabitants to breaches of the peace. It was …


Libel And Slander - Slander Of Title As A Protection Against Unfair Interference With Sale Of Literary Work, James W. Mehaffy May 1938

Libel And Slander - Slander Of Title As A Protection Against Unfair Interference With Sale Of Literary Work, James W. Mehaffy

Michigan Law Review

In a slander of title action, the complaint alleged that defendant requested plaintiffs to write a motion picture scenario based on historical events, but after plaintiffs submitted the scenario, defendant rejected it. Thereafter defendant announced its intention, by filing a statement with a voluntary association of motion picture producers, to produce a picture based on the same plot as that contained in plaintiffs' scenario. As a result, plaintiffs were unable to sell their scenario to any other producer. Held, that the complaint was insufficient in the absence of an allegation of special damages. Carrol v. Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. …


Injunctions - Defamation - Injury To Business, Charles E. Nadeau May 1938

Injunctions - Defamation - Injury To Business, Charles E. Nadeau

Michigan Law Review

A complaint praying for an injunction alleged that plaintiff, a retail dealer in automobiles, sold defendant an automobile in good condition; that defendant complained of the steering and demanded a replacement of the parts; that upon inspection, the steering apparatus was found to be in good condition and defendant's request was refused; that thereafter defendant carried signs on the car indicating that it was defective and that plaintiff would do nothing about it; and that he did this, knowing that his claims were false, solely for the purpose of injuring plaintiff and to extort money from him. On overruling a …


Freedom Of The Press And Of The Mails, Eberhard P. Deutsch Mar 1938

Freedom Of The Press And Of The Mails, Eberhard P. Deutsch

Michigan Law Review

It should be unnecessary to amend the Federal Constitution to accommodate the facilities of government to the needs of society, as those needs develop with the social and scientific advance of civilization. But the trend of legislative effort to reach beyond constitutional limits to satisfy fleeting economic or political expediencies, without regard for the vital distinction between sound and substance, and of courts to seek justification for such excursions, under the benefit of constitutional doubt due "solemn expressions of legislative will," may lead to highly dangerous situations. As this trend is permitted to reach extremes, the erasure of the well-defined …


Constitutional Law - Validity Of Criminal Syndicalism Statute, Herman Jerome Bloom May 1937

Constitutional Law - Validity Of Criminal Syndicalism Statute, Herman Jerome Bloom

Michigan Law Review

The defendant was indicted for assisting in the conduct of a meeting which was called under the auspices of the Community Party, an organization advocating criminal syndicalism. The statute defined criminal syndicalism as "the doctrine which advocates crime, physical violence, sabotage, or any unlawful acts or methods as a means of accomplishing or effecting industrial or political change or revolution," and described a number of offenses, including the presiding at, or the assisting in, the conduct of a meeting of an organization advocating criminal syndicalism as defined in the act. The state court upheld the indictment under a construction of …


Contempt - Suppression Order - Publication Of Contents Of Suppressed File, Milton M. Howard Jan 1937

Contempt - Suppression Order - Publication Of Contents Of Suppressed File, Milton M. Howard

Michigan Law Review

On a bill of complaint being filed in chancery court an injunction was issued against the defendant therein, and the papers in the cause were ordered suppressed by the chancellor, and to that end, sealed in an envelope. The bill alleged misrepresentation on the part of a leading banker in getting stockholders to contribute toward making up the defalcations of other officers in the bank and malfeasance of other officers. Defendant newspaper reporter obtained information relative to the allegations in the bill from sources other than the suppressed file and published the same nine months later. Upon citation for contempt, …


Constitutional Law-Prohibition Of Advertisement Of Prices By Barbers - Improper Police Regulation - Denial Of Freedom Of Speech, Elbridge D. Phelps Jan 1937

Constitutional Law-Prohibition Of Advertisement Of Prices By Barbers - Improper Police Regulation - Denial Of Freedom Of Speech, Elbridge D. Phelps

Michigan Law Review

Defendant was convicted of violating an ordinance of the City of Long Beach. That ordinance related exclusively to the barber trade and made it a misdemeanor, punishable by fine or imprisonment or both, to advertise prices of services in any publication, handbill, or notice whatsoever, provided, however, that prices might be displayed within a barber shop in such manner as not to be visible from the outside, and provided further that no advertising of prices should be allowed on the windows or on the outside of the shop, or on the adjacent sidewalk or street. Held, the ordinance was …


The Fiction Of Peaceful Picketing, Frank E. Cooper Nov 1936

The Fiction Of Peaceful Picketing, Frank E. Cooper

Michigan Law Review

Efforts of labor organizations during the past decade to secure the enactment of legislation guaranteeing strikers the privilege of peaceably picketing their employers' places of business, appear to have gained for union members no more than a Pyrrhic victory. Although at least nineteen states now have statutes intended to prohibit judicial interference with peaceful picketing, a review of recent cases in this ever timely field indicates that in general such laws have been construed to limit the privileges of pickets to activities so pusillanimous as to be of little aid to the strikers and of little annoyance to employers. In …


Constitutional Law-Municipal Corporations-Police Power May 1931

Constitutional Law-Municipal Corporations-Police Power

Michigan Law Review

The defendants circulated, on the streets of Milwaukee, hand bills which set forth the political and economic views of their group. An ordinance made it unlawful for any person "to circulate or distribute any circular, hand bills, cards, posters, dodgers, or other printed or advertising matter, * * * in or upon any sidewalk, street, * * * or other public place, park or ground within the City of Milwaukee." The defendants were arrested and convicted of violating this ordinance. There was no charge that the ordinance was enforced in any unreasonable or discriminatory manner, or that its purpose was …


Boycott--Conclusions Or Emotions May 1923

Boycott--Conclusions Or Emotions

Michigan Law Review

One fertile source of friction growing out of the eternal struggle between capital and labor is the boycott. Standing out in definite relief for scarcely more than a generation, its effectiveness has led to interminable litigation. As might be expected, the boycott pronouncements of the courts in this formative period have had to undergo the most searching challenge and scrutiny. That this scrutiny will be focused upon the results of the recent first impression case before the Iowa supreme court cannot be doubted. See Ellis v. Journeyman Barbers I. U. of America (Iowa, 1922), 191. N. W. III.


Does The Constitution Protect Free Speech, Herbert F. Goodrich Mar 1921

Does The Constitution Protect Free Speech, Herbert F. Goodrich

Michigan Law Review

Many thoughtful men and women, witnessing the suppression of speech, by means both judicial and extra-judicial, in the period through which we have just passed, have reluctantly concluded that our hard won ight of freedom of speech has been lost, swept away in the flood tide of war enthusiasm. They point to the example of the recent candidate for the presidency, Eugene Debs, who is still confined in a federal prison for words he uttered during the war. They call attention to the fact that the fate of Mr. Debs is no worse than that of scores of other persons, …


Freedom Of Speech And Of The Press In The Federalist Period The Sedition Act, Thomas F. Carroll May 1920

Freedom Of Speech And Of The Press In The Federalist Period The Sedition Act, Thomas F. Carroll

Michigan Law Review

The constitutional problem to which the Espionage Act of 1917 gave rise is almost as old as the Government itself. As early as 1798 the constitutional authority of the Government over speech ,and the press was called into question. The controversy caused by the Sedition Act of that date forms the subject of this paper.


Freedom Of Speech And Of The Press In War Time The Espionage Act, Thomas F. Carroll Jun 1919

Freedom Of Speech And Of The Press In War Time The Espionage Act, Thomas F. Carroll

Michigan Law Review

The Imperial German Government had never made a secret of its willingness to encourage disloyalty among the citizens and subjects of Germany's enemies. It had officially announced: "Bribery of enemies' subjects, acceptance of offers of treachery, utilization of discontented elements in the population, support of pretenders and the like are permissible; indeed, international law is in no way opposed to the exploitation of the crimes of third parties."'


Religious Liberty In The American Law, Carl Zollman Mar 1919

Religious Liberty In The American Law, Carl Zollman

Michigan Law Review

When the convention which framed the federal constitution assembled in Philadelphia in 1787 religious tests as a qualification for office were actually a part of the constitutions of most of the thirteen original states.' While Massachusetts2 and%,Maryland3 required from certain state officers only a declaration of a belief in the Christian religion, the fundamental law of Georgia, New Hampshire, New Jersey and North Carolina4 limited such belief to the Protestant religion and was designed to require a positive and affirmative test and not merely the negative qualification of not being a Roman Catholic.0 The Delaware, North Carolina and Pennsylvania constitutions7 …


Recent Important Decisions, Michigan Law Review Feb 1909

Recent Important Decisions, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Bankruptcy--General Assignment--Liens Acquired by Assignee; Bills and Notes--Contract of Wife--bona Fide Purchasers; Bills and Notes--Non-Existing Payee--Negotiable Instruments Law; Constitutional Law--Jurisdiction of Federal Courts--suits Against A State; Contracts--Agreement in Restraint of Trade if Severable and Reasonable as to Part is Valid; Corporations--Taxation--Franchise Tax; Elections--Primary Elections--Use of Emblem on Ballots; Evidence--Competency of Witness--Transaction With Agent, Since Deceased; Evidence--Judicial Notice of "Football Season"; Evidence--Public Records of Another State; Guaranty--Change in Principal Contract--Discharge of Guarantor; Injunction--Vendee's Fraud Vitiates Right to Use Patented Machine; Insurance--Mutual Life Insurance--Invalid By-Law--Waiver of Breach; Interstate Commerce--Power of Courts to Enjoin Enforcement of Rates; Judgment--Of Foreign Country--Conclusiveness; Judgment--Power of Court …


Note And Comment, Michigan Law Review Nov 1904

Note And Comment, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Lawyers and Jurists at the Exposition; Convention of the Commercial Law League of America; The Philippine Island Cases in the Supreme Court of the United States; The Writ of Habeas Corpus in Chinese Exclusion Cases; What is a "Crime" Within the Meaning of the Constitution?; Due Process of Law; Winding up Proceedings; Literary Criticism and the Law of Libel; The New Japanese Civil Code;