First Amendment Commons^™

Reading Wars, Don Herzog

Books

Once again, we’re fighting wars over reading. Who gets to read? What do they get to read? These days, the right is obsessed with removing LGBTQ books from school and public library shelves and ensuring students read only the Correct version of American history. The left is obsessed with eradicating right-wing fantasies, not to mention outright lies, from the internet, and with airbrushing or even purging racist texts. You don’t have to stoop to whataboutery to notice a suspicious resemblance. But once again is wrong. We’ve always fought these wars, even if the enemies come and go. In this book, …

The Persistence Of The Unconstitutional Status/Use Distinction In Federal Grants To Religious Nonprofits, Nicole Stelle Garnett, Cameron Grinnell

Books

Manhattan Institute Memo

The First Amendment & Censorship: Is This A New Era?, Cardozo Center For Rights And Justice, David Rudenstine, Olivier Sylvain

2025 Event Invitations

Professors David Rudenstine (Cardozo) and Olivier Sylvain (Fordham) will discuss censorship both historically and today, and the role that the First Amendment plays in limiting government suppression of speech. Professor Alex Reinert will moderate the discussion.

The Future Of “History And Tradition”: The First Amendment Implications Of Bruen, Floersheimer Center For Constitutional Democracy

2024 Event Invitations

Did SCOTUS turn all lower court judges into armchair historians? Could landmark free speech precedents like New York Times Co. v. Sullivan be at risk? How will the Court address modern questions like social media content moderation?

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 …

Come, Let Us Reason Together, Hon. Kent A. Jordan, James J. Brudney

Jurist in Residence Lectures

In his lecture, Judge Kent A. Jordan emphasizes the critical importance of civil discourse in addressing complex legal and social issues. He explores the dangers of abandoning reasoned debate for heated rhetoric and the negative impacts this can have on the legal profession and society at large.

Unifying Concepts: Critical Race Theory, Academic Freedom Of Speech, And Democracy, Jasmine Gonzales Rose

BU Law Presentations

Poster for Jasmine Gonzales Rose's 2023 University lecture.

Clark Memorandum: Spring 2023, J. Reuben Clark Law School, Byu Law School Alumni Association, J. Reuben Clark Law Society

The Clark Memorandum

• Fidei Defensor: Defending Faith to Enable Communities of Reconciliation
• Conscience, Peacebuilding, and Faith-Based Law Schools
• Elvis Was Right: The Unavoidable Intersection Between Personal Values and a Fulfilling Practice of Law
• The Future of the Establishment Clause: Implications of Kennedy v. Bremerton School District

Does The Ministerial Exception Protect A Minister's Humiliating Comments?, Yiting Feng

SLU Law Journal Online

The Seventh Circuit case of Demkovich v. St. Andrew the Apostle Parish applied the ministerial exception to bar a fired minister’s claim of a hostile work environment. In this article, Yiting Feng lists the reason why she disagrees with the majority opinion and leans towards the dissenting opinion.

Clark Memorandum: Fall 2020, J. Reuben Clark Law School, Byu Law School Alumni Association, J. Reuben Clark Law Society

The Clark Memorandum

• A Feast of Fat Things
• And When He Came to Himself
• No Other Gods Before Me
• The Economics of Goodness

Read on Issuu

Clark Memorandum: Spring 2020, J. Reuben Clark Law School, Byu Law School Alumni Association, J. Reuben Clark Law Society

The Clark Memorandum

• Of Rights and Responsibilities: The Social Ecosystem of Religious Freedom
• I am the Woman Who Can
• Flashes of Light: Thoughts on Circumstantial Evidence
• Capital Markets and Human Flourishing

Read on Issuu

Clark Memorandum: Fall 2019, J. Reuben Clark Law School, Byu Law School Alumni Association, J. Reuben Clark Law Society

The Clark Memorandum

• In Essentials, Unity; in Nonessentials, Liberty; and in All Things, Charity
• Choose to Trust the Lord
• First Amendment Harms
• "To Do Justly, and to Love Mercy"

Read on Issuu

Erecting A Virtual Schoolhouse Gate, Maryam Ahranjani

Faculty Book Display Case

The very first amendment to the United States Constitution protects the freedom of speech. While the Supreme Court held in 1969 that students “do not shed their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse gate,” since then the Court has limited students' freedom of speech, stopping short of considering the boundaries of off-campus, online speech. Lower court holdings vary, meaning that a student engaging in certain online speech may not be punished at all in one state but would face harsh criminal punishments in another. The lack of a uniform standard leads to dangerously inconsistent punishments and poses the ultimate threat to …

Rethinking Social Media: An Expert Panel Discussion, Howard M. Squadron Program In Law, Media And Society, Bonavero Institute Of Human Rights, Cardozo Law Moot Court Honor Society

2018–2019 Flyers

This expert panel discussion, moderated by Professor Monroe Price, explored the evolving challenges and regulatory efforts related to social media. Held on Thursday, January 31st, from 6–8pm in the Moot Court Room at Cardozo School of Law, the event addressed pressing issues such as child pornography, cyberstalking, hate speech, terrorist content, and the impact of social media on U.S. elections. Panelists included Robyn Caplan (Data and Society), Jessa Lingel (University of Pennsylvania), and Cardozo Professor Felix Wu, whose work focuses on freedom of expression and cybersecurity. Presented by the Howard M. Squadron Program in Law, Media and Society in partnership …

Public Policy Limitations On Trademark Subject Matter: A U.S. Perspective, Christine Farley

Contributions to Books

This chapter provides an overview of the public policy limitations on trademark subject matter under U.S. law. This is an area of law that had been fairly stable until recently. The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2017 decision striking down the prohibition on registering disparaging marks and its 2019 decision striking down the prohibition on registering immoral and scandalous marks may prompt a larger reexamination of the policy justifications for denying trademark registration.

Clark Memorandum: Fall 2018, J. Reuben Clark Law School, Byu Law School Alumni Association, J. Reuben Clark Law Society

The Clark Memorandum

• Heroes of Unity: Latter-day Saints, the "Bonds of Affection," and the Atonement of Christ (Thomas B. Griffith)
• Defend Divinely Inspired Freedoms (Elder Quentin L. Cook)
• Homicides in the Old Testament and the Book of Mormon (John w. Welch)
• How to Enjoy the Ride: Choosing to Love in Life and Career (Sharla Smith Hales)

Clark Memorandum: Spring 2017, J. Reuben Clark Law School, Byu Law School Alumni Association, J. Reuben Clark Law Society Of The J. Reuben Clark Law School

The Clark Memorandum

• A Graduate Program of Real Consequence (Kevin J Worthen)
• Promoting Religious Freedom in a Secular Age (Elder Lance B. Wickman)
• Religious Liberty Versus Secularity (Matthew S. Holland)
• Audacious Faith (Brett G. Scharffs)

Law, Religion, And Politics: Understanding The Separation Of Church And State, Richard Garnett

Faculty Workshops

Professor Richard Garnett, of University of Notre Dame Law School, presented on the topic Law, Religion, and Politics: Understanding the Separation of Church and State. This workshop was presented as part of the Hesburgh Lecture Series through the Alumni & Friends of University of Notre Dame and was co-sponsored by the Notre Dame Alumni Club of Miami. This workshop examined how to understand the Constitution's "separation of church and state" and what it requires of religious believers and institutions.

Clark Memorandum: Spring 2015, J. Reuben Clark Law School, Byu Law School Alumni Association, J. Reuben Clark Law Society

The Clark Memorandum

• Watchmen on the Tower (Elder D. Todd Christofferson)
• Studying Law in the Light (Brett G. Scharffs)
• On Becoming a Spiritual Athlete (Steve Young)
• The Copyright Predicament (Clark D. Asay)
• The Case Against the Supreme Court (Erwin Chemerinsky)

Dusty Order: Law Enforcement And Participant Cooperation At Burning Man, Manuel A. Gomez

Faculty Books

Media depictions of Burning Man focus on the picturesque and eccentric appearance of the weeklong affair. The event is sometimes misportrayed as a lawless environment where participants are encouraged to engage in rowdy behavior. Most carnivalesque events offer an escape from reality and are generally thought to enable unruly conduct. Despite stereotypes, Burning Man is a different beast. Not only is the crime rate in Black Rock City lower than any other city of comparable size, but Burners show a high level of cooperative and law abiding behavior that helps maintain the social order without depending on official means of …

Global Issues In Freedom Of Speech And Religion: Cases And Materials, Leslie Gielow Jacobs, Alan Brownstein

McGeorge School of Law Teaching Materials

Brownstein and Jacobs's Global Issues in Freedom of Speech and Religion: Cases and Materials is a companion volume to existing materials. Designed to assist professors in introducing issues of international and comparative law, this title is ideal for use in educational courses that address:

• The First Amendment
• Law and religion
• Individual rights
• Other topics dealing with free speech and religious liberty

In order to make companion materials understandable and accessible to students as well as to professors who have not taught the materials before, this title:

• Includes case excerpts, helpful background materials, and notes
• Is set out in a structure …

Revisiting The American Action For Public Disclosure Of Facts, In New Dimensions In Privacy Law: International And Comparative Perspectives (Andrew T. Kenyon & Megan Richardson Eds., 2006), Brian C. Murchison

Books and Chapters

Although the public disclosure tort has had an unpromising past, it appeals to what Anthony Lewis suggests is a sense of basic fairness to ‘those who have not sought power’ but have become illustrations of public issues. The tort’s weakness may be a function of cultural indifference or constitutional qualms, although the most likely explanation is institutional: until recently, the Supreme Court offered no illumination of a core interest. Libel law had reserved the obvious candidate, dignity, for civic contexts. Now, with the court’s decision in Bartnicki and the insights of a number of contemporary thinkers, it may be time …

In Brief, Spring/Summer 1999, New York Law School

New York Law School In Brief

No abstract provided.

Competition Policy In America 1888-1992: History, Rhetoric, Law, Rudolph J.R. Peritz

Books

Americans have long appealed to images of free competition in calling for free enterprise, freedom of contract, free labor, free trade, and free speech. This imagery has retained its appeal in myriad aspects of public policy--for example, Senator Sherman's Anti-Trust Act of 1890, Justice Holmes's metaphorical marketplace of ideas, and President Reagan's rhetoric of deregulation.

In Competition Policy in America, 1888-1992, Rudolph Peritz explores the durability of free competition imagery by tracing its influences on public policy. Looking at congressional debates and hearings, administrative agency activities, court opinions, arguments of counsel, and economic, legal, and political scholarship, he finds …

New York Law School Reporter, Vol 12, No. 2, April 1995, New York Law School

Student Newspapers

No abstract provided.

Defending Pornography: Free Speech & The Fight For Women’S Rights, Nadine Strossen

Books

The newest attacks on the First Amendment and on free expression have come from a vocal and influential segment of the feminist movement that has launched a successful - and puritanical - crusade against "pornography" as the root of discrimination and violence against women. But, as Nadine Strossen, president of the American Civil Liberties Union, forcefully argues, this view of sexuality as inherently dangerous does profound damage to human rights in general, and to women's rights in particular. In Defending Pornography, Strossen shows that, since the late 1970s, a new and startling alliance has been fused between "procensorship" feminists, most …

The New York Law School Reporter, Vol 8, No. 2, May 1991, New York Law School

Student Newspapers

No abstract provided.

New York Law School Reporter, October 1990, New York Law School

Student Newspapers

No abstract provided.

Gregory Hess, Appellant V. State Of Indiana, Appellee (On Appeal From The Supreme Court Of Indiana) In The Supreme Court Of The United States, Patrick Baude, F. Thomas Schornhorst

Historic Documents

Jurisdictional Statement

October Term, 1973

Gregory Hess Vs. State Of Indiana (Brief Of Appellant) In The Supreme Court Of Indiana, F. Thomas Schornhorst, David Colman

Historic Documents

Appeal from the Monroe Superior Court

The Honorable James M. Dixon, Judge

No. 1271-S372

Brief of the Appellant