First Amendment Commons^™

Your Money Or Your Speech: The Children's Internet Protection Act And The Congressional Assault On The First Amendment In Public Libraries, Steven D. Hinckley

Faculty Scholarship

This article examines the inherent conflict between This article examines the inherent conflict between two Congressional approaches to public access to the Internet - the provision of federal funding support to schools and public libraries to ensure broad access to online information regardless of financial means, and federal restrictions on children's use of school and public library computers to access content that the government feels could be harmful to them. It analyzes the efficacy and constitutionality of the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA), Congress's attempt to use its powers of the purse to control objectionable online content in the very …

Faith And Funding: Toward An Expressivist Model Of The Establishment Clause, David Cole

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This article seeks to provide an alternative to the polarization that so often characterizes debates about church and state. In Part I, the author suggests that there are good policy reasons for supporting faith-based initiatives, and that these reasons ought to be attractive to liberals and progressives, many of whom have opposed faith-based initiatives. Faith-based social services are, after all, social services, and are often the very types of welfare services that liberals and progressives tend to support. Core religious values--in particular, concern about the less fortunate, a belief in human dignity, and a commitment to the possibility of redemption--reinforce …

Constitutional Law Leading Cases: Judicial Elections, Nathan B. Oman

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Story Of A Forgotten Battle, Nathan B. Oman

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Distinctive Place Of Religious Entities In Our Constitutional Order, Ira C. Lupu, Robert Tuttle

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

The Supreme Court's Latest Resolution Of The Conflict Between Freedom Of Association And Public Accomodations Laws: Boy Scouts Of America V. Dale And Its Implications In And Out Of The Courtroom, Daniel E. Mcguire

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

From Hit Man To Encylcopedia Of Jihad: How To Distinguish Freedom Of Speech From Terrorist Training, Rodney A. Smolla

Law Faculty Publications

Late last summer, Professor F. Jay Dougherty invited me to participate in "Tune In, Turn On, Cop Out? The Media and Social Responsibility," the Fourth Annual Entertainment Law Symposium sponsored by Loyola Law School of Los Angeles. I learned that one of the issues to be examined was media liability for violent audience behavior, exploring from both social science and legal perspectives the alleged link between violent speech and violent conduct. Little did I or Professor Dougherty or anyone connected to the conference then know that within weeks a catastrophic terrorist attack on the United States-an attack largely spurred by …

Vouchers And Steering, Vincent A. Blasi

Faculty Scholarship

Does the Establishment Clause require that educational voucher programs not be designed in a manner that encourages parents to choose religious schools over secular alternatives? If there is such an "anti-steering" principle implicit in the First Amendment, how should courts elaborate and enforce it?

In this response, I will compare how Professors Lupu and Tuttle and the Court majority in Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, the decision last June upholding the Cleveland voucher plan, answer these important questions. I will evaluate their analyses at three levels: (1) basic Establishment Clause values and priorities; (2) doctrinal standard for identifying impermissible favoritism toward …

Conceptualizing Constitutional Litigation As Anti-Government Expression: A Speech-Centered Theory Of Court Access, Robert L. Tsai

Faculty Scholarship

This Article proposes a speech-based right of court access. First, it finds the traditional due process approach to be analytically incoherent and of limited practical value. Second, it contends that history, constitutional structure, and theory all support conceiving of the right of access as the modern analogue to the right to petition government for redress. Third, the Article explores the ways in which the civil rights plaintiff's lawsuit tracks the behavior of the traditional dissident. Fourth, by way of a case study, the essay argues that recent restrictions - notably, a congressional limitation on the amount of fees counsel for …

The Right Questions About School Choice: Education, Religious Freedom, And The Common Good, Richard W. Garnett

Journal Articles

As this Essay goes to press, the Supreme Court is considering whether Ohio's school-choice program violates the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. In my view, the Ohio program is sound public policy, and it is consistent with the Justices' present understanding of the Establishment Clause. I also believe that the Court will and should permit this experiment, and our conversations about its merits, to continue. The purpose of this Essay, though, is not to predict or evaluate ex ante the Court's decision. Instead, my primary aim is to suggest and then sketch a few broad themes that--once the …

An Unconstitutional Stereotype: Catholic Schools As Pervasively Sectarian, Gerard V. Bradley

Journal Articles

The Supreme Court first held public assistance to religious schools unconstitutional in 1971 in Lemon v. Kurtzman. From then until now the concept of “pervasively sectarian” has played a central role in “parochaid” jurisprudence; every holding against “direct” aid has rested upon it as a necessary premise. “Pervasively sectarian” refers to the assertedly religious (“sectarian”) character of the entire curriculum at parochial schools. Religion, it is said, so permeates the whole educational program that “direct aid” to any aspect of that program inescapably aids religion itself. And that, it is said, violates the Establishment Clause. Because aid statutes typically aim …

Regulating Political Parties Under A Public Rights First Amendment, Gregory P. Magarian

Scholarship@WashULaw

The recently-enacted McCain-Feingold campaign finance law pushes to the fore the questions of whether and to what extent the First Amendment allows government to regulate the electoral activities of political parties. One of the new law's primary components is its attempt to eliminate so-called "soft money"- unlimited donations to national political parties that the Democrats and Republicans have used to circumvent legal limits on campaign contributions? One congressional opponent of the new law called it "the death knell" for political parties' role in elections." Not surprisingly, both major parties have attacked McCain-Feingold. Most Republicans in Congress opposed the legislation, and …