First Amendment Commons^™

Islamic Arbitration: A New Path For Interpreting Islamic Legal Contracts, Charles P. Trumbull

Vanderbilt Law Review

Muslims living in a secular, liberal democratic state face a fundamental dilemma: reconciling the obligation to live according to Shari'a with their civic duty to follow secular laws. Muslims attempt to resolve this dilemma in a number of ways. Some enter public office and try to influence the generally applicable laws of their country. Others advocate greater legal pluralism, thus allowing Muslims to settle certain disputes under Islamic law. In Canada, for example, the Islamic Institute for Civil Justice ("IICJ") announced plans to create Shari'a tribunals and claimed that it would begin arbitrating family and commercial disputes according to Islamic …

The Year Of Leaking Dangerously: Shadowy Sources, Jailed Journalists And The Uncertain Future Of The Federal Journalist's Privilege., Anthony L. Fargo

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

No Laughing Matter: The Controversial Danish Cartoons Depicting The Prophet Mohammed, And Their Broader Meaning For The Europe’S Public Square, Ruti G. Teitel

Other Publications

No abstract provided.

Toward A New Public Access Doctrine, Raleigh Hannah Levine

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Rankings, Reductionism, And Responsibility, Frank Pasquale

Faculty Scholarship

After discussing how search engines operate, and sketching a normative basis for regulation of the rankings they generate, this piece proposes some minor, non-intrusive legal remedies for those who claim that they are harmed by search engine results. Such harms include unwanted (but high-ranking) results relating to them, or exclusion from high-ranking results they claim they are due to appear on. In the first case (deemed inclusion harm), I propose a right not to suppress the results, but merely to add an asterisk to the hyperlink directing web users to them, which would lead to the complainant's own comment on …

An Examination Of The United States Supreme Court's Recent Establishment Clause Rulings In Mccreary County, Ky. V. American Civil Liberties Union And Van Order V. Perry, Joanna L. Suyes

Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest

Responding to a question concerning whether or not his followers should pay taxes to the Roman government, the Bible records that Jesus answered, "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's." This statement, quoted in the Bible's Gospel of Matthew, has been called one of the "most revolutionary and history-making utterances that ever fell from those lips divine.",While the famous words of Jesus make clear the existence of a distinction between the realms of religion and government, they shed little light on the type of balance that should be struck between them.

Lawyer Advertising And The Dignity Of The Profession, Rodney A. Smolla

Scholarly Articles

None available.

Thou Shalt Not?, Mark Strasser

University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class

No abstract provided.

First Amendment Cases In The October 2004 Term, Joel Gora

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Cabining Of Rosenberger: Locke V. Davey And The Broad Nondiscrimination Principle That Never Was, Alan M. Trammell

Scholarly Articles

In Rosenberger (1995), the Supreme Court decided that the University of Virginia could not exclude religious organizations from an activities fund that subsidized student organizations. Nine years later, the Court in Locke v. Davey held that Washington could exclude students of devotional theology from a generally available scholarship program; there was, in the Court’s words, “play in the joints” between what the Establishment Clause forbids and what the Free Exercise Clause requires. The cases seemed to contradict one another.

This Note explores whether Rosenberger announced a broad principle of nondiscrimination with respect to religion and whether Davey reneged on that …

The Federal Election Commission & Political Blogging: A Perfect Balance Or Just Not Enough?, 24 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 611 (2006), Niki Vlachos

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

No abstract provided.

Accommodating Religion And Law In The Twenty-First Century, Andrew J. King

University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class

No abstract provided.

Bartnicki As Lochner: Some Thoughts On First Amendment Lochnerism, Howard M. Wasserman

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

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 …

Stern Penalties: How The Federal Communications Commission And Congress Look To Crackdown On Indecent Broadcasting, Geoffrey Rosenblat

Jeffrey S. Moorad Sports Law Journal (1994 - )

No abstract provided.

Corporate Speech, Securities Regulation, And An Institutional Approach To The First Amendment, Michael R. Siebecker

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

Does the First Amendment shield politically tinged corporate speech from the compelled disclosure and reporting requirements embedded in the U.S. securities laws? The question arises in the securities regulation context because of an impending jurisprudential train wreck between the Supreme Court's commercial speech doctrine and its approach to corporate political speech. As corporations begin mixing commercial messages with political commentary, First Amendment jurisprudence simply provides insufficient guidance on the role government should play in regulating that speech. Although First Amendment jurisprudence generally counsels against governmental restrictions on corporate political speech without regard to the truth or falsity of the message, …

Equal Protection In The World Of Art And Obscenity: The Art Photographer's Latent Struggle With Obscenity Standards In Contemporary America, Elaine Wang

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Part I of this article describes the initial hurdles that all visual art forms, including photography, face with respect to First Amendment protection given the power of visual imagery and the three-pronged test for obscenity set forth in Miller v. California. Of particular relevance is the "serious artistic value" prong of the Miller test and the problems inherent in determining who is to judge as well as how one might judge whether a work, particularly a photograph that may be construed to have a non-artistic function, possesses "serious artistic value."

Part II addresses the overall approach to photography in three …

Disrobed: The Constitution Of Modesty, Anita L. Allen

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

The Suffocation Of Free Speech Due To The "Gravity Of Danger" Of Terrorism, Tim Davis

The Modern American

No abstract provided.

The Right To Say No To Discrimination: A Commentary On Rumsfeld V. Fair, Zachary Wolfe

The Modern American

No abstract provided.

Living By The Sword: The Free Exercise Of Religion And The Sikh Struggle For The Right To Carry A Kirpan, Rishi S. Bagga

The Modern American

No abstract provided.

Popular Free Speech Skepticism And The Benevolent Rise Of Liberal Censorship, John C. Wagner

The Modern American

No abstract provided.

Recoiling From Religion, Marc O. Degirolami

Scholarly Articles

This review offers a critical appraisal of God vs. the Gavel, in particular of Professor Hamilton's discussion of the complicated idea of the public good and how it intersects with religious free exercise interests. In Part II, the review explains the structure of the book and the framework for Hamilton's conclusions about religious accommodation. It emphasizes several instances of Hamilton's use and explanation of the concept of the public good. Part III articulates Hamilton's general theory of the public good, breaking the concept down into several distinct categories suggested by the book itself. The review critiques the book's explanation and …

Comments: A Poisoned Arrow In His Quiver: Why Forbidding An Entire Branch Of Government From Communicating With A Reporter Violates The First Amendment, Joseph S. Johnston

University of Baltimore Law Review

"[There exists] a profound national commitment to the principle that debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide-open, and that it may well include vehement, caustic, and sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks on government and public officials."

"Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle."

Context Is King: A Perception-Based Test For Evaluating Government Displays Of The Ten Commandments, Nathan P. Heller

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Copyright Lochnerism, Raymond Shih Ray Ku

Faculty Publications

Part I of this essay outlines the conflict between copyright and the First amendment as well as, the complementary argument for reconciling copyright and free speech, as it has been formulated by scholars and the Supreme Court. Part II discusses what I have referred to as the Framers' copyright and the extent to which arguments based upon the Framers' intent in this area may reconcile copyright and free speech. Lastly, Part III argues that reliance upon the complementary argument to deny any role for heightened First Amendment review in copyright cases is subject to two interrelated criticisms of Lochner. By …

Out Of Thin Air: Using First Amendment Public Forum Analysis To Redeem American Broadcasting Regulation, Anthony E. Varona

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

American television and radio broadcasters are uniquely privileged among Federal Communications Commission (FCC) licensees. Exalted as public trustees by the 1934 Communications Act, broadcasters pay virtually nothing for the use of their channels of public radiofrequency spectrum, unlike many other FCC licensees who have paid billions of dollars for similar digital spectrum. Congress envisioned a social contract of sorts between broadcast licensees and the communities they served. In exchange for their free licenses, broadcast stations were charged with providing a platform for a "free marketplace of ideas" that would cultivate a democratically engaged and enlightened citizenry through the broadcasting of …

First Amendment Rights Behind Bars: To Deny A Prisoner Pornography, The Third Circuit In Ramirez V. Pugh Requires Proof Of Detriment To Rehabilitation, Victoria Ford

Jeffrey S. Moorad Sports Law Journal (1994 - )

No abstract provided.

Christian Faith And Political Life: A Dialogue, Randy Beck

Georgia Law Review

The proper relationship of the Christian to the community's political and legal institutions has been a recurring issue since the earliest days of the church and the earliest days of our nation. The relevance of Christian faith to political participation again became a topic of conversation in this country following the 2004 presidential election. Since that election, Americans have engaged in much discussion regarding the role of religion in our nation's politics. Not all of this discussion has been productive. In the dialogue that follows, Jason Carter and Randy Beck discuss the political implications of Christian faith and prospects for …

A Reply To Professor Beck, Jason Carter

Georgia Law Review

The 2004 election reinvigorated the debate about Christianity's role in our nation's lawmaking. The election saw increased polarization between the secular left, and the politicized Christian right.' Evangelical Protestants voted overwhelmingly for the Republican candidate, George W. Bush, while the most secular voters voted overwhelmingly for John Kerry.2 The 2004 election emboldened the Christian right. In addition to what they believed was their crucial role in President Bush's victory, the Christian right celebrated the passage of constitutional amendments banning gay marriage in all eleven states where such amendments were on the ballot.? One leader of the Christian right stated that …