First Amendment Commons^™

Contents, First Amendment Law Review

First Amendment Law Review

No abstract provided.

Against Legislation: Garcetti V. Ceballos And The Pradox Of Statutory Protection For Public Employees, Ruben J. Garcia

First Amendment Law Review

No abstract provided.

Academic Freedom And The Post-Garcetti Blues, Sheldon Nahmod

First Amendment Law Review

No abstract provided.

Garcetti'S Impact On The First Amendment Speech Rights Of Federal Employees, Paul M. Secunda

First Amendment Law Review

No abstract provided.

Federal Search Commission - Access, Fairness, And Accountability In The Law Of Search, Frank Pasquale, Oren Bracha

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Balancing Individual And Societal Interests Under The First Amendment: How The Eighth Circuit Saved Fantasy Baseball, Salvatore Vetrini

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

Morse V. Frederick: Evaluating A Supreme Hit To Students' First Amendment Rights, Kellie A. Cairns

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

If Obscenity Were To Discriminate, Barry P. Mcdonald

NULR Online

No abstract provided.

Is Worship A Unique Subject Or A Way Of Approaching Many Different Subjects? Two Recent Decisions That Attempt To Answer This Question Set The Second And Ninth Circuits On A Course Toward State Entanglement With Religion, John Tyler

Mercer Law Review

Does exclusion of worship services from a limited public forum constitute discrimination on the basis of viewpoint or subject matter? Is worship a unique subject matter or a way of expressing views on many different subjects? And if worship is a unique subject matter, what expressive activities fall within that category? In other words, what is the legal definition of worship?

These are the questions that the United States Supreme Court's seminal decision in Good News Club v. Milford Central School left unanswered. Good News Club was a case from New York that involved a constitutional challenge to the local …

Where's The Harm?: Free Speech And The Regulation Of Lies, Lyrissa Barnett Lidsky

UF Law Faculty Publications

False factual information has no First Amendment value, and yet the United States Supreme Court has accorded lies a measure of First Amendment protection. The First Amendment imposes something in the nature of a presumption against government interference in public discourse. This presumption is rooted in suspicion of the State's ability to distinguish facts from falsehoods as well as its motives for doing so. However, the presumption against regulation of false speech is not absolute. It can be overcome when verifiably false speech poses a direct threat of harm to individual interests. Unlike other countries, the United States has never …

Standing Room Only: Federal Taxpayers Denied Standing To Challenge President's Faith-Based Programs In Hein V. Freedom From Religion Foundation, Inc., Patricia Mary Quinlan

Mercer Law Review

During the 2006-2007 Term, the United States Supreme Court addressed the issue of whether federal taxpayers have standing to challenge the constitutionality of executive expenditures that allegedly violate the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. In Hein v. Freedom from Religion Foundation, Inc., the plaintiffs, asserting standing based on their status as federal taxpayers, objected to the use of congressional appropriations to fund a faith-based program created by President George W. Bush as a violation of the Establishment Clause. Although no single analysis commanded five votes, a majority of the Court agreed to dismiss the case for lack …

Regulation Of Blog Campaign Advocacy On The Internet: Comparing U.S., German, And Eu Approaches, Allison R. Hayward

Cardozo Journal of International and Comparative Law

This essay examines how U.S., German, and EU laws have treated the regulation of political commentary on the Internet. As political blogging grows in popularity, the reach of these web sites, and their influence in political campaigns, may make them a target for regulation by rivals and incumbents, both at home and abroad. Since ordinarily any URL can be reached from anywhere with Internet access, conflicting domestic rules about what can be said (and who can say it) present potential for conflicting rules on blogging.

In brief, U.S. law protects blogging content, but may impose restrictions on the source of …

Eclecticism, Nelson Tebbe

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

This short piece comments on Kent Greenawalt's new book, Religion and the Constitution: Establishment and Fairness. It argues that although Greenawalt's eclectic approach carries certain obvious costs, his theory cannot be evaluated without comparing its advantages and disadvantages to those of its competitors. It concludes by giving some sense of what that comparative calculus might look like.

Morse V. Frederick: Locking The "Schoolhouse Gate" On The First Amendment, Jennifer A. Giuttari

Montana Law Review

First Amendment

Performing Art: National Endowment For The Arts V. Finley, Randall P. Bezanson

Federal Communications Law Journal

In this modified version of a chapter in his forthcoming book, ART AND FREEDOM OF SPEECH (Univ. of Illinois Press, 2008-09), Professor Bezanson begins to probe the nature of art and its relation to the first amendment free speech guarantee. The essay uses the Finley v. NEA case, and specifically its discussion of Finley's performance art, to critique the Supreme Court's very approach to the Finley case, and to view the issues from the perspective of art, artistic freedom, and the Supreme Court's role in fashioning constitutional protection for art as art, and not simply as cognitive speech.

Antitrust Language Barriers: First Amendment Constraints On Defining An Antitrust Market By A Broadcast's Language, And Its Implications For Audiences, Competition, And Democracy, Catherine J.K. Sandoval

Federal Communications Law Journal

This Article explores whether the language of a broadcaster's program appropriately defines an antitrust market, consistent with First Amendment and antitrust principles. In its evaluation of the 2008 private equity buyout of Clear Channel Communications, the Department of Justice ("DOJ") defined the antitrust market by the language of the broadcast, as it had done for the 2003 merger of Univision and Hispanic Broadcasting Corporation. This Article uses social science research on Spanish and English-language radio and television to evaluate that decision. It argues that the distinct content and messages that characterize Spanish and English-language programming show that market definition is …

The Terrorist Is A Star!: Regulating Media Coverage Of Publicity-Seeking Crimes, Michelle Ward Ghetti

Federal Communications Law Journal

Publicity-seeking crimes, including terrorism, almost by definition depend on the media for their effectiveness. Twenty-five years ago, when the bulk of this article was written, critics both within and outside the news industry had begun to voice an awareness, if not a concern, for the ease with which such criminals obtained publicity on both a national and international platform and it looked as if something might be done within the media establishments to thwart this manipulation of the press. Today, it is possible to look back and see that, in fact, nothing has been done and, so, individuals such as …

Signed, Your Coach: Restricting Speech In Athletic Recruiting In Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Ass'n V. Brentwood Academy, Brian Craddock

Mercer Law Review

In Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Ass'n v. Brentwood Academy ("Brentwood I/,), the United States Supreme Court unanimously held that an athletic association may enforce its anti-undue-influence recruiting policy, restricting the speech of its voluntary member schools, to avoid undue influence on young student athletes during the recruitment process. In reaching its holding, the Court extended two lines of First Amendment jurisprudence. First, the Court extended the application of Ohralik v. Ohio State Bar Ass'n to a context other than attorney-client solicitation for the first time. In doing so, the Court held that the possibility of undue influence in athletic recruiting …

Money As Property: The Effects Of Doctrinal Misallocation On Campaign Finance Reform, Maneesh Sharma

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

By applying First Amendment jurisprudence to campaign finance measures, this Note argues that the Supreme Court has misallocated campaign finance within its doctrinal scheme. This doctrinal misallocation has stymied the ability of legislatures to enact effective reforms to reduce the role of money in politics. This Note argues that money in the political process more closely resembles property than speech and should therefore be analyzed under a less stringent property review. This Note concludes by proposing a standard of review developed from the Court's property jurisprudence.

Excluding Religion, Nelson Tebbe

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

This Article considers whether government may single out religious actors and entities for exclusion from its support programs. The problem of selective exclusion has recently sparked interest in lower courts and in informal discussions among scholars, but the literature has not kept pace. Excluding Religion argues that government generally ought to be able to select religious actors and entities for omission from support without offending the Constitution. At the same time, the Article carefully circumscribes that power by delineating several limits. It concludes by drawing out some implications for the question of whether and how a constitutional democracy ought to …

Morality And Public School Speech: Balancing The Rights Of Students, Parents, And Communities, Peter J. Jenkins

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Against Freedom Of Commercial Expression, Tamara R. Piety

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Confronting The Limits Of The First Amendment: A Proactive Approach For Media Defendants Facing Liability Abroad, Michelle A. Wyant

San Diego International Law Journal

This Article confronts the limits this issue imposes on the First Amendment in four parts. Part I described the potential for conflicting defamation laws and forum shopping to undermine the American media's speech protections in the context of the Internet and global publications and outlines the Article's overall method of analysis. Part II first orients these conflicting defamation laws with respect to their development from the common law. It then frames them in terms of the underlying structural and policy differences that have produced their substantive divergence. This frame provides the analytical perspective through which this Article examines the varying …

Free Speech And Human Dignity, Steven J. Heyman

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Toward A Rfra That Works, Nicholas Nugent

Vanderbilt Law Review

The history of the Supreme Court's First Amendment jurisprudence regarding the proper standard of protection for the free exercise of religion is complicated. In determining how the First Amendment speaks to situations in which generally applicable health, welfare, and safety laws incidentally or accidentally burden certain individuals' religious practices, the Court has vacillated between different standards and different extremes, overruling itself several times. Early on, the Court held that, provided the government did not interfere deliberately with religion for religious reasons, an inadvertent interference with religious practice raised no Free xercise Clause problem,' "no matter how trivial the state's nonreligious …

The Cross At College: Accomodation And Acknowledgment Of Religion At Public Universities, Ira C. Lupu, Robert W. Tuttle

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

Free Expression And Education: Between Two Democracies, Stephen M. Feldman

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

Free Speech And The Case For Constitutional Exceptionalism, Roger P. Alford

Michigan Law Review

Embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is the evocative proposition that "[e]veryone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression." Beneath that abstraction there is anything but universal agreement. Modern democratic societies disagree on the text, content, theory, and practice of this liberty. They disagree on whether it is a privileged right or a subordinate value. They disagree on what constitutes speech and what speech is worthy of protection. They disagree on theoretical foundations, uncertain if the right is grounded in libertarian impulses, the promotion of a marketplace of ideas, or the advancement of participatory democracy. They …

What's Left Of The Twenty-First Amendment?, Jonathan M. Rotter, Joshua S. Stambaugh

Cardozo Public Law, Policy & Ethics Journal

The article examines the evolving jurisprudence of the Twenty-first Amendment and its intersection with the Dormant Commerce Clause, arguing that the Supreme Court has increasingly adopted a balanced approach. This approach prioritizes preventing economic discrimination while respecting state regulatory authority over liquor. The analysis highlights a shift away from a broad interpretation of the Twenty-first Amendment, emphasizing that states must justify discriminatory liquor regulations under a strict scrutiny standard. The Court’s rulings, particularly in Granholm v. Heald, have opened markets to out-of-state producers, promoting a more uniform national liquor market.

Constitutional Law—First Amendment & Freedom Of Speech—Students May Be Regarded As Closed-Circuit Recipients Of The State's Anti Drug Message: The Supreme Court Creates A New Exception To The Tinker Student Speech Standard. Morse V. Frederick, 127 S. Ct. 2618 (2007), Megan D. Hargraves

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

This note argues that the Supreme Court's decision in Morse significantly weakens students' free speech rights. Although the Court stated that students "do not shed their constitutional rights at the school house gates," its decisions, in effect, weakens Tinker's important holding that students are entitled to First Amendment protection. The note asserts that the Court's opinion broadens schools' authority to regulate student speech in ways that are contrary to fundamental First Amendment values and explicitly allows schools to engage in highly suspect viewpoint discrimination.

The note first examines some of the fundamental First Amendment values at stake in student speech …