First Amendment Commons^™

Free Speech By The Light Of A Burning Cross, Jerome O'Callaghan

Cleveland State Law Review

For scholars of the First Amendment this case is an excellent example of the dilemmas posed by many of the doctrines created by the Court. While Justice Scalia proposes an elaborate and novel understanding of the limits of free speech regulation, Justice White responds with an assertion that Scalia's reasoning is "transparently wrong," and that his opinion is a "radical revision of First Amendment law." According to Justice Stevens, the majority opinion is no more than "an adventure in a doctrinal wonderland." Part II of this paper examines the attacks made by Justices White and Stevens against the majority opinion. …

Hate Speech, Offensive Speech, And Public Discourse In America, Edward J. Eberle

Law Faculty Scholarship

In this article, Professor Eberle discusses several limitations on governmental power to regulate public discourse. After examining the United States Supreme Court decisions of R.A.V. v. City of St. Paula nd Wisconsin v. Mitchell, Professor Eberle concludes that government should refrain from regulating speech itself. Rather, any restrictions should focus strictly on the problematic conduct underlying the speech which justifies regulation. Professor Eberle also concludes that the Court has implicitly recognized two distinct subcategories of "content" discrimination and viewpoint discrimination. Both subcategories are presumptively unconstitutional and nominally subject to conventional strict scrutiny. The Court, however, finds viewpoint discrimination more dangerous …

Public Forum Doctrine And The Perils Of Categorical Thinking: Lessons From Lamb's Chapel, Rosemary C. Salomone

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

In recent years, the intersection of the Religion and Speech Clauses of the First Amendment has become increasingly controversial particularly in the context of public schooling. Religious group meetings, the distribution of religious literature, the discussion of religious themes, and the recitation of prayers at graduation ceremonies have all forced the courts to weigh and re-weigh the right to individual speech against the responsibility of the state to stay within the bounds of Establishment Clause doctrine. Several legal and political factors have fueled this debate. Although the Supreme Court has reaffirmed on several occasions the unconstitutionality of organized prayer …

Speaking Of Race, Speaking Of Sex: Hate Speech, Civil Rights, And Civil Liberties, Nadine Strossen

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Voice In Government: The People, Emily Calhoun

Publications

No abstract provided.

The Cable-Telco Cross-Ownership Prohibition: First Amendment Infringement Through Obsolescence, Michael G. Oxley

Federal Communications Law Journal

Since 1970, the FCC has prohibited all telephone companies from providing video programming in their local service areas. The primary rationale behind this prohibition was to promote the cable industry. Since 1984, however, the cable industry has seen tremendous growth with very little competition. New technology and market demands have now necessitated a reevaluation of the ban on cable-telco cross-ownership. The Author argues that with the changes that have occurred in the marketplace, the ban is now both an invalid prior restraint and an infringement on commercial expression and thus a violation of the First Amendment rights of telephone companies. …

The Cable Act And Municipal Ownership: A Growing First Amendment Confrontation, Carl R. Ramey

Federal Communications Law Journal

In many communities across the nation cable subscribers depend on government-owned cable television systems for their communication services. This phenomenon may have started out to be fairly insignificant, but as a result of the cable explosion, government ownership of cable systems presents a threat to free expression. Governmental overbuilding and direct competition with private cable service providers have been the subject of unsuccessful First Amendment challenges. The threat of government control of cable systems, though, is potentially dramatic and poses serious First Amendment questions. The Author concludes that private ownership should be encouraged, and public ownership should only be allowed …

Lee V. Weisman: A New Age For Establishment Clause Jurisprudence?, Elizabeth Brandt

Articles

No abstract provided.

The Right To Religion-Based Exemptions In Early America: The Case Of Conscientious Objectors To Conscription, Ellis M. West

Political Science Faculty Publications

One of the more controversial decisions handed down by the Supreme Court in recent years was its decision in the case of Employment Division, Oregon v. Smith, which raised the basic issue of whether the free exercise clause of the First Amendment guarantees a right to religion-based exemptions, i.e., whether it gives persons and groups a prima facie right to be exempt from having to obey valid laws when they have religious reasons for noncompliance. More specifically, in Smith, two Native Americans claimed that their prosecution for using an illegal drug, peyote, was precluded by the free exercise clause …

Back From The Brink, Joel M. Gora

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

How To Do Things With The First Amendment, Pierre Schlag

Publications

No abstract provided.

Is The New York Times "Actual Malice" Standard Really Necessary? A Comparative Perspective, Geoffrey Bennett, Russell L. Weaver

Journal Articles

In New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, the United States Supreme Court extended First Amendment guarantees to defamation actions. Many greeted the Court's decision with joy. After the decision, many years elapsed during which "there were virtually no recoveries by public officials in libel actions."

The most important component of the New York Times decision was its "actual malice" standard. This standard provided that, in order to recover against a media defendant, a public official must demonstrate that the defendant acted with "malice." In other words, the official must show that the defendant knew that the defamatory statement was false …

Silence And The Word, Paul Campos

Publications

No abstract provided.

Advocacy And Scholarship, Paul F. Campos

Publications

The apex of American legal thought is embodied in two types of writings: the federal appellate opinion and the law review article. In this Article, the author criticizes the whole enterprise of doctrinal constitutional law scholarship, using a recent U.S. Supreme Court case and a Harvard Law Review article as quintessential examples of the dominant genre. In a rhetorical tour de force, the author argues that most of modern constitutional scholarship is really advocacy in the guise of scholarship. Such an approach to legal scholarship may have some merit as a strategic move towards a political end; however, it has …

Girls Should Bring Lawsuits Everywhere . . . Nothing Will Be Corrupted: Pornography As Speech And Product, Marianne Wesson

Publications

No abstract provided.

The First Americans And The "Free" Exercise Of Religion, Martin C. Loesch

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Belief/Conduct Paradigm In The Supreme Court's Free Exercise Jurisprudence: A Theological Account Of The Failure To Protect Religious Conduct, Marci A. Hamilton

Articles

No abstract provided.

John D. Appel, Robert S. Rifkind

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Aals Speech, Wendy J. Gordon

Scholarship Chronologically

Marshall has also said I can speak as long as I want, so scream when you've had enough.

Liberal Visions Of The Freedom Of The Press, Michael Gerhardt

Vanderbilt Law Review

Liberals have long regarded the First Amendment's freedom of the press guarantee as their special plaything.' For most of this century, liberals have dominated the scholarship and the doctrinal debate on the freedom of the press. They have often urged the federal courts to establish the press as "a fourth institution outside the Government as an additional check on the three official branches." Liberal judges have ensured virtual autonomy for the print media through the cumulative effect of their rulings to immunize the press from damages for the publication of falsehoods about public figures unless the publication was done knowingly, …

The War On Poverty: A Civilian Perspective, Edgar S. Cahn, Jean C. Cahn

University of the District of Columbia Law Review

This article does two things: it articulates a vision and it lays out a specific blueprint. The core of the vision regards legal representation as "a form of enfranchisement, as an attempt to institutionalize the functions of dissent and criticism, and as a means of revitalizing the democratic process." This explains why the article triggered a movement that was perceived as going beyond the orthodox delivery of legal aid. While others legislate or purport to breath life into the democratic process, lawyers, in their unique role as advocates, discharge a constitutionally protected role. And in light of the retaliation to …

Cd-Rom Symposium Transcript One - 1992, Wendy J. Gordon

Scholarship Chronologically

Enclosed are the corrected pages of the transcript. The article itself will follow shortly.

Abrams V. United States: Remembering The Authors Of Both Opinions, James F. Fagan Jr.

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Freedom Of Speech And The Press

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

On The Brink: The First Amendment In The Rehnquist Court, 1990-91 Term, Joel M. Gora

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Myth Of Ministry Vs. Mortar: A Legal & Policy Analysis Of Landmark Designation Of Religious Institutions, Alan C. Weinstein

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

This Article proposes to examine the conflict between religious institutions and landmark preservation groups at both its empirical and normative levels. Part I of the Article provides an overview of historic preservation. It traces the development of the historic preservation movement, describes the standards and procedures commonly found in preservation ordinances, and discusses briefly the seminal cases in this field. Part II then attempts to answer three questions: (1) how extensive is the conflict between religious institutions and landmark commissions; (2) what has been the response of state and local legislatures to the conflict; and (3) what legal doctrines have …

Practical Reason: The Commercial Speech Paradigm, Edward J. Eberle

Law Faculty Scholarship

First Amendment jurisprudence incorporates a continual struggle to balance coflicting interests. Free speech values must be weighed against communitarian interests in a rational manner. The article examines the foundationalist approach to this task, and finds it incapable of providing a unified First Amendment theory. Through examination of the treatment of commercial speech, the article arrives at a more coherent approach through the application of practical reasoning. The proposed methodology allows for principled analysis and decisions which yield an internally consistent body of law.

Free Speech And School Governance In The Wake Of Hazelwood, Rosemary C. Salomone

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

The Supreme Court's 1988 decision in Hazelwood School District v. KuhImeier upholding public school officials' authority to censor material in a high school student newspaper sent immediate shock waves throughout the educational and legal communities. The Court's sweeping language in Hazelwood moved far beyond the narrow issue of school newspaper censorship. It even moved beyond the question of appropriate or acceptable speech in public secondary schools. It was clear that Hazelwood could have far-reaching consequences for student rights, school governance, and the scope of official authority to make curricular decisions that reflect the values of the local community.

Some …

Religious Liberty In The Military: The First Amendment Under "Friendly Fire", Kenneth Lasson

All Faculty Scholarship

Though freedom of religion remains one of our most cherished values, it is still among the most controversial of constitutional rights. This is especially true in the context of military service. Even those who purposefully enlist in the armed forces, implicitly giving up certain liberties they freely enjoyed as civilians, would not relinquish their freedom of conscience. Yet the right to practice their religious beliefs, unfettered by arbitrary governmental restrictions, is regularly challenged.

Fortunately, however, most western cultures regard religious liberty as so fundamental that their military establishments routinely develop regulations to accommodate specific religious practices.

This principle was of …

Protecting Religious Liberty: Judicial And Legislative Responsibilities, Gerard V. Bradley

Journal Articles

Is the First Amendment hostile to religion? Answering that question requires at least the usual professorial ration of caveats. I assure you that I will directly answer the question. I submit, though, that the caveats constitute a more important, deeper response, a response which questions the question itself. Were I more radical in my intellectual sympathies, I would propose to deconstruct the question.