First Amendment Commons^™

Rhetoric, Evidence, And Bar Agency Restrictions On Speech By Attorneys, Lloyd B. Snyder

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

There are two problems with permitting litigation about attorney speech to proceed without requiring bar disciplinary agencies to present empirical data or other evidence to support claims that restrictions on attorney speech are necessary. First, the history of bar association restrictions on attorney speech should make us skeptical that the bar rules are based on lofty ideals about protection of the public. The restrictions began as rules promulgated by elite corporate lawyers whose effect was to limit the activities of their less affluent brethren who were representing criminal defendants and other impoverished clients. The purpose of the rules was to …

Public Institutions Of Culture And The First Amendment: The New Frontier, Lee C. Bollinger

Faculty Scholarship

The general subject of my lecture today is the relationship between the First Amendment and public institutions of culture, which I take to be those sponsored and supported by the state with the clear purpose of preserving and promoting high culture in the United States. These include universities, museums, theaters, libraries, public broadcasting networks, programs for art in public places, and the national endowments for the arts and the humanities. All of these institutions or programs are vested with the responsibility of insuring the preservation of high human achievement in the areas to which they are devoted (knowledge, art, music, …

Antitrust And First Amendment Implications Of Professional Real Estate Investors, Gary Myers

Faculty Publications

This article begins with a discussion of the development of Noerr-Pennington immunity as it applies to litigation behavior. Parts III and IV describe the litigation in Professional Real Estate Investors and then analyze the effect of this new decision on predatory litigation law. Part V discusses possible ramifications of the case for other areas of federal and state law in which subjective intent is the sole keystone for the imposition of liability on petitioning activity. Because Professional Real Estate Investors interprets the First Amendment to preclude antitrust liability in these cases, other laws that deter bad faith litigation may no …

Fight Muhammad's 'Secret' With Facts, Kenneth Lasson

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The First Amendment And Homosexual Expression: The Need For An Expanded Interpretation, Brent H. Allen

Vanderbilt Law Review

"Homosexuality is today essentially a form of political, social, and moral dissent on par with the best American traditions of dissent and even subversive advocacy.... Those that support criminalization find today in homosexuality what they found before in the family planning of Sanger, the atheism of Darwin, the socialism of Debs, or the Marxist advocacy of the American Communist Party."

Ostensibly, the First Amendment guarantees all people freedom of expression of every belief. The free exchange of ideas forms the basis of a democratic government. Only citizens with unhindered access to the famed "marketplace of ideas" can participate meaningfully in …

Back From The Brink: Part Ii, Joel M. Gora

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Freedom Of Speech & Press: Gross V. New York Times, Co.

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Freedom Of Speech & Press: Prozeralik V. Capital Cities Communications, Inc.

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

University Hate Speech Codes: A Necessary Method In The Process Of Eradicating The Universal Wrong Of Racism, Nooshin Namazi, James H. Cahill

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Trial By Tabloid, Mercy Hermida

St. Thomas Law Review

An intense conflict has persisted throughout legal history between the practical application of the First and Sixth Amendments. The controversy between these two guarantees has been a constant debate for decades. On the one hand, the First Amendment guarantees the media the Constitutional right to report the news via their right to freedom of expression. Alternatively, the Sixth Amendment guarantees the criminally accused the right to a fair trial decided by an impartial jury. Although these two guarantees are not seemingly contradictory, they ultimately collide when the media, in asserting its First Amendment right, so intrudes and disrupts a criminal …

Clergy Sexual Misconduct: Confronting The Difficult Constitutional And Institutional Liability Issues, James T. O'Reilly, Joann M. Strasser

St. Thomas Law Review

Sexual misconduct among clergy members is a rare but troubling societal phenomenon, made more evident in the 1990s by dramatic news reporting and high-profile litigation demands. Revelation is no longer just an uplifting part of the New Testament; revelation is a tabloid tactic for uplifting television ratings and newspaper sales by assailing massive sexual scandals in the churches. This article focuses on a clash of doctrines that is developing in tort cases, when institutional churches are sued for failure to adequately oversee and control their errant ministers and priests. The clash arises because the religious doctrines of faith, responsibility and …

Freedom Of Speech & Press: Polish American Immigration Relief Committee, Inc. V. Relax

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Machiavellian Jurisprudence: The United States Supreme Court's Doctrinal Approach To Political Speech Under The First Amendment, Garth Molander

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

The First Amendment And Fcc Rule Making Under The 1992 Cable Act, Michael I. Meyerson

All Faculty Scholarship

This Article explores the First Amendment implications of the Federal Communication Commission's (FCC) regulations issued under the Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act of 19921 (1992 Cable Act). The 1992 Cable Act imposes numerous requirements that are beyond the scope of this Article. This Article analyzes only the FCC's exercise of rule making discretion under the 1992 Cable Act.

Additionally, it must be remembered that an under-staffed FCC was given an enormous amount of work to do within fixed time limits. Therefore, it must be expected that the rulemaking would be vulnerable to second-guessing. Nonetheless, whenever a governmental entity …

Duke V. Cleland: The Eleventh Circuit Neglects The First Amendment Rights Of Political Parties And Allows States To Limit Ballot Access Of Presidential Primary Candidates, Steven A. Kirsch

Vanderbilt Law Review

Notwithstanding H. Ross Perot's strong third place finish in the 1992 Presidential election,' history suggests a successful presidential candidate must be a member of one of the two major political parties to win. As a result, many candidates compete for each major party's nomination. Moreover, the leaders of state Democratic and Republican parties that hold presidential primaries often have attempted to remove the lesser-known, and sometimes politically unpopular, candidates from the ballot. One argument advanced by state party leaders in support of their attempts to prevent some candidates from appearing on the ballot is that the political party has a …

Braun V. Soldier Of Fortune: Tort Law Enters The Braun's Age As Constitutional Safeguards For Commercial Speech Buckle 'Neath The Crunch Of Third-Party Liability, Timothy J. Tatro

San Diego Law Review

Advertising is more than just a substantial source of revenue for publications. This author contends that advertising embodies the liberties of free speech and free press secured to all of us so fundamentally by the First Amendment. This Casenote analyzes Braun v. Soldier of Fortune Magazine, Inc., in which the Eleventh Circuit held a magazine liable for negligently publishing a gun-for-hire advertisement that allegedly resulted in the death of the plaintiff's father. The author is critical of this decision, noting the detrimental, long-reaching effects of sustaining a negligence action that penetrates so deeply into First Amendment freedoms.

State Restrictions On Violent Expression: The Impropriety Of Extending An Obscenity Analysis, Jessalyn Hershinger

Vanderbilt Law Review

A group of minors allegedly attacked a nine-year-old girl at a San Francisco beach and "artificially raped" her with a bottle. The minors attacked the girl after watching and discussing a television network movie that portrayed a similar rape. The victim sued the network, claiming that it was negligent in airing the program.' In Miami Beach, a teenage boy shot and killed his eighty-three- year-old neighbor. Following his conviction, the minor sued three television networks for damages, alleging that a decade of viewing extensive television violence had incited him to imitate the acts that he had seen. Nineteen-year-old John McCollum …

Freedom Of Speech And Press

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Federalism, The Commerce Clause, And Equal Protection, Leon Friedman

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Importance Of A Contextual Approach To Libel Law: The Impact Of Immuno Ag. V. Moor-Jankowski And Milkovich V. Lorain Journal Co., Margaret Chan

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

There Goes The Neighborhood: The Evolution Of "Family" In Local Zoning Ordinances, William Graham

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Freedom Of Speech And Press

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Freedom Of Speech And Press

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Broadcasting And Speech, Jonathan Weinberg

Law Faculty Research Publications

It is illegal to speak over the airwaves without a broadcast license. The FCC grants those licenses, and decides whether they will be renewed, on the basis of a vague "public interest" standard. The resulting system of broadcast regulation conflicts, starkly and gratuitously, with ordinary free speech philosophy. In this Article, the author argues that that inconsistency is crucially linked to inadequacies in free speech theory itself Conventional free speech theory ignores the extent to which imbalances of private power limit freedom of expression. It presupposes that public discourse takes place on a rational plane. The author explores the link …

Freedom Of Speech And The Press

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Government Regulation Of Religiously Based Social Services: The First Amendment Considerations, Carl H. Esbeck

Faculty Publications

A daunting welter of variables confronts anyone who sets out to systematize the First Amendment's effect on the government's role in regulating social services operated by religious organizations. The task is further complicated because the regulations in question often were promulgated as a consequence of the monitoring that inevitably accompanies government spending on private-sector welfare programs. The most suitable methodology should take into account: 1) the nature of the organizations that are the object of the government's regulation or program of aid; 2) the interrelationship between government and religious organizations that results from the regulation or aid; and 3) the …

Litigation As A Predatory Practice, Gary Myers

Faculty Publications

This article reviews and evaluates the sham litigation case law, finding that many courts have allowed immunity too readily or on inappropriate grounds. It attempts to develop comprehensive standards for antitrust claims based on sham litigation.

Freedom Of Speech And The Press

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Freedom Of Speech And The Press

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Barnes V. Glen Theatre, Inc.: Nude Dancing And The First Amendment Question, Zachary T. Fardon

Vanderbilt Law Review

Erotic dancers Gayle Sutro, Carla Johnson, and Darlene Miller can no longer dance nude in Indiana. In Barnes v. Glen Theatre, Inc. the United States Supreme Court held that Indiana's prohibition of nude dancing did not violate the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. The Court's holding ended years of controversy and debate over Indiana's public indecency statute.

In 1979, in State v. Baysinger, the Indiana Supreme Court held that Indiana's public indecency statute could be used to prohibit nude dancing. The court stated that the statute could not prohibit some larger forms of expression involving the communication of …