First Amendment Commons^™

Free Speech, Rational Deliberation, And Some Truths About Lies, Alan K. Chen

William & Mary Law Review

Could “fake news” have First Amendment value? This claim would seem to be almost frivolous given the potential for fake news to undermine two core functions of the freedom of speech—promoting democracy and facilitating the search for “truth,” as well as the corollary that to be valuable, speech must promote rational deliberation. Some would therefore claim that fake news should be classified as “no value” speech falling outside of the First Amendment’s reach. This Article argues somewhat counterintuitively that fake news has value because speech doctrine should not be focused exclusively on the promotion of rational deliberation, but should also …

The First Amendment And The Roots Of Lgbt Rights Law: Censorship In The Early Homophile Era, 1958-1962, Jason M. Shepard

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

Long before substantive due process and equal protection extended constitutional rights to homosexuals under the Fourteenth Amendment, in three landmark decisions by the Supreme Court of the United States, First Amendment law was both a weapon and shield in the expansion of LGBT rights. This Article examines constitutional law and “gaylaw” from the perspective of its beginning, through case studies of One, Inc. v. Olesen (1958), Sunshine Book Co. v. Summerfield (1958), and Manual Enterprises, Inc. v. Day (1962). In protecting free press rights of sexual minorities to use the U.S. mail for mass communications, the Warren Court’s liberalization of …

Janus And The Future Of Collective Bargaining: Rhetorically Predicting A First Amendment Right To Negotiation, Thomas J. Freeman, Aaron Mckain, Destynie J.L. Sewell

William & Mary Business Law Review

The importance of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees has been widely recognized for its effect on reducing the power and influence of public unions. A close reading of the majority opinion provides a clue that compulsory collective bargaining itself may be settling into the court’s crosshairs. Collective bargaining is an important tool, by which labor can reduce the often-inherent power imbalance it has with ownership and management. Yet as this Article outlines, the interests of individual workers can often be at odds with those other workers workers, particularly those …

Not Gill-Ty: Challenging And Providing A Workable Alternative To The Supreme Court's Gerrymandering Standing Analysis In Gill V. Whitford, Colin Neal

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

Information Gathering Or Speech Creation: How To Think About A First Amendment Right To Record, Jared Mullen

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

Saving The Marketplace From Market Failure: Reorienting Marketplace Theory In The Era Of Ai Communicators, Jared Schroeder

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

Artificially Intelligent (AI) communicators represent a new type of actor within public discourse. These entities have played influential roles in recent elections in the U.S. and Europe. This Article examines expression rights for AI actors through the lenses provided by the foundational assumptions of the marketplace of ideas theory and existing free-expression-related rationales regarding non-human actors in the U.S. and European legal systems. The Article contends that the fundamental assumptions of the marketplace model must be revised to focus on the flow of information, the development of truth, rather than the more Enlightenment-oriented competition of ideas that leads to the …

The Bad News Of Good News Club: Obliterating The Wall Between Church & State, Kevin W. Connell

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

Contracting Away The First Amendment?: When Courts Should Intervene In Nondisclosure Agreements, Abigail Stephens

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

Sex-Segregation, Economic Opportunity, And Roberts V. U.S. Jaycees, Elizabeth Sepper

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Conflict And Sensitive Places, Darrell A. H. Miller

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

Political And Non-Political Speech And Guns, Gregory P. Magarian

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

The Deliberative-Privacy Principle: Abortion, Free Speech, And Religious Freedom, B. Jessie Hill

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

Doctrinal Dynamism, Borrowing, And The Relationship Between Rules And Rights, Joseph Blocher, Luke Morgan

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

The study of “Rights Dynamism,” exemplified in Timothy Zick’s new book on the First Amendment’s relationship with the rest of the Bill of Rights, can enrich our understanding of constitutional rights. It also opens a door to another potentially fruitful arena: what we call “Doctrinal Dynamism.” Constitutional rights often interact and generate new meanings and applications by way of importing and exporting one another’s doctrinal rules, even when the rights themselves do not intersect directly in the context of a single case. Focusing on these doctrinal exchanges can illuminate the strengths and weaknesses of various rules, the specific interests underlying …

The Conscience Of The Baker: Religion And Compelled Speech, Ashutosh Bhagwat

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

Brief Of First Amendment Scholars As Amici Curiae In Support Of Petitioner, Tabatha Abu El-Haj, Timothy Zick, Hyland Hunt

Briefs

No abstract provided.

Who Tells Your Story: The Legality Of And Shift In Racial Preferences Within Casting Practices, Nicole Ligon

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Rejecting Mind-Body Dualism On U.S. Law, Matthew W. Lawrence

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

While neuroscience continues to make it clearer that mental processes, effects, disorders, and states can be described through physical observation, the metaphysical notion of mind-body dualism still pervades the U.S. legal system. In this Article, I discuss many areas where mind-body dualism holds fast, and others where mind-body dualism has already been explicitly or impliedly rejected. I argue that in most areas, the dualist distinction would have little to no impact on the values the law already describes. However, I argue that rejecting dualism would have an impact on fundamental rights analyses. First Amendment free speech rights, fundamental rights, and …

First Amendment Lochnerism & The Origins Of The Incorporation Doctrine, James Y. Stern

Faculty Publications

The 20th century emergence of the incorporation doctrine is regarded as a critical development in constitutional law, but while issues related to the doctrine's justification have been studied and debated for more than fifty years, the causes and mechanics of its advent have received relatively little academic attention. This Essay, part of a symposium on Judge Jeffrey Sutton's recent book about state constitutional law, examines the doctrinal origins of incorporation, in an effort to help uncover why the incorporation doctrine emerged when it did and the way it did. It concludes that, for these purposes, incorporation is best understood as …

Free Speech Idealism, Timothy Zick

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Constitutional Case For "Red Flag" Laws, Timothy Zick

Popular Media

No abstract provided.

Trust And Retaliation: The First Amendment And Trump’S Taxes, Timothy Zick

Popular Media

No abstract provided.

A Call Of Duty To Counterstrike: Cyberharassment And The Toxic Gaming Culture Plaguing Female Gamers And Developers, Natasha N. Phidd

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

The frequency with which female gamers and game developers experience sexual harassment and threats of violence online is significant enough to warrant concern about a section of our society— female gamers and game developers—having their sexuality and gender identity used against them, both as weapons and as barriers blocking them from access to a lucrative economic venture. An examination of the 2014 Gamergate controversy and various other instances of cyberharassment against female gamers and developers, as well as a look into the realm of eSports and an analysis of cyberharassment and the concept of true threats, indicate that this particular …

#Metoo Meets The Ministerial Exception: Sexual Harassment Claims By Clergy And The First Amendment's Religion Clauses, Ira C. Lupu, Robert W. Tuttle

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Religious Freedom Through Market Freedom: The Sherman Act And The Marketplace For Religion, Barak D. Richman

William & Mary Law Review

In prior work, I examined certain restraints by private religious organizations and concluded that the First Amendment did not immunize these organizations from antitrust liability. In short, the First Amendment did not preempt enforcing the Sherman Act against certain religious monopolies or cartels.

This Article offers a stronger argument: First Amendment values demand antitrust enforcement. Because American religious freedoms, enshrined in the Constitution and reflected in American history, are quintessentially exercised when decentralized communities create their own religious expression, the First Amendment’s religion clauses are best exemplified by a proverbial marketplace for religions. Any effort to stifle a market organization …

Antitrust As Speech Control, Hillary Greene, Dennis A. Yao

William & Mary Law Review

Antitrust law, at times, dictates who, when, and about what people can and cannot speak. It would seem then that the First Amendment might have something to say about those constraints. And it does, though perhaps less directly and to a lesser degree than one might expect. This Article examines the interface between those regimes while recasting antitrust thinking in terms of speech control.

Our review of the antitrust-First Amendment legal landscape focuses on the role of speech control. It reveals that while First Amendment issues are explicitly addressed relatively infrequently within antitrust decisions that is, in part, because certain …

The (Limited) Constitutional Right To Compete In An Occupation, Rebecca Haw Allensworth

William & Mary Law Review

Is there a constitutional right to compete in an occupation? The “right to earn a living” movement, gaining steam in policy circles and winning some battles in the lower courts, says so. Advocates for this right say that the right to compete in an occupation stands on equal footing with our most sacred constitutional rights such as the right to be free from racial discrimination. This Article takes a different view, arguing that while there is a limited constitutional right to compete in an occupation, it is—and should be—weaker than these advocates claim. Some state licensing laws run afoul of …

The Esquire Case: A Lost Free Speech Landmark, Samantha Barbas

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

Silencing State Courts, Jeffrey Steven Gordon

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

In state courts across the Nation, an absolutist conception of the First Amendment is preempting common law speech torts. From intentional infliction of emotional distress and intrusion upon seclusion, to intentional interference with contractual relations and negligent infliction of emotional distress, state courts are dismissing speech tort claims on the pleadings because of the broad First Amendment defense recognized by Snyder v. Phelps in 2011. This Article argues, contrary to the scholarly consensus, that Snyder was a categorical departure from the methodology adopted by New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, the landmark 1964 case that first applied the First …

Section 1: Moot Court: Nieves, Institute Of Bill Of Rights Law, William & Mary Law School

Supreme Court Preview

No abstract provided.

President Trump: Challenging Core First Amendment Principles, Timothy Zick

Popular Media

No abstract provided.