First Amendment Commons^™

Jewish Women Under Siege: The Fight For Survival On The Front Lines Of Love And The Law, Adam H. Koblenz

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

No abstract provided.

Global Issues In Freedom Of Speech And Religion: Cases And Materials, Leslie Gielow Jacobs, Alan Brownstein

McGeorge School of Law Teaching Materials

Brownstein and Jacobs's Global Issues in Freedom of Speech and Religion: Cases and Materials is a companion volume to existing materials. Designed to assist professors in introducing issues of international and comparative law, this title is ideal for use in educational courses that address:

• The First Amendment
• Law and religion
• Individual rights
• Other topics dealing with free speech and religious liberty

In order to make companion materials understandable and accessible to students as well as to professors who have not taught the materials before, this title:

• Includes case excerpts, helpful background materials, and notes
• Is set out in a structure …

Dr. Strange-Rating Or: How I Learned That The Motion Picture Association Of America's Film Rating System Constitutes False Advertising, Jason K. Albosta

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), a trade association whose members include film production studios, distributors, and theater chains, administers the most popular system for rating the content contained in the vast majority of publicly exhibited motion pictures in the United States. The stated goal of the rating scheme is to caution parents about any objectionable content that a film contains in order to allow them to make informed decisions about which films they will allow their children to see. While the rating scheme has undergone several changes since its establishment to further its stated goal, a fundamental conflict …

Combating Incitement To Terrorism On The Internet: Comparative Approaches In The United States And United Kingdom And The Need For An International Solution, Elizabeth M. Renieris

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

In recent years, terrorist use of the Internet has been gaining in popularity, with more than several thousand radical or extremist websites in existence today. Because the Internet transcends physical and geographic boundaries, combating terrorist incitement on the Internet requires cross-border global cooperation. Although the international community has taken steps to combat the problem with United Nations Security Council Resolutions 1373 and 1624, the state parties to these resolutions have been unable to close the significant holes in the current international legal framework, and there is little evidence that terrorist use of the Internet for purposes of incitement is being …

You Can Move In But You Can't Stay: To Protect Occupancy Rights After Halprin, The Fair Housing Act Needs To Be Amended To Prohibit Post-Acquisition Discrimination, 42 J. Marshall L. Rev. 751 (2009), Scott N. Gilbert

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

David Doe V. Goliath, Inc.: Judicial Ferment In 2009 For Business Plaintiffs Seeking The Identities Of Anonymous Online Speakers, 43 J. Marshall L. Rev. 1 (2009), Clay Calvert, Kayla Gutierrez, Karla D. Kennedy, Kara Carnley Murrhee

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Silencing Tory Bowen: The Legal Implications Of Word Bans In Rape Trials, 43 J. Marshall L. Rev. 215 (2009), Randah Atassi

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

When Is Lying Illegal? When Should It Be? A Critical Analysis Of The Federal False Statements Act, 43 J. Marshall L. Rev. 111 (2009), Steven R. Morrison

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Puzzling Case Of Max Feinberg: An Analysis Of Conditions In Partial Restraint Of Marriage, 43 J. Marshall L. Rev. 265 (2009), Jeremy Macklin

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Smith, Stormans, And The Future Of Free Exercise: Applying The Free Exercise Clause To Targeted Laws Of General Applicability, Mark L. Rienzi

Scholarly Articles

Does the Free Exercise Clause extend to situations where the legislature deliberately targets a religious practice, but does so for neutral reasons and is willing to extend the ban to people who happen to engage in the same practice for non-religious reasons? While one can imagine reasonable arguments on both sides about the constitutionality of the Sunday morning alcohol ban, it seems absurd to say that the Free Exercise Clause is not part of the equation. Yet under the First Amendment analysis presently employed by many courts, that result is entirely likely.

Thomas Jefferson, We Have A Problem: The Unconstitutionality Nature Of The U.S.'S Aerospace Export Control Regime As Supposed By Bernstein V. U.S. Department Of Justice , Mike N. Gold

Cleveland State Law Review

All men are created equal, except aerospace workers. This was not how the Declaration of Independence was written, but it is how the U.S. government is currently enforcing its aerospace-related export control restrictions. Specifically, under the auspices of the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (“ITAR”)1 those in the aerospace workforce have unwittingly surrendered their First Amendment rights to free speech. This article will describe how the Ninth Circuit case of Bernstein v. U.S. Department of Justice2 clearly demonstrates the unconstitutional nature of the ITAR and will recommend reforms that would bring America's export control regime back into line with the …

A New Originalism: Adoption Of A Grammatical Interpretive Approach To Establishment Clause Jurisprudence After District Of Columbia V. Helle, Christopher A. Boyko

Cleveland State Law Review

This thesis proposes an approach to Establishment Clause jurisprudence (and one applicable to constitutional interpretation as a whole) that maintains fidelity to the Constitution by confining the application and interpretation of explicit text to the strictures of well-established norms of grammar and usage. It will begin by analyzing the disparities created through the addition or substitution of super-textual language to the clause through the use of surrogate concepts, and will demonstrate that any such method of constitutional adjudication becomes unworkable and incoherent once such tests utilize surrogate concepts and terminology. Through grammatical exegesis will emerge the theory that the Religion …

Sit Down And Count The Cost: A Framework For Constitutionally Enforcing The 501(C)(3) Campaign Intervention Ban, Benjamin Leff

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code prohibits charities from intervening in a political campaign for or against a candidate for public office. The IRS currently interprets the campaign-intervention ban to absolutely prevent charities from communicating their views on candidates, even if such communications are completely financed by non-501(c)(3) affiliates.

This article argues that the current IRS enforcement paradigm is unconstitutional because it exceeds the government interest in preventing tax-deductible donations to be used for campaign-intervention. A constitutional interpretation exists under the current statutory framework, but it would require the IRS to shift its focus exclusively to campaign-intervention-related expenditures. The …

No Enclaves Of Totalitarianism: The Triumph And Unrealized Promise Of The Tinker Decision, Jamin B. Raskin

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

The Supreme Court's decision in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District forty years ago did for the ideal of expressive freedom in America's public schools what Brown v. Board of Education did for the ideal of racial equality. It made a core value of the Bill of Rights spring to life for young people facing authoritarian treatment at the hands of adult officials running their school systems. By privileging the right of students to engage in passionate political communication over the school's interest in maintaining discipline or the community’s interest in maintaining pro-war consensus, the Tinker decision was …

Culture, Religion, And Indigenous People, David Bogen, Leslie F. Goldstein

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

Regulating Robocalls: Are Automated Calls The Sound Of, Or A Threat To, Democracy, Jason C. Miller

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

African-American voters receive a phone message implying that they are not registered to vote. Others hear "an almost threatening male voice," a "fake New York accent," factual distortions about legislation, false endorsements from controversial groups, calls promoting one candidate claiming to be from his opponent, and a constant barrage of annoying phone calls designed to make voters think a different candidate was sponsoring them. These messages were delivered through automated political telephone calls, also known as robocalls. Robocalls are cheap and efficient--one can deliver a pre-recorded message through 100,000 automated phone calls in one hour for only $2000. Consequently, robocalls …

Nobody's Fools: The Rational Audience As First Amendment Ideal, Lyrissa Lidsky

Faculty Publications

Assumptions about audiences shape the outcomes of First Amendment cases. Yet the Supreme Court rarely specifies what its assumptions about audiences are, much less attempts to justify them. Drawing on literary theory, this Article identifies and defends two critical assumptions that emerge from First Amendment cases involving so-called "core" speech. The first is that audiences are capable of rationally assessing the truth, quality, and credibility of core speech. The second is that more speech is generally preferable to less. These assumptions, which I refer to collectively as the rational audience model, lie at the heart of the "marketplace of ideas" …

No Tears For Creon, Marc O. Degirolami

Scholarly Articles

This essay critiques Professor Martha Nussbaum's book, Liberty of Conscience: In Defense of America's Tradition of Religious Equality (2008). Nussbaum's thesis is that the entire tradition of religious liberty in America can be both best understood (as a historical exercise) and justified (as a philosophical one) by recourse to the overarching principle of equal respect-that "[a]ll citizens have equal rights and deserve equal respect from the government under which they live." Nussbaum insists that equal respect pervades the tradition and that all other values of religious liberty are subordinate to it. She examines various free-exercise and establishment issues in light …

Betraying Truth: Ethics Abuse In Middle East Reporting, Kenneth Lasson

All Faculty Scholarship

This article presents a brief overview of press freedom under the First Amendment, attempts to create a working definition of media “objectivity,” examines various codes of professional ethics for journalists, and analyzes specific cases in which such standards have allegedly been abused or abandoned in Middle East reporting.

Symposium - The Maryland Constitutional Law Schmooze - Foreword: Our Paradoxical Religion Clauses, Mark A. Graber

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Faith And Dynamic Stability: Thoughts On Religion, Constitutions, And Transitions To Democracy, David Gray

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

Miranda, Dickerson, And Jewish Legal Theory: The Constitutional Rule In A Comparative Analytical Framework, Samuel J. Levine

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Rules Against Scandal And What They Mean For The First Amendment’S Religion Clauses, Marci A. Hamilton

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

Justice Sutherland Reconsidered, 62 Vand. L. Rev. 639 (2009), Samuel R. Olken

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The First Amendment Right Against Compelled Listening, Caroline Mala Corbin

Articles

This Article argues for a new First Amendment right: the right against compelled listening. Free speech jurisprudence - which already recognizes the right to speak, the right to listen, and the right against compelled speech - is incomplete without the right against compelled listening. The same values that underlie the other free speech rights also lead to this right. Furthermore, this claim holds true regardless of whether one conceives of the primary purpose of the Free Speech Clause as creating a marketplace of ideas, enhancing participatory democracy, or promoting individual autonomy. The Article starts by examining the protection afforded to …

The Unconstitutionality, Ineffectiveness, And Alternatives Of Gang Injunctions, Thomas A. Myers

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

Gang violence across America puts in jeopardy the peace and tranquility of neighborhoods. Cities are challenged to keep their communities safe from gang violence. One common way in which cities attempt to combat violent gang activity is by using gang injunctions. Gang injunctions are court orders that prohibit gang members from conducting already-illegal activities such as vandalism, loitering, and use or possession of illegal drugs or weapons within a defined area. These injunctions, however, also prohibit otherwise legal activity such as associating with others within the restricted area of the injunction, using words or hand gestures, and wearing certain clothing. …

Aligning Judicial Elections With Our Constitutional Values: The Separation Of Powers, Judicial Free Speech, And Due Process, Jason D. Grimes

Cleveland State Law Review

This Note consists of five Parts. Part II traces the historical development of state judicial elections from the perspective of the Framers' doctrine of separation of powers. It shows that judicial elections were borne more of historical contingency than constitutional design. Part II then assesses the recent history of elections to the Ohio Supreme Court. It determines that Ohio's judicial elections share two problems with many other states: millions of dollars given to judicial candidates by special interests likely to appear before the court, and candidates' broad freedom of speech to earn the political and financial support of these special …

Trade Secret Litigation And Free Speech: Is It Time To Restrain The Plaintiffs?, Elizabeth A. Rowe

UF Law Faculty Publications

Trade secret misappropriation litigation is often criticized for its negative effects on competition and speech. In particular, some accuse plaintiff trade secret owners of filing complaints for the purpose of running competitors out of business, or restraining individuals from discussing matters which are unfavorable. This Article enters the discussion to critically assess whether there is reason to consider restricting these actions. It concludes that trade secret litigation on the whole does not inappropriately impinge on speech rights. Even if certain cases come closer to offending defendants' free speech rights, these occasions and the concerns they raise are not unique to …

Equality And The Free Exercise Of Religion , Bret Boyce

Cleveland State Law Review

Part I of this Article begins with a brief overview of Supreme Court case law on free exercise exemptions, which provides a background for modern historical and normative debates. Part II examines the original understanding of the Religion Clauses, which proponents of “substantive neutrality” claim supports their position. This Part rejects that claim, concluding that the limited evidence of the original understanding of the First Amendment and the Fourteenth Amendment (under which current doctrine makes the First Amendment's guarantees applicable to the states) does not provide a firm basis for resolving modern debates over exemptions, but is at least as …

State Government—The Arkansas Freedom Of Information Act—Public Or Private Record: A Simple Distinction Threatens The Future Of Open Government In Arkansas, Pulaski County V. Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc., 371 Ark. 214, 264 S.W.3d 465 (Ark. Oct. 4, 2007)., Geoffrey D. Neal

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.