First Amendment Commons^™

National Endowment For The Arts V. Finley: Challenging The Facial Challenge, Gloria F. Taft

Campbell Law Review

This Note examines the facial challenge in National Endowment for the Arts ("NEA") v. Finley and how an as-applied challenge may have produced a different outcome. In particular, this Note will analyze the inadequacy of a facial challenge to the "decency & respect" provision, and in the alternative how an asapplied challenge would have invalidated the provision when applied to artists such as the Respondents in Finley.

High Drama On The High Court: The First Amendment In The 1996 Term, Marjorie Heins

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Defending The Middle Way: Intermediate Scrutiny As Judicial Minimalism, Jay D. Wexler

Faculty Scholarship

In the last few years, Court-watchers have been particularly busy critiquing the constitutional decisions of the splintered Rehnquist Court. Two of the recurring critiques have posited that the Justices are overly activist and that their opinions are needlessly confusing. American Lawyer's Stuart Taylor, for example, has decried both the "jurisprudential mess" of the Court's recent redistricting decisions' as well as the disturbing activism that Taylor believes marks each of the Equal Protection decisions of the 1995-96 Terman activism that has led him to wonder "whether there is any life at all left in the idea of judicial restraint."' Eva Rodriguez …

The First Amendment, Children, The Internet, And America's Public Libraries, Fred H. Cate

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Fencing Cyberspace: Drawing Borders In A Virtual World, Maureen A. O'Rourke

Faculty Scholarship

In the last few years, the Internet has increasingly become a source of information even for the historically computer illiterate. The growing popularity of the Internet has been driven in large part by the World Wide Web (web). The web is a system that facilitates use of the Internet by helping users sort through the great mass of information available on it. The web uses software that allows one document to link to and access another, and so on, despite the fact that the documents may reside on different machines in physically remote locations. The dispersion of data that is …

Food For The Lions: Excessive Damages For Newsgathering Torts And The Limitations Of Current First Amendment Doctrines , Andrew B. Sims

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Concept Of Religion, Eduardo M. Peñalver

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Section 5: Speech And Elections, Institute Of Bill Of Rights Law, William & Mary Law School

Supreme Court Preview

No abstract provided.

First Principles And Fair Consideration: The Developing Clash Between The First Amendment And The Constructive Fraudulent Conveyance Laws, Jonathan C. Lipson

University of Miami Law Review

No abstract provided.

Holocaust Denial And The First Amendment: The Quest For Truth In A Free Society, Kenneth Lasson

All Faculty Scholarship

From the ashes of the Holocaust we have come once again to learn the terrible truth, that the power of Evil cannot be underestimated. Nor can the effect of the spoken and written word. It has been but a half-century since the liberation of Nazi death camps, a little more than a decade since the First International Conference on the Holocaust and Human Rights, and a few short years since the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum first put on display its documentation of horror. Yet today that form of historical revisionism popularly called "Holocaust denial" abounds worldwide in all its …

Constitutional Law—Freedom Of Speech. No Longer That Crazy Aunt In The Basement, Commercial Speech Joins The Family. 44 Liquormart, Inc. V. Rhode Island, 116 S. Ct. 1495 (1996)., Jo-Jo Baldwin

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Methodological Perspective On The Use Of Comparative Media Law, Monroe E. Price, Stefaan G. Verhulst

Cardozo Journal of International and Comparative Law

The article examines the methodological challenges of using comparative media law in legislative processes, using the Paul Weiss Survey as a case study. This survey was conducted to influence the Indian Broadcasting Bill by comparing media regulations across various countries, highlighting that India's proposed restrictions were more stringent than international norms.

Antidisestablishmentarianism: Why Rfra Really Was Unconstitutional, Jed Rubenfeld

Michigan Law Review

Two months ago, the Supreme Court struck down the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 (RFRA), handing down its most important church-state decision, and one of its most important federalism decisions, in fifty years. Through RFRA, Congress had prohibited any state actor from "substantially burden[ing] a person's exercise of religion" unless imposing that burden was the "least restrictive means" of furthering "a compelling governmental interest." RFRA was a response to Employment Division, Department of Human Resources of Oregon v. Smith, in which the Supreme Court abandoned the very same compelling interest test that RFRA mandated. Smith, overturning decades-old precedent, held …

The Role Of Religion In Public Life And Official Pressure To Participate In Alcoholics Anonymous, Paul E. Salamanca

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

If religion is an innate aspect of the human experience, it should not be surprising that Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.), a widely known and arguably religious support group for problem drinkers, has become a common and effective means of combating alcoholism. Also, it should not be surprising that probation officers, parole officers, judges, bar overseers, wardens, and myriad others exercising state authority routinely push individuals toward A.A. Arguably, however, official referral of problem drinkers to A.A. violates current interpretations of the Establishment Clause because of the quasi-religious nature of the program.

Although separationism helps both church and state, our Constitution does, …

Regulatory Web: Free Speech And The Global Information Infrastructure, A, Victor Mayer-Schönberger, Teree E. Foster

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

National restrictions of freedom of speech on the nascent global information infrastructure are commonplace not only in the United States, but also around the globe. Individual nations, each intent upon preserving what they perceive to be within the perimeters of their national interests, seek to regulate certain forms of speech because of content that is considered reprehensible or offensive to national well-being or civic virtue. The fact that this offending speech is technologically dispersed instantaneously to millions of potential recipients strengthens the impetus to regulate.... Activists at both ends of the spectrum disregard an integral aspect of the global composition …

The Free Exercise Thereof, Stephen L. Carter

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Outtakes, Hidden Cameras, And The First Amendment: A Reporter's Privilege, Alison Lynn Tuley

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Guns, Words, And Constitutional Interpretation, L. A. Powe Jr.

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Regulating Sexually Oriented Businesses: The Regulatory Uncertainties Ofa "Regime Of Prohibition By Indirection" And The Obscenity Doctrine's Communal Solution, Daniel J. Mcdonald

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Concern With Public Concern: Toward A Better Definition Of The "Pickering / Connick" Threshold Test, Karin B. Hoppmann

Vanderbilt Law Review

The term "public employer" is something of a legal oxymoron. Although the law has established a jurisprudence for the employer, consisting of a network of state and federal statutory requirements,' and a jurisprudence for the governmental body, governed by the Constitution, the public employer belongs to neither of these. It is an entity that functions as a private business, charged with maintaining an efficient and productive workplace. It is constantly under pres- sure to improve performance, and it is just as concerned with discipline, morale, and efficiency as any private employer. Yet it is also part of the sovereign and …

Combatting Slapps: Absolutism Is Not The Answer, Daniel O. Conkle

Federal Communications Law Journal

Book Review: SLAPPs: Getting Sued for Speaking Out, by George W. Pring and Penelope Canan, Temple University Press, 1996, 279 pages.

Que, Ya No Hablan Ingles En Este Pais?: A Look At The Constitutionality Of English Only Provisions Under The Free Speech Clause Of The First Amendment, John J. Louizos

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Lemon Is A Lemon: Toward A Rational Interpretation Of The Establishment Clause, Thomas C. Marks Jr., Michael Bertolini

Brigham Young University Journal of Public Law

No abstract provided.

44 Liquormart, Inc. V. Rhode Island: The Supreme Court Overturns A Ban On Liquor Price Advertising, Laura Harrison

Mercer Law Review

In 44 Liquormart, Inc. v. Rhode Island, two licensed liquor retailers brought suit against the Rhode Island Liquor Control Administrator to challenge the First Amendment validity of state statutes that banned the price advertising of alcoholic beverages. In a unanimous decision, the United States Supreme Court overturned the ban, a judgment which may render similar restrictions unconstitutional.

The Casey Standard For Evaluating Facial Attacks On Abortion Statutes, John Christopher Ford

Michigan Law Review

Since the Supreme Court declared in 1973 that the Constitution grants women a limited right to an abortion, the Justices have decided abortion cases with reference to such weighty matters as religious freedom, the disadvantaged position of women in society, and the proper role of the judiciary. Understandably, the Supreme Court's writings on abortion deal extensively with these large themes. The Court, and certainly others, view abortion cases as rivaling Brown v. Board of Education in their importance to the nation. While the Court has focused on the big issues, however, it has neglected an equally important, if less emotionally …

Restoring Rights To Rites: The Religious Motivation Test And The Religious Freedom Restoration Act, Steven C. Seeger

Michigan Law Review

This Note argues that the religious motivation test best secures the religious liberty guaranteed by the Constitution and the RFRA. Part I examines the text and legislative history of the Act and establishes that Congress intended to protect religiously motivated practices. Part II argues that the free exercise case law prior to Smith, to which the RFRA explicitly appeals, did not require litigants to prove centrality or compulsion. Part III demonstrates that the religious motivation test protects the full spectrum of religious practices and religious groups, unlike the centrality test and the compulsion test. Part IV illustrates that the motivation …

How Far Is Too Far? The Line Between "Offensive" And "Indecent" Speech, Milagros Rivera-Sanchez

Federal Communications Law Journal

Defining "indecency" in the context of radio broadcast seems quite a chore. While the Federal Communications Commission has struggled to set fbrth workable guidelines for "indecency," a great deal of uncertainty continues to surround broadcasters. Recognizing this confusion, the article surveys indecency complaints which were made to the FCC between 1989 and 1995 and eventually dismissed. An analysis of cases which the FCC fbund "not actionably indecent" helps delineate the FCC's decency standard. Dismissed cases are also compared and contrasted with cases in which the FCC took action against a broadcaster

Generally Applicable Laws And The First Amendment, David S. Bogen

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Best Of Both Worlds: Financing Software Filters For The Classroom And Avoiding First Amendment Liability, 16 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 659 (1998), Peter G. Drever Iii

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

As the Internet expands, educational institutions have become interested in the medium for the purpose of expanding learning opportunities. Information that may be objectionable to some members of the community, however, would then be available to children in schools with Internet access. Attempts to regulate the content of the Internet have yet to pass a First Amendment challenge. Concern over what children will be exposed to when the Internet is introduced in the classroom is currently being addressed by educators and legislators alike. The Communications Decency Act was the first to attempt to address the issue of Internet access in …

The Politics Of Ethics And Elections: Can Negative Campaign Advertising Be Regulated In Florida?, Cleveland Ferguson Iii

Florida State University Law Review

No abstract provided.