First Amendment Commons^™

Church Of The Lukumi Babalu Aye V. City Of Hialeah, Paul L. Bader

Mercer Law Review

In Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah, a Florida district court has gone further than any other federal court in proscribing a church's right to exercise its religious beliefs. The district court found that the city's interests in public health, child welfare, and animal welfare were sufficient to override the protection provided under the free exercise clause of the First Amendment. After the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed in an unpublished opinion the Supreme Court granted certiorari to decide whether the First Amendment protects a religion's practice of animal sacrifice. The Supreme Court has …

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 …

Where They're Calling From: Cultural Roots Of Rap, Jimmie L. Briggs Jr.

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

The Music Of Murder, Dennis R. Martin

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

Lee V. Weisman: No Reason To Give Thanks, William Jonathan Martin Ii

Mercer Law Review

In Lee v. Weisman, the United States Supreme Court held that nonsectarian prayers delivered at public school graduation ceremonies violate the Establishment Clause of the Constitution. In reaching its decision, the Court purposefully disregarded the analytical framework established by Lemon v. Kurtzman, and its progeny, in favor of a coercion test. In so doing, the Court's decision not only failed to solve the problems associated with the Lemon framework, but also left Establishment Clause jurisprudence in a greater state of disarray and uncertainty than previously had existed.

Starting From Scratch: The First Amendment Reporter-Source Privilege And The Doctrine Of Incidental Restrictions, Marcus A. Asner

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Note examines reporters' claims to a First Amendment reporter-source privilege in light of First Amendment doctrine as a whole. Part I briefly explains the current state of reporter-source privileges and the policies behind them. Part II then attempts to identify doctrinal support for the press's claim to a First Amendment privilege. Part II rejects the notion that the First Amendment affords special protection to the press as an institution. A reporter's status as a member of the institutional media is not irrelevant, however, and the well-established principle that the government may not target or single out the press for …

Souring On Lemon: The Supreme Court's Establishment Clause Doctrine In Transition, Roald Y. Mykkeltvedt

Mercer Law Review

In his opinion for the Court in the landmark case of Everson v. Board of Education, Justice Black held that the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment erected a high and impregnable "wall of separation" between church and state. Relying primarily on the writings of James Madison and Thomas Jefferson to discern the intentions of the framers, Justice Black maintained that, at the very least, the establishment proscription meant that

rn]either a state nor the Federal Government .. .can pass laws which aid one religion, aid all religions, or prefer one religion over another .... No tax in any …

Girls Lean Back Everywhere: The Law Of Obscenity And The Assault On Genius, Anne E. Gilson

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Girls Lean Back Everywhere: The Law of Obscenity and the Assault on Genius by Edward de Grazia

Strangers On A Train, Peirre N. Leval

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Make No Law: The Sullivan Case and the First Amendment by Anthony Lewis

Free Speech For Me—But Not For Thee: How The American Left And Right Relentlessly Censor Each Other, Bradley L. Smith

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Free Speech for Me—But Not for Thee: How the American Left and Right Relentlessly Censor Each Other by Nat Hentoff

An Enriched Economic Model Of Political Patronage And Campaign Contributions: Reformulating Supreme Court Jurisprudence, Richard L. Hasen

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Religion, Zoning, And The Free Exercise Clase: The Impact Of Employment Division V. Smith, Bradley Donald Parkinson

Brigham Young University Journal of Public Law

No abstract provided.

No Constitutional Shelter: The Ninth Circuit's Reading Of The Hybrid Claims Doctrine In American Friends Service Committee Corp. V. Thornburgh, Shawn Gunnarson

Brigham Young University Journal of Public Law

No abstract provided.

Sex, Violence, And Profanity: Rap Music And The First Amendment, Jon Christopher Wolfe

Mercer Law Review

Lauded by some and condemned by others, rap music does not want for a divergence of views on its nature, meaning, or message. The deluge of profanity coupled with vivid images and themes of sex and violence have provided fertile ground for discussion of rap's merits. Critics have characterized rap as "ugly macho boasting," "bombastic, self-aggrandizing," and "repulsive." Rap artist Ice Cube's Death Certificate album was the subject of a rare editorial comment by Billboard magazine deriding the lyrics as "the rankest sort of racism and hatemongering." Detractors fear that the violently negative messages promote a value system that celebrates …

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 …

Blackmail: Dde-Type Inquiries - 1993, Wendy J. Gordon

Scholarship Chronologically

DDE-type inquiries usually emerge from a particular brand of intuitionistically-applied deontology which one might call a "theory of side-constraints". From the deontologic notion that "persons are ends, not means," philosophers of this stripe have intuited a number of constraints that should constrain moral actors regardless of the cost. The science of side-constraints is obviously inconsistent with theories such as utilitarianism and economic wealth-maximization, where assessing the costs and benefits of an action constitute the primary guide for action. By contrast side-constraint philosophers tell us that one may not kill another person even to save a large number of other persons; …

Information, Imagery, And The First Amendment: A Case For Expensive Protection Of Commercial Speech, Rodney A. Smolla

Scholarly Articles

Not available.

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

Articles

No abstract provided.

Notes On Criminal Coercion And Freedom Of Speech, Wendy J. Gordon, Kent Greenawalt

Scholarship Chronologically

No abstract provided.

Black And White Images, John H. Garvey

Scholarly Articles

In 1989 the National Endowment for the Arts (the "NEA") caused a stir by funding two exhibitions of photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe and Andres Serrano. The pictures were vulgar and irreverent, and many people thought that the NEA should not sponsor them with tax money. Whether the NEA can actually control the content of speech that it pays for is a hard First Amendment question. I want to look at how Congress has tried to answer it. Congress seriously considered two solutions, and adopted one of them in 1990. Both rely on analogies drawn from the area of race relations. …

R.A.V. V. St. Paul: The Debate Over The Constitutionality Of Hate Crime Laws Ends; Or Is This Just The Beginning, Joseph E. Starkey Jr.

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Reporting The Truth And Setting The Record Straight: An Analysis Of U.S. And Japanese Libel Laws, Ellen M. Smith

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Note argues that U.S. courts and lawmakers should adopt some aspects of Japanese libel law. Part I compares the balances struck in U.S. and Japanese libel law between promoting press freedoms and protecting individual interests. Part II focuses on the extent to which each system succeeds in addressing the objectives of encouraging aggressive, accurate reporting, and compensating libel victims. Finally, Part III proposes a new U.S. libel standard that would adopt, with some modifications, key elements of Japanese libel law without running afoul of established U.S. constitutional requirements.

Cover Your Ears, John H. Garvey

Scholarly Articles

Lee v. Weisman holds that public schools cannot offer prayers at graduation ceremonies. It has another curious implication: according to George Dent, it also means that public schools must excuse religious dissenters from offensive parts of the currculum. I think this is an astute observation. The issues are not alike doctrinally Weisman is an Establishment Clause case; the curriculum cases are Free Exercise cases. But the schools cause similar harms in both cases; they do so mostly by exposing children to unwelcome ideas. Why is this so upsetting? Why object to hearing people talk? I want to make three observations: …

The Pc Harangue, James Boyle

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

People V. Diguida: Freedom Of Expression On Private Property Under The Illinois Constitution, Douglas M. Poland

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Law - Third Circuit Sets Forth Balancing Test For Evaluating Jus Terth Standing In First Amendment Context, Michael A. Frattone

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

The First Amendment Right To Petition Government For A Redress Of Grievances: Cut From A Different Cloth, 21 Hastings Const. L.Q. 15 (1993), Julie M. Spanbauer

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Challenging The Autonomous Press (Book Review), Lili Levi

Articles

No abstract provided.

Church Of The Lukumi Babalu Aye V. City Of Hialeah, Paul Bader

Faculty Articles and Papers

In Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah,1 a Florida district court has gone further than any other federal court in proscribing a church's right to exercise its religious beliefs. The district court found that the city's interests in public health, child welfare, and animal welfare were sufficient to override the protection provided under the free exercise clause of the First Amendment.2 After the Eleventh Circuit Court of Ap- peals affirmed in an unpublished opinion the Supreme Court granted cer- tiorari to decide whether the First Amendment3 protects a religion's prac- tice of animal sacrifice. The Supreme …

The Death Knell For Hate-Crime Laws? The Supreme Court Protects Unpopular Speech In R.A.V. V. City Of St. Paul, Gregory Preves

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

No abstract provided.