First Amendment Commons^™

The Lemon Test: Should It Be Retained, Reformulated Or Rejected?, Carl H. Esbeck

Faculty Publications

This essay addresses the Supreme Court's three-part establishment clause test originally set down in Lemon v. Kurtzman. Part I concerns the manner in which the Lemon test has substantially evolved. Part II explores what the evolved test has to offer by way of solving the seemingly conflicting duties not to inhibit free speech and political rights, while at the same time refraining from passing laws "respecting an establishment of religion." Finally, Part III addresses some of the proposals to supplant Lemon altogether.

First Amendment And Land Use, In Recent Developments In Land Use, Planning, And Zoning, Alan C. Weinstein

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

Once again in the past year, the U.S. Supreme Court has entered an opinion involving the first amendment that has significant ramifications for local zoning and planning. This marks the third time since 1986 that the Court has handed down a decision in this field. The most important development in this area of the law since last year's committee report is the Supreme Court's decision in FW/PBS, Inc. v. City of Dallas, which addressed the validity of a comprehensive adult entertainment zoning and licensing ordinance enacted by Dallas in 1986. FW/PBS was followed with great interest because it marked the …

Constitutional Law—Freedom Of Religion—Requiring Reports Of Religious Counseling Sessions Under Child Abuse Reporting Statutes Does Not Violate The First Amendment. State V. Motherwell, 114 Wash. 2d 353, 788 P.2d 1066 (1990)., Mona J. Mcnutt

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Case Against A Right To Religion-Based Exemptions, Ellis M. West

Political Science Faculty Publications

When, if ever, does the free exercise clause of the first amendment give an individual or organization the right to disobey with impunity a valid law of the state? This question is being discussed with increasing frequency and intensity because of the growing number of persons and groups who are going to the courts and claiming such a right on the grounds that the application of certain laws to them would burden their free exercise of religion. Almost all the individuals and some of the groups who claim such a right do so because the laws to which they object …

Insults And Epithets: Are They Protected Speech?, Kent Greenawalt

Faculty Scholarship

It is a privilege to offer a lecture in this series named for Edward J. Bloustein. Not many lecture series honor sitting university presidents who deliver the first lecture in the series; but President Bloustein is the very rare president whose long tenure in office has been accompanied by continuing academic productivity. That achievement is remarkable.

When I tentatively chose this topic a year ago, I knew it involved the application of philosophical insights to serious practical questions, the kind of work that President Bloustein has done so well. I also knew that the search for those aspects of human …

The Tolerant Society: A Response To Critics, Lee C. Bollinger

Faculty Scholarship

In writing The Tolerant Society I was, and yet remain, interested in the treatment of speech behavior in this country, a treatment notably more liberal than in other Western democracies. Liberality, however, is not its only surprising or distinguishing hallmark; so too is how the world is characterized under the free speech concept.

For some time, even after I began teaching in the first amendment area, the scope and nature of protection afforded speech seemed to me obviously right. But the more I thought about it, the more it seemed to me quite extraordinary. Existing free speech theory provided less …

A Judicial Postscript To The Church-State Debates Of 1989: How Porous The Wall, How Civil The State?, William W. Van Alstyne

Faculty Scholarship

This work is a continuation of the debate regarding the Establishment Clause. The focus lies with Justice O’Connor’s concurrence in County of Allegheny v. ACLU and how this opinion harkens back to a concept shared by Jefferson and Madison, that the establishment clause is designed to prevent government favoritism.

Telephone Companies Have First Amendment Rights Too: The Constitutional Case For Entry Into Cable, Laurence H. Winer

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Curran Versus Catholic University Of America, Gerard V. Bradley

Journal Articles

From the Introduction

America's most celebrated recent episode of ecclesiastical « dissent » reached its legal conclusion in Curran v. Catholic University of America. Fr. Curran says he will not pursue appellate review. Consequently, Judge Weisberg's ruling in favor of CUA, plus Fr. Curran's refusal to teach anything but Catholic theology, mean that the « dissenter » will pursue his academic career elsewhere. But, while conclusive, the ruling is hardly the « landmark decision » one Catholic editor termed it.

How could a theological and ecclesiological controversy of such magnitude be emptied of its sacred content? How could Judge …

Organizational Standing In Environmental Litigation, Jeanne A. Compitello

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

The First Amendment And The International "Free Flow" Of Information, Fred H. Cate

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Original Intent, History And Levy’S Establishment Clause. Book Review Of The Establishment Clause: Religion And The First Amendment, By Leonard W. Levy, Ruti Teitel

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

First Freedom: Religion And The Bill Of Rights, Carl H. Esbeck

Faculty Publications

This volume is a collection of seven papers delivered at a symposium assembled in April 1989 upon the occasion, almost two hundred years hence, of the passage of the Bill of Rights by the First Congress. The unifying theme is stated to be the historical context of both Religion Clauses in the First Amendment, but the authors are driven primarily by Establishment Clause concerns. The Thrust of the essays deal with the originalism advanced during the years of Reagan Administration, and nonpreferentialism comes in for particular criticism, both pejoratively characterized as that "growing clamor".

Tribe's "Jurisprudence Of The Religion Clauses", Gerard V. Bradley

Journal Articles

Laurence Tribe has usefully been described as a constitutional apologist for liberal political causes. His conspicuous opposition to the nomination of Judge Robert Bork to the Supreme Court and his imaginative defenses of Roe v. Wade have fueled that image. Tribe's "jurisprudence of the religion clauses" both confounds and complicates the picture. He sees no constitutional difficulty with public education vouchers, and defends the Catholic Church against "pro-choicers" who would strip its tax-exempt status because of the Bishops' "pro-life" activities. Tribe thinks that a public school moment-of-silence can be consistent with the Constitution and carves out a considerable zone of …

Free Speech And Compulsory Union Fees: An Analysis Of Lehnert V. Ferris Faculty Association, Barbara J. Fick

Journal Articles

This article previews the Supreme Court case Lehnert v. Ferris Faculty Ass'n, 500 U.S. 507 (1991). The author expected the case to address the line between those types of activities that effectuate a union's duties as collective bargaining representative, and thus can be charged to non-members, and those activities that are not related to collective bargaining and therefore are not chargeable to objecting non-members.

Pure Symbols And The First Amendment, Calvin R. Massey

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

By What Authority?: Reflections On The Constitutionality And Wisdom Of The Flag Protection Act Of 1989, David L. Faigman

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

An Antitrust Paradox For The 1990s: Revisiting The Role Of The First Amendment In Cable Television, Glenn B. Manishin

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Congress, Free Speech, And Cable Legislation: An Introduction, Monroe E. Price

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Is This The End Of American Indian Site Specific Free Exercise Claims?: Lyng V. Northwest Indian Cemetery Protection Association, Joseph Tomkiewicz

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Amending The Oversight: Legislative Drafting And The Cable Act, Michael I. Meyerson

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Cable Television: Proposals For Reregulation And The First Amendment, Stuart Robinowitz

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Art, Obscenity And The First Amendment, Judith Bresler

Articles & Chapters

Symposium on Law and the Visual Arts: Art, the First Amendment and the NEA Controversy

Rethinking First Amendment Assumptions About Racist And Sexist Speech, Rodney A. Smolla

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Book Review Of Religion And The State: Essays In Honor Of Leo Pfeffer, By James E. Wood, Jr., Ruti G. Teitel

Other Publications

No abstract provided.

Securities Regulation And The First Amendment, Aleta Estreicher

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

The First Amendment In An Age Of Paratroopers, David Skover, Ronald Collins

Faculty Articles

As the lead piece in a Colloquy entitled The First Amendment and the Paratroopers' Paradox, this article argues that today's free speech theory is largely grounded in 18th Century fears of government's tyrannical censorship. This theory is ill-equipped to deal with a distinct tyranny in 21st Century America, a tyranny playing upon the public's insatiable appetite for amusement. Those who venture to develop free speech principles to suit a new cultural environment are the First Amendment paratroopers of our time, the ones who realize that we cannot retain our old constitutional prerogatives in a transformed world. The Paratroopers' Paradox: To …

Learned Hand And The Self-Government Theory Of The First Amendment: Masses Publishing Co. V. Patten, Vincent A. Blasi

Faculty Scholarship

Sitting as a federal district judge in the case of Masses Publishing Co. v. Patten, Learned Hand was called upon to interpret the Espionage Act of 1917 just six weeks after its passage. The Act was potentially the most speech-restrictive piece of federal legislation since the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798. Judge Hand recognized this and ruled that the terms of the Act must be construed in light of the first amendment. He defined the limits of legally protected war criticism, and presumably of political advocacy generally, according to a test that makes the crucial consideration the content of …

The Regulation Of Speech Incident To The Sale Or Promotion Of Goods And Services: A Multifactor Approach, Charles G. Geyh

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

O'Er The Land Of The Free: Flag Burning As Speech, Kent Greenawalt

Faculty Scholarship

I am honored to lecture at this school, which has a number of friends, and a much larger circle of scholars whose work I admire. I am honored to lecture in the memory of Melville Nimmer, one of the country's leading thinkers on freedom of speech as well as its foremost expert on copyright. I met Professor Nimmer only once, at a lunch with Vince Blasi. My recollection of the lunch is distinct. Gently and in the most friendly way, but with irrefutable logic, they showed me that a position I had held for more than a decade about immigration …