First Amendment Commons^™

Constitutional Law - Freedom Of The Press - Newsmen's Privilege - Requiring Newsmen To Testify Before State Or Federal Grand Juries Held Not Violative Of First Amendment, Douglas Paul Coopersmith

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Equal Protection- School Financing System Based On Local Property Taxes Held Unconstitutional

University of Richmond Law Review

The fourteenth amendment of the United States Constitution allows unequal protection of the laws, provided such unequal treatment and discrimination bear some rational relationship to a conceivably legitimate state objective. This "rational relationship" test allows the states wide latitude and discretion in enacting legislation. However, where any state statute involves so-called "suspect classifications" or "fundamental interests," the statute will be subjected to a strict scrutiny test, under which the state must establish that there is not only a compelling state interest which justifies the law but also that the distinctions drawn in the statute are necessary to further such interests.

Excessive Entaglements: A New Dimension To The Parochial Aid Controversy Under The First Amendment, Terence T. O'Meara

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Billboard Regulations, And Aesthetics, Richard Sutton

Cleveland State Law Review

The regulation of outdoor advertising has prompted a surprisingly prodigious amount of controversy and litigation. It has been challenged as a denial of free speech, due process, and equal protection; it has been upheld on nuisance4 and real property grounds, and sustained on the basis of public health, safety, morality, comfort and convenience, aesthetics, and the right to be let alone."

Drug Songs And The Federal Communications Commission, Sammuel Bufford

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

A "public notice" concerning the broadcasting of drug-related popular songs by radio stations issued from the Federal Communications Commission on March 5, 1971. While this notice could be generally taken to prohibit the playing of such songs, its actual message, upon further analysis, is more complex and less direct. This article will examine the notice to ascertain its likely meaning, determine its legal status, and examine three constitutional issues it raises: whether the songs are protected as speech under the first amendment; whether the statement of the prohibition (if that be the import of the notice) is sufficiently precise to …

Freedom Of Religion- "There Is No Constitutional Right To Choose To Die

University of Richmond Law Review

The practice of one's religious beliefs has generally been freely allowed in the United States so long as it does not infringe upon the constitutionally protected rights of others. However, in the recent case of John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital v. Heston, the New Jersey Supreme Court seemingly has modified this principle by justifying the restraint of an individual in the practice of his religious beliefs, not to preserve the constitutional rights of others, but to protect that individual from himself.

American Civil Liberties And Constitutional Change, Donald P. Kommers

Journal Articles

This essay is an attempt to analyze, for the non-American reader especially, some of the factors that affect the condition of civil liberties in the United States. It deals mainly with the U.S. Supreme Court and its effort to define the limits of personal freedom within the framework of the American constitutional system. This effort has been a main preoccupation of the Supreme Court during the last two decades or so as the social conflicts besetting America have taken the form, as they usually do, of constitutional conflicts that the Court must eventually decide. Most of these questions have represented …

Prayer Amendment: A Justification, Charles E. Rice

Journal Articles

It is customary for each house of Congress to open its daily sessions with prayer delivered by its Chaplain. One might conclude that if the lawmakers of the nation are entitled to ask for divine blessing upon their work, so are the rest of us, including school children. Not so. For the Supreme Court of the United States has drawn the line. Legislators may pray, so far at least, but school children may not. Thus it was that the courts intervened to prevent the holding of "a period for the free exercise of religion" in the Netcong, New Jersey, public …

Flag Profanation And The Law, Emmet V. Mittlebeeler

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Branzburg V. Hayes: A Need For Statutory Protection Of News Sources, Richard E. Anderson

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Specific Theory Of Academic Freedom And The General Issue Of Civil Liberty, William W. Van Alstyne

Faculty Publications

Academic freedom has been blurred in law and in popular usage. Its clarification should enable the Supreme Court to grant it explicit protection under the Constitution as an identifiable subset of First Amendment freedoms. Its identification with the professional endeavors of faculty members, moreover, should reduce the tendency of institutions to intrude upon the aprofessional personal liberties of the faculty even while adequately protecting the extramural professional pursuits of the faculty and assuring them of equal protection in their interests as private citizens. Adjustments of standards by the American Association of University Professors, more definitely distinguishing the special accountability of …

Obscenity -- Federal Statutes Prohibiting Importation And Mail Distribution Of Obscene Materials Do Not Violate First Amendment, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

Near the end of the 1970-71 term, the Supreme Court considered two cases, United States v. Reidell and United States v. Thirty-Seven (37) Photographs, in which constitutional challenges were raised against federal statutes regulating the distribution and importation of obscene materials. These challenges were engendered by the apparent irreconcilability of the Court's decisions in Roth v. United States and Stanley v. Georgia. In Roth, the Court held that obscenity is not within the scope of first amendment protection for speech and press. In Stanley, however, a first amendment right to possess obscene materials in one's home was recognized, and the …

The Role Of Law In Educational Decision Making - A Symposium - Introduction, Donald W. Dowd

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

The Legal Process As A Problem Solving Tool In Education, Mark R. Shedd

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Student Discipline In Public Schools Under The Constitution, William D. Valente

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Flag Salute, Patriotic Exercises, And Students’ Rights, William A. Kaplin, Edward P. Jesella Jr.

Scholarly Articles

The public school system is the major American social institution responsible for the transmission of our democratic heritage to present and future generations. In fulfilling this responsibility, the schools often confront problems involving their duty to inculcate students with a sense of patriotism. Probably the most controversial questions have concerned compulsory flag saluting and participation in patriotic exercises. Can a school demand that students salute the flag?

Questions such as this arise under circumstances where students, allegedly exercising First Amendment rights, clash with school authorities engaged in the promulgation and enforcement of school rules. This interplay of educational order and …

The Newsman's Privilege: An Empirical Study, Vince Blasi

Michigan Law Review

Today, the statutory, common-law, and constitutional aspects of the long-dormant problem are being re-examined by many legislators, judges, and academicians. The Supreme Court is scheduled to address the constitutional question some time this term. I propose to enter this fray. In this article, I will report the results of an empirical survey that I have undertaken. In subsequent articles, I will analyze the eighteen state statutes that grant newsmen a privilege, consider whether protection for the reporter-news source relationship is compelled by existing common-law principles, and address the question whether a newsman's privilege is properly to be inferred from the …

The Fairness Doctrine: Its Limits And Occasions In West Virginia Advertising, Ray E. Ratliff Jr.

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Kleindienst V. Mandel, Lewis F. Powell Jr

Supreme Court Case Files

No abstract provided.

Healy V. James, Lewis F. Powell, Jr.

Supreme Court Case Files

No abstract provided.

Perry V. Sinderman, Lewis F. Powell Jr.

Supreme Court Case Files

No abstract provided.

Cruz V. Beto, Lewis F. Powell Jr.

Supreme Court Case Files

No abstract provided.

Neutral Principles And Some First Amendment Problems, Robert H. Bork

Indiana Law Journal

The text of this article was delivered in the Spring of 1971 by Professor Bork at the Indiana University School of Law as part of the Addison C. Harriss lecture series.

Purging Unseemly Expletives From The Public Scene: A Constitutional Dilemma, Ellen K. Thomas

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The National Security Exception To The Doctrine Of Prior Restraint, Robert F. Flinn

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Law - Clear And Present Danger Test Applied To Overbroad Unlawful Assembly Statute. Owens V. Commonwealth, 211 Va. 633, 179 S.E.2d 477 (1971), Michael A. Inman

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Law--Disclosure Of Journalist's Confidential News Sources, Roger D. Graham

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Policeman's Right To Free Speech: Muller V. Conlisk, Richard L. Halpert

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Civil Liberties Repression: Fact Or Fiction?, Lewis F. Powell, Jr.

Powell Speeches

Article prepared for "Perspective" section of Richmond Times Dispatch as response to article by AP newsfeature writer Bernard Gavzer.

The Newsmen's Privilege Against Disclosure Of Confidential Sources And Information, Harold L. Nelson

Vanderbilt Law Review

When the barrage of subpoenas began in early 1969, statutes of some states recognized an evidentiary privilege of journalists not to reveal confidential sources. In April 1970, the possibility of an additional protective avenue opened when the United States District Court for the Northern District of California granted constitutional protection under the first amendment's freedom of the press clause. By March 1971, this decision had been upheld and extended; the highest courts of three states had ruled upon the claim to constitutional protection with widely divergent results; and at least three petitions had been filed for Supreme Court review of …