First Amendment Commons^™

Freedom Of Speech--Group Libel--Beauharnais V. People Of State Of Illinois, Thomas P. Lewis

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Torts-Libel And Slander-Absolute Privilege To Press Releases Of Executive Officials, Constantine D. Kasson

Michigan Law Review

Defendant, Attorney General for the state of Pennsylvania, wrote a letter to a District Attorney demanding the dismissal of the plaintiff, an Assistant District Attorney, because of the plaintiff's alleged communistic activities and associations, information of which had been brought to the attention of the defendant by the State Police. Before delivery of the letter to the District Attorney, the defendant released it to the newspapers. Plaintiff brought a libel action alleging the statements to be false and maliciously made. The defendant demurred and the court sustained. On appeal, held, affirmed. Although the defendant himself has no power to …

Constitutional Law-Validity Of Ordinance Requiring License For Meeting In Public Park. [New Hampshire]

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Clear And Present Danger Test--A Reply To Mr. Meiklejohn, Wallace Mendelson

Vanderbilt Law Review

As educator and philosopher Alexander Meiklejohn has won a lion's share of the honors of his profession. Few have seen so clearly, or done more to enrich, the meaning of America. When in a provoking little volume' that appeared in 1948, Mr. Meiklejohn examined the meaning of democracy and free speech and found that Mr. Justice Holmes' clear and present danger test was incompatible with both, he obviously struck fire. His theme was that when men govern themselves it is they and not government who must judge as to the wisdom, fairness and danger of ideas. This means that unwise, …

Constitutional Law-Church And State-The New York Released Time Program, Frank Bowen, Jr. S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

The recent decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Zorach v. Clauson affirms the constitutionality of the New York City program for releasing pupils from public schools so that they may attend religious education classes held outside of school property. The pupils are released upon the written request of their parents, and those not released from school remain in their classrooms. Regulations under which the program is conducted prohibit comment by school officials on attendance. Plaintiffs, who were taxpayers and parents of children attending the public schools, unsuccessfully contended that the program was a violation of the First …

Constitutional Law-Judcial Powers-State Taxpayer Denied Standing As Party In Interest In Bible Reading Case, Frank M. Bowen, Jr. S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiffs sought a judgment to declare unconstitutional a New Jersey statute which required the reading of five verses of the Old Testament at the opening of each day in the public schools. Plaintiffs contended that the practice under the statute was an "establishment of religion" prohibited by the First Amendment and applicable to the several states through the "due process" clause of the Fourteenth Amendment Both plaintiffs were taxpayers of New Jersey, and one was also the parent of a child who had attended a public school, but had left school before the appeal was taken. The Supreme Court of …

Constitutional Law-Commerce Clause-Freedom Of Press-Amenability Of Newspaper To Sherman Anti-Trust Act, William K. Davenport

Michigan Law Review

Until a competing radio station appeared on the scene in 1948, defendant newspaper was the only medium for mass advertising available in the Lorain, Ohio area. In an effort to regain its monopoly position and eliminate the radio station as a competitor, defendant inaugurated a policy of refusing to accept custom from advertisers who employed the services of its rival. Both the newspaper and the radio station received news dispatches, advertising copy, payments, and other materials from sources outside Ohio, but neither had any appreciable audience beyond the borders of the state. In a civil action brought by the United …

Book Reviews, Edmund M. Morgan, Albert Williams (Reviewer), J. Warren Madden (Reviewer), Melvin M. Belli (Reviewer), George H. Tyne (Reviewer), William J. Bowe (Reviewer)

Vanderbilt Law Review

Book Reviews

The Hearsay Rule

By R. W. Baker

London: Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons,Ltd., 1950. Pp. xxi, 180

reviewer: Edmund M. Morgan

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Self-Incrimination: What Can an Accused Person be Compelled to Do?

By Fred E. Inbau

Springfield, Illinois: Charles C. Thomas, 1950.Pp. x, 91. $2.50

reviewer: Albert Williams

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Administrative Law

By Kenneth C. Davis

St. Paul: West Pub. Co.,1951. Pp. xvi, 1024. $8.00

Administrative Law: A Test

By Reginald Parker

Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1952. Pp. x, 344. $5.50

Administrative Agencies and the Courts

By Frank E. Cooper

Ann Arbor; University of Michigan Law School, 1951. Pp. …

Dennis V. United States -- Precedent, Principle Or Perversion?, Chester J. Antieau

Vanderbilt Law Review

Every socio-political group must determine when its survival necessitates proscription of subversive activity. Although some scholars feel no limitation upon speech is therefor justified, most students of the problem are agreed that when national security is at stake somewhere there must be imposed some limitations upon freedom of expression. The Blackstonian notion that, although there could be no prior restraints, anything could be punished after utterance is unworthy. Prior restraints of some kind, such as a prohibition upon publishing in time of war the sailing dates of troopships, are permissible under any rational analysis while, on the other hand, if …

Constitutional Law - Civil Rights - First Amendment Freedoms-Reformulation Of The Clear And Present Danger Doctrine, Bernard A. Petrie

Michigan Law Review

In July 1948 the apostles of Communism in America were indicted under the conspiracy provisions of the Smith Act of 1940. The tension marking both the trial and the present era has obscured the constitutional problems and policy considerations involved. It is the purpose of this comment to trace the history of this cause celebre, Dennis et al. v. United States, and to examine its effect upon our constitutional notions of the permissible bounds of utterance, primarily by an analysis of the appellate opinions.

Freedom Of Speech And Motion Pictures--The "Miracle" Decision, Thomas P. Lewis

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Avoidance Of Constitutional Issues In The United States Supreme Court: Liberties Of The First Amendment, Burton C. Bernard

Michigan Law Review

The frequently criticized reluctance of the Supreme Court to consider complaints of unconstitutional governmental action is manifested in the utilization by the Court of various rules of avoidance of constitutional issues. Uncompromising defense of this self-restraint would not be easy to reconcile with the Court's pronounced sensitivity, in modem times, to the liberties of the First Amendment. This article will examine the considerations underlying the traditional restraint, and will suggest that the Court should modify several of its rules of avoidance, at least when liberties of the First Amendment are threatened.

The First Amendment And Evils That Congress Has A Right To Prevent, Alexander Meiklejohn

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Law - Municipal Control Of Public Streets And Parks As Affecting Freedom Of Speech And Assembly, Lenamyra Saulson

Michigan Law Review

It is the purpose of this comment to explore only one small part of the problem: the flight for freedom of speech and assembly as opposed by the municipality's police power to control its streets and parks. Three decisions handed down by the Supreme Court on January 15, 1951, will form the basis for an appraisal of the Supreme Court's present position in this area. However, the full import of these cases cannot be realized without first considering the history of the struggle and how the Court has dealt with it.

Constitutional Law-Due Process Of Law-Thornhill Reexamined, Rex Eames S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

In the spring of 1940, the Isle of Thornhill emerged from the watery depths and assumed a position in the Sea of American Constitutional Law. The discoverors of this Isle indicated their success was largely due to certain revelations made known three years· before by another highly distinguished explorer. The pronouncement in 1940 of the Isle's existence excited great furor and debate among the professional geographers as to its substance and future utility. In the early days of its discovery, Thornhill's area and coastline were not precisely or clearly charted, and only through several subsequent voyages have these important …

Constitutional Law-Freedom Of Speech, Alan C. Boyd S. Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Defendant addressed a crowd of people, white and Negro, on a public sidewalk for the purpose of urging them to attend a certain meeting. During the course of his speech he "'called Mayor Costello [of Syracuse] a champaign [sic] sipping bum and President Truman a bum. He referred to the American Legion as Nazi Gestapo agents-he also said the fifteenth Ward was run by corrupt politicians and that horse rooms were operating.'" He also appealed to the Negroes to rise up and fight for equal rights. The police were called but at first merely observed the gathering. Angry …

Constitutional Law-Freedom Of Speech, Alan C. Boyd S. Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Defendant addressed a crowd of people, white and Negro, on a public sidewalk for the purpose of urging them to attend a certain meeting. During the course of his speech he "'called Mayor Costello [of Syracuse] a champaign [sic] sipping bum and President Truman a bum. He referred to the American Legion as Nazi Gestapo agents-he also said the fifteenth Ward was run by corrupt politicians and that horse rooms were operating.'" He also appealed to the Negroes to rise up and fight for equal rights. The police were called but at first merely observed the gathering. Angry …

The Problems Of Yesteryear -- Commerce And Due Process, Robert L. Stern

Vanderbilt Law Review

Less than fifteen years ago, there were constitutional problems important enough to stir the country, to threaten the sanctity of the Supreme Court. These were the culmination of at least three decades of judicial controversy, in which the pressure of events brought criticism of the Court's decisions, both in noteworthy dissenting opinions and outside, to a new height. Fifteen years later, there still are difficult and important constitutional problems, and there still is criticism of the Supreme Court's decisions--though on a relatively minor scale. But the issues which rocked more than the legal world in the 1930's and in the …

The Supreme Court And Civil Liberties, Paul A. Freund

Vanderbilt Law Review

The evolution of the enforcement of First Amendment guarantees under the aegis of the Fourteenth is an interesting study in the throwing up of bridges before and the burning of them behind, characteristic of juridical-advance. The protection of property and of liberty of contract had long since been assured under decisions applying'the Fourteenth Amendment. The interests of a teacher and of a private school, challenging interference with their pursuits, were well calculated to furnish the span between proprietary and forensic rights. When the span was crossed the newly taken ground provided a new base for advance. Freedom of speech, recognized …

State Constitutions, State Courts And First Amendment Freedoms, Monrad G. Paulsen

Vanderbilt Law Review

We have recently been reminded that one of the current and recurrent quandaries of the Supreme Court of the United States arises from the American constitutional system's counterpart of the philosophical problem of the One and the Many. When an individual's freedom is involved, the question is whether and to what degree state legislators, public officials and judicial officers shall be called upon to enforce standards of respect for personal liberties defined by the Federal Constitution and the United States Supreme Court; or, put another way, how far the first eight amendments of the Federal Constitution are incorporated into the …

State Constitutions, State Courts And First Amendment Freedoms, Monrad G. Paulsen

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

The Influence Of Mr. Justice Murphy On Labor Law, Archibald Cox

Michigan Law Review

When Mr. Justice Murphy took his place on the Supreme Court in 1940, a period of major development in labor law was beginning. In 1935 Congress had laid one of the two principal foundation stones by enacting the Wagner Act. But the NLRA did not become effective in any practical sense until after its constitutionality was upheld in 1937, and it was in the next decade that the farthest reaching questions of interpretation and application were to be decided. The second stone was laid in 1938 when passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act committed the nation to the policy …

The Rule Of Clear And Present Danger: Scope Of Its Applicability, Chester James Antieau

Michigan Law Review

The rule of clear and present danger originated in 1919 in an attempt by Mr. Justice Holmes to formulate a principle for the limitation of liberty with a conscious, intelligent weighing of the opposed societal interests. In the Schenck case, the societal and individual interest in freedom of expression clashed with the societal interest in defense of the state. In conflicts of this kind the criterion has had its most frequent application. The societal interest in preservation of the state was adequately protected by application of the test in prosecutions arising under the Espionage Act of 1917, although Mr. Justice …

Constitutional Law--Freedom Of Speech--Permissible Extent Of Limitation, Clinton R. Ashford S. Ed.

Michigan Law Review

At the present time this nation is greatly concerned over the state of its political health. Advocates of foreign ideologies are asserting their creeds with ever-increasing vigor. The doctrines they propound are generally conceded to be inconsistent with American ideals, and their activity has induced a feeling of alarm, sometimes attended by hostile reaction. There have been instances where this reaction has taken the form of demands that the proponents of these ideas be silenced. In these circumstances, it becomes important to examine the power of state and federal governments to restrict their activities, particularly with respect to the freedom …

Constitutional Law - Limitation Of Constitutional Guarantee Of Freedom Of Religion, Stanley H. Mervis

William and Mary Review of Virginia Law

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Law-Due Process-Freedom Of Speech-Limitations On Use Of Sound Amplification Devices, Bernard Goldstone S. Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Appellant used sound equipment mounted on his truck to comment on a labor dispute. He was convicted in a police court of violating a city ordinance which prohibited the use on any public street of sound amplifying devices emitting loud and raucous noises. The intermediate court of appeal of New Jersey, in affirming the conviction, construed the ordinance to be an absolute prohibition. The conviction was sustained on appeal to the highest court of New Jersey by an evenly divided court of twelve justices. On appeal to the United States Supreme Court, held, affirmed. Justice Reed, joined by Chief …

Constitutional Law-Validity Of Ordinance Prohibiting Use Of Loud Speakers In Public Places

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Meiklejohn: Free Speech And Its Relation To Self-Government, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A Review of FREE SPEECH AND ITS RELATION TO SELF-GOVERNMENTBy Alexander Meiklejohn.

The Establishment Of Religion Under The Constitution, William David Stout

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Freedom Of Speech And Regulation Of Sound Amplification Devices - Kovacs V. Cooper

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.