First Amendment Law in a Nutshell by
This product provides a short and readable source for individuals interested in constitutional law, First Amendment law, and communications law. It is divided into four parts: the history, methodology, and philosophical foundations of the First Amendment; topics such as First Amendment issues that arise in cable television and in regulating children's access to the Internet; issues in First Amendment law such as the public forum doctrine, the compelled speech doctrine, and the free expression rights of government employees; and the text, history, and theory of the religion clauses, chronicling the ongoing battle in the Supreme Court between accommodationists and separationists. The Fifth Edition brings the book up to date with modern First Amendment jurisprudence, including a focus on racist and offensive speech, electoral spending, and other topics covered by recent Supreme Court cases and discussions.
This link opens in a new window
Local Government, Land Use, and the First Amendment by
This book is an re-mastered, retooled version of the ABA publication "Protecting Free Speech and Expression: The First Amendment and Land Use Law" which was published by the ABA. The book contains some theoretical discussion of First Amendment law as it pertains to land use issues (e.g. sign and billboard regulation, regulation of artwork and aesthetics, regulation of religious land uses, regulation of adult businesses, etc.), but also provides information which will be relevant to practitioners, and will include some regulatory strategies and case studies. In order to strategically illustrate their points, the authors included cases as source material.
This link opens in a new window
The First Amendment and LGBT Equality by
Conservative opponents of LGBT equality in the United States often couch their opposition in claims of free speech, free association, and religious liberty. It is no surprise, then, that many LGBT supporters equate First Amendment arguments with resistance to their cause. The First Amendment and LGBT Equality tells another story, about the First Amendment's crucial yet largely forgotten role in the first few decades of the gay rights movement. Between the 1950s and 1980s, when many courts were still openly hostile to sexual minorities, they nonetheless recognized the freedom of gay and lesbian people to express themselves and associate with one another. Successful First Amendment cases protected LGBT publications and organizations, protests and parades, and individuals' right to come out. The amendment was wielded by the other side only after it had laid the groundwork for major LGBT equality victories. Carlos A. Ball illuminates the full trajectory of this legal and cultural history. He argues that, in accommodating those who dissent from LGBT equality on grounds of conscience, it is neither necessary nor appropriate to depart from the established ways in which American antidiscrimination law has, for decades, accommodated equality dissenters. But he also argues that as progressives fight the First Amendment claims of religious conservatives and other LGBT opponents today, they should take care not to erode the very safeguards of liberty that allowed LGBT rights to exist in the first place.
This link opens in a new window
Understanding the First Amendment by
The overarching objective of Understanding the First Amendment is to facilitate student learning efficiency and academic success. Toward this end, it focuses upon core subject matter that is likely to be tested in a law school examination or on the bar examination. The book also provides tools that enable students to organize the course and their understanding in a way that enhances retention. The beginning of each chapter highlights key points of coverage. The end of each chapter indicates essential points to remember. The book strikes a balance between comprehensiveness and selectivity, thus providing students with assurance that they know enough, know it well, but are not overwhelmed by details that are unduly esoteric or irrelevant to their performance needs.
This link opens in a new window
Free Speech Beyond Words by
A look at First Amendment coverage of music, non-representational art, and nonsense The Supreme Court has unanimously held that Jackson Pollock's paintings, Arnold Sch#65533;enberg's music, and Lewis Carroll's poem "Jabberwocky" are "unquestionably shielded" by the First Amendment. Nonrepresentational art, instrumental music, and nonsense: all receive constitutional coverage under an amendment protecting "the freedom of speech," even though none involves what we typically think of as speech--the use of words to convey meaning. As a legal matter, the Court's conclusion is clearly correct, but its premises are murky, and they raise difficult questions about the possibilities and limitations of law and expression. Nonrepresentational art, instrumental music, and nonsense do not employ language in any traditional sense, and sometimes do not even involve the transmission of articulable ideas. How, then, can they be treated as "speech" for constitutional purposes? What does the difficulty of that question suggest for First Amendment law and theory? And can law resolve such inquiries without relying on aesthetics, ethics, and philosophy? Comprehensive and compelling, this book represents a sustained effort to account, constitutionally, for these modes of "speech." While it is firmly centered in debates about First Amendment issues, it addresses them in a novel way, using subject matter that is uniquely well suited to the task, and whose constitutional salience has been under-explored. Drawing on existing legal doctrine, aesthetics, and analytical philosophy, three celebrated law scholars show us how and why speech beyond words should be fundamental to our understanding of the First Amendment.
This link opens in a new window
Freedom of Speech by This link opens in a new window
The First Amendment Bubble by
In determining the news that's fit to print, U.S. courts have traditionally declined to second-guess professional journalists. But in an age when news, entertainment, and new media outlets are constantly pushing the envelope of acceptable content, the consensus over press freedoms is eroding. The First Amendment Bubble examines how unbridled media are endangering the constitutional privileges journalists gained in the past century. For decades, judges have generally affirmed that individual privacy takes a back seat to the public's right to know. But the growth of the Internet and the resulting market pressures on traditional journalism have made it ever harder to distinguish public from private, news from titillation, journalists from provocateurs. Is a television program that outs criminals or a website that posts salacious videos entitled to First Amendment protections based on newsworthiness? U.S. courts are increasingly inclined to answer no, demonstrating new resolve in protecting individuals from invasive media scrutiny and enforcing their own sense of the proper boundaries of news. This judicial backlash now extends beyond ethically dubious purveyors of infotainment, to mainstream journalists, who are seeing their ability to investigate crime and corruption curtailed. Yet many-heedless of judicial demands for accountability-continue to push for ever broader constitutional privileges. In so doing, Amy Gajda warns, they may be creating a First Amendment bubble that will rupture in the courts, with disastrous consequences for conventional news.
This link opens in a new window
Privacy in the New Media Age by
"An essential book for anyone concerned with the increasingly ubiquitous clashes between a technologically borderless world, free press, safety and personal privacy."--Charlotte Laws, board member, Cyber Civil Rights Initiative "Elucidates a path that both enhances dignity and protects essential press liberties. This is a much needed work in our new media age, where forced disclosure and technology have converted transparency from a disinfectant into a bludgeon."--Chris Hoofnagle, Berkeley Center for Law & Technology "An original look at old and new media versions of the clash between privacy and freedom of the press."--Anita Allen, author of Unpopular Privacy: What Must We Hide? "The almost-anything-goes Internet, which enables anyone to be a publisher, alters both the definition of a journalist and the meaning of privacy. This book arms both traditional journalists and citizen-journalists with a clear description of the murky boundary between the rights to publish and to privacy in our brave new media era."--Norman Lewis, University of Florida "The cases presented here range from politics to popular culture and violent crime and demonstrate the global complexity of related privacy issues, which are made even messier by the advent of new technologies."--Melody A. Bowdon, coeditor of Higher Education, Emerging Technologies, and Community Partnerships "Explores possible modernization of the intrusion tort, calls for greater weight to be placed on human dignity interests, suggests redefining personal space to fit our times, and offers multiple approaches for recalibrating the delicate balance between press freedom and privacy rights."--Clay Calvert, coauthor of Mass Media Law Balancing personal dignity and first amendment concerns has become increasingly challenging. In today's new media age, technology moves faster than the law, enabling modern media outlets to commit intrusions into private endeavors for the sake of a story. With few legal limits governing the dissemination of information online, individuals--whether news affiliates or anonymous writers--can become publishers, freely divulging the details of citizens' private lives. While the history of free speech and press has noble origins rooted in democratic theory, unlimited and unrestricted internet speech has left thousands of victims in its wake. Can society protect those who are harassed, stalked, and misrepresented online while maintaining our constitutional freedoms? Jon Mills, one of the nation's top privacy experts and advocates, maps out this complex problem. Tracing the history of the press in tandem with its regulation, Mills argues that technology has always evolved more quickly than the laws restricting its use. Old laws chase new media, raising original questions of how privacy and modern news outlets can coexist. Mills tackles those issues by looking at solutions already implemented by the European Union and comparing them to the obsolete privacy laws still extant in the United States. In his search for solutions, Mills closely examines an array of noteworthy cases, including suits made by Jennifer Anniston, Kate Middleton, Naomi Campbell, Argentinian soccer star Diego Maradona, and the family of deceased SeaWorld trainer Dawn Brancheau. In a global marketplace of instantly shared ideas, freedom of expression offers consumers a wealth of knowledge, but a lack of gatekeeping threatens intellectual space and individuals' personal lives. Mills traces that sharp edge between the right of privacy and the right of the public to know--between the limitless source of private information and society's craving for it all.
This link opens in a new window
Understanding the First Amendment by This link opens in a new window
The First Amendment by This link opens in a new window
The First Amendment by This link opens in a new window
Constitutional Law--Individual Rights by This link opens in a new window
First Amendment Stories by This link opens in a new window
The Tragedy of Religious Freedom by This link opens in a new window
No Establishment of Religion by This link opens in a new window
Endowed by Our Creator by This link opens in a new window
Understanding the First Amendment by This link opens in a new windowFirst Amendment Stories by This link opens in a new window
Religion and the American Constitutional Experiment by This link opens in a new window
Law and Religion by This link opens in a new window
Understanding the First Amendment by This link opens in a new window
Freedom of Religion, the First Amendment and the Supreme Court by This link opens in a new window
Religious Liberty in America by This link opens in a new window
The Contested Place of Religion in Family Law by
Like many beliefs, religious views matter across an individual's life and the life cycle of a family - from birth to marriage, through child-rearing, and, eventually, death. This volume examines clashes over religious liberty within the personal realm of the family. Against swirling religious beliefs, secular values, and legal regulation, this volume offers a forward-looking examination of tensions between religious freedom and the state's protective function. Contributors unpack some of the Court's recent decisions and explain how they set the stage for ongoing disputes. They evaluate religious claims around birth control, circumcision, modesty, religious education, marriage, polygamy, shared parenting, corporal punishment, faith healing, divorce, and the end of life. Authors span legislators, attorneys, academics, journalists, ministers, physicians, child advocates, and representatives of minority faiths. The Contested Place of Religion in Family Law begins an overdue conversation on questions dividing the nation.
The Feminine Law by
Feminine Law: Freud, Free Speech, and the Voice of Desire explores the conjunction between psychoanalysis and democracy, in particular their shared commitments to free speech. In the process, it demonstrates how lawful constraints enable an embodied space or "gap" for the potentially disruptive but also liberating and novel flow of desire and its symbols. This space, intuited by the First Amendment as it is by Freud's free association, enables personal and collective sovereignty. By naming a "feminine law," we mark the primacy a space between the conceivable and the inconceivable, between knowledge and mystery. What do political free speech and psychoanalytic free association have in common, besides the word "free"? And what do Sigmund Freud and Justice Louis Brandeis share besides a world between two great wars? How is the female body a neglected key to understanding the conditions and contradictions of free discourse? Drs. Jill Gentile and Michael Macrone take up these questions, and more, in their wide-ranging, often passionate exploration of the hidden legacy of Freud and the Founding Fathers. These pioneers, through their imprecise instructions to fight repression, set in motion incessant processes by which we claim power and agency. These processes come into sharp focus in the analytic clinic. The authors show that psychoanalysis is not just a method of treatment, but also a practice of "transitional democracy," in which doctor and patient together discover the very basis of equality, as they learn how to navigate its essential flux, both in relationships and in public action. Feminine Law illustrates these ideas through detailed portraits of political and clinical struggle--in Constitutional battles and dynamic case studies. It tells stories of victory and setback, advance and retreat. And it tells the larger story of a dialectical process that is necessary to freedom itself. This story is peopled by characters such as Freud and the post-Freudians Lacan, Bion, and Winnicott; feminist theorists such as Benjamin, Gilligan, and Kristeva; the Constitution's framers and jurists such as Holmes and Brandeis; and modern legal scholars and contemporary critical theorists. Its thesis is illuminated by ideas from a broad range of disciplines and literatures, ranging from Athenian politics and Euripidean tragedy to the modern semiotics of C. S. Peirce and Walker Percy. The tale ultimately reaches a simple but rich conclusion: that both the talking cure and political free speech reveal the power of a Feminine Law: a law of spaces and dimensions that preconditions our (necessarily imperfect) pursuit of desire, subjective freedom, and collective agency. Feminine law opens a democratic space for the potentially disruptive but also liberating and novel flow of desire and its symbols.
The Four Freedoms by
The specter of global war loomed large in President Franklin Roosevelt's mind as he prepared to present his 1941 State of the Union address. He believed the United States had a role to play in the battle against Nazi and fascist aggression already underway in Europe, yet his rallying cry tothe nation was about more than just national security or why Americans should care about a fight still far overseas. He instead identified how Americans defined themselves as a people, with words that resonated and defined the parameters of American politics and foreign policy for generations.Roosevelt framed America's role in the conflict, and ultimately its role in forging the post-war world to come, as a fight for freedom. Four freedoms, to be exact: freedom of speech, freedom from want, freedom of religion, and freedom from fear.In this new look at one of the most influential presidential addresses ever delivered, historian Jeffrey A. Engel joins together with six other leading scholars to explore how each of Roosevelt's freedoms evolved over time, for Americans and for the wider world. They examine the ways in which theword "freedom" has been used by Americans and others, across decades and the political spectrum. However, they are careful to note that the acceptance of the freedoms has been far from universal - even within the United States. Freedom from want, especially, has provoked clashes between those infavor of an expanded welfare state and proponents of limited government from the 1940s to the present day. In this sweeping look at the way American conceptions of freedom have evolved over time, The Four Freedoms brings to light a new portrait of who Americans were in 1941 and who they have become today in their own eyes - and in the eyes of the entire world.
God Schools and Government Funding by
In recent years, a conservative majority of the U.S. Supreme Court, over vigorous dissents, has developed circumventions to the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment that allow state legislatures unabashedly to use public tax dollars increasingly to aid private elementary and secondary education. This expansive and innovative legislation provides considerable governmental funds to support parochial schools and other religiously-affiliated education providers. That political response to the perceived declining quality of traditional public schools and the vigorous school choice movement for alternative educational opportunities provokes passionate constitutional controversy. Yet, the Court's recent decision in Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v. Winn inappropriately denies taxpayers recourse to challenge these proliferating tax funding schemes in federal courts. Professors Winer and Crimm clearly elucidate the complex and controversial policy, legal, and constitutional issues involved in using tax expenditures - mechanisms such as exclusions, deductions, and credits that economically function as government subsidies - to finance private, religious schooling. The authors argue that legislatures must take great care in structuring such programs and set forth various proposals to ameliorate the highly troubling dissention and divisiveness generated by state aid for religious education.
The Distinctiveness of Religion in American Law by
In recent decades, religion's traditional distinctiveness under the First Amendment has been challenged by courts and scholars. As America grows more secular and as religious and nonreligious convictions are increasingly seen as interchangeable, many have questioned whether special treatment is still fair. In its recent decisions, the Supreme Court has made clear that religion will continue to be treated differently, but we lack a persuasive account of religion's uniqueness that can justify this difference. This book aims to develop such an account. Drawing on founding era thought illumined by theology, philosophy of religion, and comparative religion, it describes what is at stake in our tradition of religious freedom in a way that can be appreciated by the religious and nonreligious alike. From this account, it develops a new framework for religion clause decision making and explains the implications of this framework for current controversies regarding protections for religious conscience.
From Androboros to the First Amendment by
The story of America’s earliest extant play begins with a petty crime--a crime that would have passed largely unnoticed had it not been for one fact: it prompted a beleaguered royal governor of one of Britain’s colonies to lash out at his enemies by writing a biting satire. Androboros, A Bographical [sic] Farce in Three Acts (1715), is universally acknowledged as the first play both written and printed in America. Its significance stems not simply from its publication but from its eventual impact. The play inadvertently laid the foundation for one of the defining rights of the nation that would eventually emerge some seventy-five years later--the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, guaranteeing a free press and freedom of expression. Androboros was not just the first of its kind, it was also ahead of its time in many ways, preceding the harsh political satires and farces of the later eighteenth century by some fifty years. Such plays served a small but essential role in promoting political thought among the colonists. Written by anonymous authors and passed from hand to hand, these short, crude, and often bawdy plays and dialogues were rarely acted due to their inflammatory lampoonery. Nevertheless, they provided an opportunity for disgruntled colonists to vent their grievances and promote their ideas to fellow citizens. The farces of the late eighteenth century drove home the meaning and message of the American Revolution. Equally significant is that Androboros may have influenced a few of the key political discourses published in the 1730s, and these works in turn may well have shaped the future of the American political landscape for the next several decades and even into the modern era. But as a closet drama intended only to be read by close friends and political supporters, this play has languished as a minor footnote in American intellectual history. Scholarly research published to date has been, for the most part, inadequate and occasionally inaccurate. This study remedies that oversight, providing a full analysis as well as an annotated typescript and facsimiles of the original printing.
Religion and the State in American Law by
Religion and the State in American Law provides a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of religion and government in the United States, from historical origins to modern laws and rulings. In addition to extensive coverage of the religion clauses of the First Amendment, it addresses many statutory, regulatory, and common-law developments at both the federal and state levels. Topics include the history of church-state relations and religious liberty, religion in the classroom, and expressions of religion in government. This book also covers the role of religion in specific areas of law such as contracts, taxation, employment, land use regulation, torts, criminal law, and domestic relations as well as in specialized contexts such as prisons and the military. Accessible to the general as well as the professional reader, this book will be of use to scholars, judges, practising lawyers, and the media.
 European Constitutional Law |
 Global Constitutionalism |
 International Journal of Constitutional Law |
 The Supreme Court Review |
 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. |