Thank you to Eugene for inviting me to guest blog on The Volokh Conspiracy this week. By way of introduction, I am a First Amendment lawyer and the president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), and my new book, Unlearning Liberty: Campus Censorship and the End of American Debate, hit the bookshelves […]
Tag Archives | Snyder v. Phelps
Amicus Brief in Snyder v. Phelps
I’m pleased to say that we’ve just filed an amicus brief in Snyder v. Phelps that I wrote on behalf of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education and Profs. Ash Bhagwat, Marin Redish, Nadine Strossen, our own David Post, and me. As readers of the blog might gather, the brief argues that the Court […]
Maine and Virginia AGs’ Statements on Not Supporting the 48 State AGs’ Brief in Snyder v. Phelps
[UPDATE: I had originally just posted about the Virginia statement, because I had seen a news report that said that the Maine AG simply had a policy of not taking sides in civil cases, presumably meaning out-of-state cases; but commenter Postscript pointed out that the Maine AG also relied on free speech concerns, so I […]
State Attorneys General Argue that Non-Media Speakers Should Get Less First Amendment Protection than Media Speakers
From the amicus brief for 48 states plus D.C. supporting Snyder in Snyder v. Phelps: No decision of [the Supreme] Court has ever exempted a non-media defendant from generally applicable state tort law on First Amendment grounds. That assertion is factually mistaken: NAACP v. Claiborne Hardware Co., 458 U.S. 886 (1982), held that non-media defendants […]
Short Essay on Snyder v. Phelps, Part V: The Intrusion Upon Seclusion Tort
For more about the essay (for an online symposium), see here; to read the full 9 pages, see here. This week, I’m posting (and combining using the Snyder v. Phelps tag) some passages: Earlier, I blogged about Hustler v. Falwell and why it applies here, as well as about the arguments that the liability in […]
Short Essay on Snyder v. Phelps, Part IV: The Libel Analogy, and the Public/Private Figure Distinction
For more about the essay (for an online symposium), see here; to read the full 9 pages, see here. This week, I’m posting (and combining using the Snyder v. Phelps tag) some passages: Earlier, I blogged about Hustler v. Falwell and why it applies here, as well as about the arguments that the liability in […]
Short Essay on Snyder v. Phelps, Part III: The Plaintiffs’ (not the Phelpsians’) Religious Freedom Argument
For more about the essay (for an online symposium), see here; to read the full 9 pages, see here. This week, I’m posting (and combining using the Snyder v. Phelps tag) more passages: Earlier, I blogged about Hustler v. Falwell and why it applies here, as well as about the argument that the liability in […]
Short Essay on Snyder v. Phelps, Part II: Proximity to a Funeral, and Time, Place, or Manner Restrictions
For more about the essay (for an online symposium), see here; to read the full 9 pages, see here. This week, I’m posting (and combining using the Snyder v. Phelps tag) more passages: Yesterday, I blogged about Hustler v. Falwell and why it applies here; later this week, I’ll also blog on the Snyders’ religious […]
My Short Essay on Snyder v. Phelps, Part I: The Wisdom of Hustler v. Falwell
For more about the essay (for an online symposium), see here; to read the full 9 pages, see here. Over the next few days, I’ll post (and combine using the Snyder v. Phelps tag) more passages, on the proximity to a funeral / time, place, or manner restriction argument, on the Snyders’ religious freedom argument, […]
Freedom of Speech and the Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress Tort
Cardozo Law Review‘s de•novo online supplement is doing a symposium on the forthcoming Snyder v. Phelps case, and I agreed to write a short (9-page) essay expressing my views. This is by design a short and therefore somewhat cursory treatment; I wouldn’t have had time to write a more detailed one, and in any event […]
Funeral Picketing / Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress Case Going to the Supreme Court
[1:56 pm: Bumped up above the more specific posts on the case.] The Supreme Court has just agreed to hear Snyder v. Phelps, the funeral picketing case. I think the lower court decision is quite right, and I worry that the Court’s decision signals the Justices’ willingness to overturn it. But I hope the Justices […]
The Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress Tort and the Freedom of Speech
[1:55 pm: Bumped up above the other posts on this case.] I’m blogging today about the Supreme Court’s decision to hear the funeral picketing case. That’s the one in which the jury entered a $10.9 million verdict (reduced by the trial judge to $5 million) against the Phelpsians for their offensive picketing 1000 feet away […]
The Phelpsians’ Speech, the Mohammed Cartoons, and the Slippery Slope
If the Phelpsians magically went to their reward tomorrow, public debate would suffer very little. But I think their speech needs to be protected, because allowing the restriction of such speech — especially using the “intentional infliction of emotional distress” tort — would lead to the restriction of much more valuable speech. Now it’s true, […]
Where’s the State Action in Tort Awards Based on Speech?
Occasionally I hear people ask this question. Criminal prosecution for speech of course involves the government prosecuting and imprisoning or fining someone; injunctions of speech involve a court order barring speech; but when one individual sues another, is that really “state action” that’s governed by the First Amendment? Why isn’t it like a private employer […]
Jury Discretion, Viewpoint Discrimination, and the Size of the Snyder v. Phelps Compensatory Damages Award
The jury awarded $2.9 million in compensatory damages to the plaintiff in Snyder v. Phelps. (It also awarded $8 million in punitive damages, which the judge reduced to $2.1 million.) Now I stress again that the speech here was extremely offensive (and, in my view, entirely unjustified); and of course the plaintiff, being a grieving […]