The case is Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, and it could be an important decision on First Amendment law and government benefits more broadly. Its implications would quite likely also extend beyond on-campus student groups and also apply to tax exemptions and various other such schemes. I’ve written about the question in my Freedom of […]
Archive | Freedom of Speech
State v. Drahota Oral Argument
Those of you who have been following this free speech / cyberspace law case — which I’m litigating pro bono — can now see starting the video of yesterday’s oral argument before the Nebraska Supreme Court. My opening argument starts at about 39:00, and lasts for about five minutes; it’s followed by the State’s argument, […]
Christian Group Sues Over Alleged Denial of Right to Leaflet at or near Street Festival in Michigan Town
That might sound like this case, in which an Arab Christian group sued over an anti-leafleting rule at the Arab International Festival on Dearborn (Michigan) city property. But the new case involves Christians who specialize in proselytizing to Jews; who allege that they were barred from leafleting and otherwise speaking in publicly accessible public streets […]
President Obama is not a jihadi
By David Kopel on November 21, 2009 5:03 pm in Freedom of Speech, Political Ignorance, Popular Culture, Terrorism, War on Terror
A local controversy here in Colorado involves an auto dealer who used the billboard on his property to ask the question “PRESIDENT or JIHAD?” The rest of the billboard attempts (not very successfully in my view) to connect this question to the issue of Obama’s birth certificate. Last night I was briefly interviewed about the […]
First Amendment Violation in Denying Private Employee Unemployment Compensation When He Was Fired for His Speech?
From a Magistrate Judge’s Report and Recommendation in Griffin v. N.H. Dep’t of Employment Security (handed down Nov. 16): For six years prior to May 19, 2009, Griffin worked for the Hospital as a radiology technician. Prior to May 19, Griffin had a conversation with a patient in which he recounted a news story regarding […]
Publishing a Misogynistic Student Newspaper Column = Sexual Harassment?
By Eugene Volokh on November 16, 2009 5:08 pm in Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Speech at Colleges and Universities
From the Connecticut Post, apparently discussing this column (my backup version is here): … The Fairfield Mirror …[, an] independent student publication[,] faces harassment charges before the school’s Student Conduct Board…. The controversy erupted over a satirical column in the Sept. 30 edition of The Mirror that poked fun at female students who agree to […]
Robert Tsai on ‘Eloquence and Reason’
By Kenneth Anderson on November 15, 2009 2:20 pm in Academia, Constitutional History, Constitutional Theory, Freedom of Speech, Supreme Court
A couple of weeks ago I mentioned a new book on constitutional interpretation and language by my colleague, Washington College of Law professor Robert Tsai – Eloquence and Reason: Creating a First Amendment Culture. Constitutional rhetoric and interpretation are not my areas, but I started reading the book and have found it to be a […]
Reading While Traveling, Hard Copy and No Internet
By Kenneth Anderson on November 14, 2009 4:29 pm in Academia, Counter-Terrorism Policy, Economy, Finance, Financial Crisis, Freedom of Speech, International Human Rights Law, International Law, Legal Professor, Legal Scholarship, Robotics, Targeted Killing, Terrorism
I’ve been traveling recently, and so have been away from posting. One of the enforced virtues of traveling – one of the few virtues of traveling for me these days – is the plane flight with no internet. And if the big guy in front of me reclines his seat, as he always does, I […]
State Declines to File Brief in State v. Drahota (the Nebraska Free Speech / Cyberspace Law Case I’ve Blogged About)
As I mentioned before, I’m litigating a pro bono free speech / cyberspace law case before the Nebraska Supreme Court. My client, Darren Drahota, was convicted of two counts of breach of the peace for sending two rude messages to William Avery, who had earlier asked him to stop sending such messages. Avery was Drahota’s […]
Congratulations to Robert Tsai on ‘Eloquence and Reason: Creating a First Amendment Culture’
By Kenneth Anderson on November 6, 2009 10:57 am in Academia, Constitutional History, Constitutional Theory, Freedom of Speech, Language
This is coming more than a little late, as the book has been out for a few months, but I wanted belatedly to congratulate my Washington College of Law colleague, Robert Tsai, on his book Eloquence and Reason: Creating a First Amendment Culture. I have it on my shelf for night reading, but unfortunately even […]
Rare Case Involving Restrictions on In-Class Speech at a University
By Eugene Volokh on November 5, 2009 1:29 pm in Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Speech at Colleges and Universities
Most of the university student speech debate has focused (rightly, in my view) on restrictions that apply to student speech outside class — in student conversations, demonstrations, newspapers, flyers, and so on. But Harrell v. Southern Oregon University (Oct. 30) involves in-class speech, albeit in an online classroom. (Here’s the magistrate judge’s decision, which the […]
How the Recent UN Human Rights Council Resolution on Freedom of Speech Exemplifies the Dangers of Authoritarian Regimes’ Influence over International Law
The recent UN Human Rights Council Resolution endorsed by the Obama Administration exemplifies a key weakness of international human rights law that John McGinnis and I have focused on in our academic work (e.g. here and here): the heavy influence of repressive authoritarian governments over its content. In this case, the resolution was initially promoted […]
Louis Brandeis and the Incorporation Doctrine
By David Bernstein on October 28, 2009 1:28 am in Constitutional History, Freedom of Speech, Supreme Court
I’ve read most of Mel Urofsky’s new biography of Louis Brandeis, and it’s an extremely good, and very informative, book. But I’m afraid that Mel vastly exaggerates Brandeis’s influence on the Supreme Court’s adoption of the “incorporation doctrine”, to wit: (1) p. 618: “Scholars now believe that the Fourteenth Amendment … was intended to extend […]
From the Volokh Archives: Touchy Canadians
Originally posted Dec. 2003. Just came across it, and though it was worth reposting in light of recent controversies over hate speech prosecutions in Canada: Some Canadians are rather touchy about criticism from Americans regarding freedom of speech in Canada. The irony of this touchiness is that the Canadian Supreme Court has based its free-speech […]
Ninth Circuit Opinion in Washington State Referendum Signature Confidentiality Case Arrives:
This is the opinion the court promised last Thursday. I have to run, but I hope to blog more about this later tonight or tomorrow. UPDATE: D’oh! Forgot to post the link; just updated the post to include it.