First Amendment

The New Pornography Wars

Julie Dahlstrom

Abstract The world’s largest online pornography conglomerate, MindGeek, has come under fire for the publishing of “rape videos,” child pornography, and nonconsensual pornography on its website, Pornhub. In response, as in the “pornography wars” of the 1970s and 1980s, lawyers and activists have turned to civil remedies and filed creative anti- trafficking lawsuits against MindGeek […]

An Economic Approach to Religious Exemptions

Stephanie H. Barclay

Abstract Externalities caused by religious exemptions have been getting thespotlight again in light of a case the U.S. Supreme Court will hear thisterm: Fulton v. City of Philadelphia. Some argue that religiousindividuals should be required to internalize the costs they impose onthird parties and thus should be denied the right to practice that harmfulbehavior. These […]

Speech Narcissism

Written by: Terri R. Day & Danielle Weatherby

Abstract From its embryonic stage during the civil rights era to its modern-day presence on college campuses, the political correctness movement has undergone an extreme metamorphosis. In the university setting, it was originally intended to welcome diverse views by encouraging minority students to feel part of the learning environment and to contribute to the “marketplace […]

“Revenge Porn” Reform: A View From the Front Lines

Written by: Mary Anne Franks

Abstract The legal and social landscape of “revenge porn” has changed dramatically in the last few years. Before 2013, only three states criminalized the unauthorized disclosure of sexually explicit images of adults and few people had ever heard the term “revenge porn.” As of July 2017, thirty-eight states and Washington, D.C. had criminalized the conduct; […]

Contextualizing the Free Exercise of Religion

Written by: Adam Lamparello

Abstract The level of protection afforded to an individual’s First Amendment right to freely exercise religion should depend upon the context within which it is exercised. Put differently, an individual’s right to religious liberty should be balanced against other individuals’ right to equal protection of the law, and the broader societal interest in protecting individuals […]

Counterspeech, Cosby, and Libel Law: Some Lessons About “Pure Opinion” & Resuscitating the Self-Defense Privilege

Written by: Clay Calvert

Abstract Using the recent federal district court opinions in Hill v. Cosby and Green v. Cosby as analytical springboards, this timely Article explores problems with the concept of pure opinion in libel law. Specifically, Hill and Green pivoted on the same allegedly defamatory statement attorney Martin Singer made on behalf of comedian Bill Cosby, yet […]

Who Watches This Stuff?: Videos Depicting Actual Murder and the Need for a Federal Criminal Murder-Video Statute

Written by: Musa K. Farmand, Jr.

Abstract Murder videos are video recordings that depict the intentional, unlawful killing of one human being by another. Generally, due to their obscene nature, murder videos are absent from mainstream media. However, in the wake of Vester Lee Flanagan II’s filmed murders of reporter Allison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward on live television, it is […]

R. George Wright, Content-Neutral and Content-Based Regulations of Speech: A Distinction That Is No Longer Worth the Fuss

Introduction The binary distinction between content-neutral and content-based speech regulations is of central importance in First Amendment doctrine. This distinction has been the subject of U.S. Supreme Court attention on several occasions.  As the case law has evolved, however, this apparently crucial distinction has become less clear, coherent, and practical, such that further attempts to […]

Vitaliy Kats, Because, the Internet: The Limits of Online Campaign Finance Disclosure

During the 2011–2012 election cycle, Shaun McCutcheon contributed $33,088 to sixteen different candidates for federal office.  McCutcheon’s donations complied with the base limits the Federal Election Commission (FEC) set for contributions to individual candidates.McCutcheon wanted to contribute more but was barred by the FEC’s aggregate limit on contributions.In June of 2012, McCutcheon and the Republication […]

Albert W. Alschuler, Limiting Political Contributions After McCutcheon, Citizens United, and SpeechNow

There was something unreal about the opinions in McCutcheon v. FEC. These opinions examined a series of strategies for circumventing the limits on contributions to candidates imposed by federal election law, but they failed to notice that the limits were no longer breathing. The D.C. Circuit’s decision in SpeechNow.org v. FEC had created a far […]

Aubrey Burris, Hell Hath No Fury like a Woman Porned: Revenge Porn and the Need for a Federal Nonconsensual Pornography Statute

Revenge porn is the term used to describe an intimate image or video that is initially shared within the context of a private relationship but is later publicly disclosed, usually on the Internet, without the consent of the individual featured in the explicit graphic. This nonconsensual disclosure is generally fueled by an intent to harm, […]

Margaret Tarkington, Lost in the Compromise: Free Speech, Criminal Justice, and Attorney Pretrial Publicity

The right to a jury trial, the presumption of innocence, the social compact between the individual and the State—these are among the weighty interests in our criminal justice system that can be bolstered or undermined through attorney pretrial publicity. The procedural protections that exist in the Constitution for criminal justice are neither technicalities nor formalities. […]

Rodney A. Smolla, Regulating the Speech of Judges and Lawyers: The First Amendment and the Soul of the Profession

The legal profession has historically asserted moral and legal authority to substantially control the speech of judges and lawyers. This impulse to control the speech of judges and lawyers is driven by many of the profession’s most strongly held interests and values. These include such interests as ensuring the fair administration of justice, the promotion […]

Ellen English, “Camels Agree with your Throat" and Other Lies: Why Graphic Warnings are Necessary to Prevent Consumer Deception

The government’s latest attempt to protect consumers from the perils of tobacco use is in jeopardy. In 2009, Congress enacted the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, which requires cigarette advertisements and packages to bear nine new textual health warnings and gives the FDA authority to regulate tobacco products. In 2011, in compliance with the Act, the FDA issued […]

Janai S. Nelson, The First amendment, Equal Protection and Felon Disenfranchisement: A New Viewpoint

This Article engages the equality principles of the First Amendment and the Equal Protection Clause to reconsider the constitutionality of one of the last and most entrenched barriers to universal suffrage—felon disenfranchisement. A deeply racialized problem, felon disenfranchisement is additionally and independently a legislative judgment as to which citizen‘s ideas are worthy of inclusion in […]

R. George Wright, Electoral Lies and the Broader Problems of Strict Scrutiny

States often attempt to regulate political speech in the form of deliberate lies related to ballot initiatives, referenda, candidates, or their political positions. Some courts focus on the various harms of electoral lies, while others focus more on the risks of bias and partisan abuse involved in such speech regulations; the cases are in disarray. […]

Jocelyn Ho, Bullied to Death: Cyberbullying and Student Online Speech Rights

In the age of online social networking, photo and video sharing, blogs, text messaging, and other forms of communication technology, bullying among teenagers has reached a whole new level. It has transcended the traditional schoolyard context and crossed into cyberspace, leaving victims of bullying more vulnerable than ever. Recent headline-grabbing suicides, such as the cyberbullying-related […]

Jordan E. Pratt, An Open and Shut Case: Why (and How) The Eleventh Circuit Should Restrain the Government's Forum Closure Power

63 Fla. L. Rev. 1487 (2011)| | | |||| The Supreme Court has made it clear that when the government opens a nontraditional public forum, it retains the power to shut down the forum subsequently. But the Court has not specifically addressed whether this forum closure power knows any constitutional limitations. Several circuits, including the […]

Scott A. Moss, The Overhyped Path from Tinker to Morse: How the Student Speech Cases Show the Limits of Supreme Court Decisions-for The Law and for the Litigants

63 Fla. L. Rev. 1407 (2011)| | | | Each of the Supreme Court’s high school student speech cases reflected the social angst of its era. In 1965’s Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, three Iowa teens broke school rules to wear armbands protesting the Vietnam War. In 1983, amidst parental and political […]

Shannon Weeks McCormack, Too Close to Home: Limiting the Organizations Subsidized by the Charitable Deduction to Those in Economic Need

63 Fla. L. Rev. 857 (2011)|  | | ARTICLE :: The charitable deduction allows taxpayers to deduct amounts donated to organizations pursuing statutorily designated purposes from their otherwise taxable income. By lowering the after-tax cost of giving and encouraging taxpayers to donate more than they otherwise would, the charitable deduction subsidizes a broad variety of organizations. […]

Lee Goldman, Student Speech and the First Amendment: A Comprehensive Approach

63 Fla. L. Rev. 395 (2011)| |  | | INTRODUCTION :: Can a school discipline a student for creating a vulgar parody profile of the school principal or another student on the website MySpace? Can it preclude a student from wearing at school a T-shirt that reads, “Homosexuality is shameful”? These are some of the difficult […]

Andrea M. Matwyshyn, Hidden Engines of Destruction: The Reasonable Expectation of Code Safety and the Duty to Warn in Digital Products

62 Fla. L. Rev. 109 (2010) |   |   |   | INTRODUCTION :: This Article explores a seemingly straightforward question: to what extent is a consumer entitled to know how digital products work and the likelihood of digital harm? In previous work, I have explored this question in the context of contract law […]

Skyler McDonald, Defamation in the Internet Age: Why Roommates.com Isn't Enough to Change the Rules for Anonymous Gossip Websites

62 Fla. L. Rev. 259 (2010) |   |   |   | INTRODUCTION :: Everyone “Googles” his or her own name once in a while. Imagine that a young woman looks herself up on the Internet one day, and finds that a person she does not know is posting offensive, false comments about her. […]

David A. Karp, Why Justice Thomas Should Speak at Oral Argument

61 Fla. L. Rev. 611 (2009) | | | | INTRODUCTION :: The oral argument before the United States Supreme Court in Morse v. Frederick began at 10:03 a.m. in typical fashion, like a high-speed game of chess. Forty-two seconds into the argument, Justice Anthony Kennedy cut off the advocate in mid-sentence. For the next […]

David A. Anderson, Confidential Sources Reconsidered

61 Fla. L. Rev. 883 (2009) | | | | INTRODUCTION :: For fifty years, the courts have debated whether the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of the press requires that journalists be allowed to protect confidential sources. Many state and federal courts have answered in the affirmative, creating a First Amendment “reporter’s privilege.” The […]

Lindsay M. Saxe, Politics versus Precision: Did the Miami-Dade School Board Violate the First Amendment when it Voted to Remove Vamos a Cuba! from its District libraries?: ACLU v. Miami-Dade County School Board, 557 F.3d 1177 (11th Cir. 2009)

61 Fla. L. Rev. 921 (2009) | | | | INTRODUCTION :: Juan Amador, a self-described political prisoner from Cuba, was outraged when he read the inaccurate portrayal of life in Cuba contained in Vamos a Cuba!, a book in his daughter’s elementary school library. Amador promptly requested that the school remove the book from […]

Kristen Rasmussen, Shedding (False) Light: How the Florida Supreme Court's Rejection of the Tort Falsely Implies Protection for Media Defendants: Jews for Jesus, Inc. v. Rapp, 997 So. 2d 1098 (Fla. 2008)

61 Fla. L. Rev. 911 (2009) | | | | INTRODUCTION :: Edith and Marty Rapp, a Jewish Florida couple, were married until Marty’s death in 2003. Bruce Rapp, Marty’s son and Edith’s stepson, worked for Jews for Jesus. Prior to Marty’s death, Bruce included the following account in a Jews for Jesus newsletter: I […]

Emily Gold Waldman, Returning to Hazelwood's Core: A New Approach to Restrictions on School- Sponsored Speech

60 Fla. L. Rev. 63 (2008) | | | | INTRODUCTION :: Nearly twenty years ago in Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier, the Supreme Court, in upholding the constitutionality of a public high school principal’s censorship of a student newspaper produced in a journalism class, held that “educators do not offend the First Amendment by […]

Samuel J. Horovitz, Two Wrongs Don't Negate a Copyright: Don't Make Students Turnitin if You Won't Give it Back

60 Fla. L. Rev. 229 (2008) | | | | INTRODUCTION :: The story goes something like this: There was a particularly difficult college professor notorious for a low grading scale. After years of low grade following low grade, one paper finally earned a B minus, the highest grade ever awarded by this professor. Word […]

Stephen A. Higginson, Constitutional Advocacy Explains Constitutional Outcomes

60 Fla. L. Rev. 857 (2008) | | | | INTRODUCTION :: In oral argument in Baker v. Carr, Attorney Z.T. Osborn, Jr., on behalf of Tennessee voters arguing that the U.S. Supreme Court should hold legislative apportionment a justiciable issue, exclaimed that “the motto of the Supreme Court of Tennessee is Fiat justicia ruat […]

Simon A. Rodell, False Statements v. Free Debate: Is the First Amendment a License to Lie in Elections?

60 Fla. L. Rev. 947 (2008) | | | | TEXT :: Rickert v. Public Disclosure Commission, 168 P.3d 826 (Wash. 2007) The petitioner, Marilou Rickert, ran as a Green Party candidate for a seat in the Washington state senate. During her campaign, Rickert distributed a brochure that falsely represented the voting record of her […]

Giannina Marin, Possession of Child Pornography: Should You be Convicted When the Computer Cache Does the Saving for You?

60 Fla. L. Rev. 1205 (2008) | | | | INTRODUCTION :: “For years, defense lawyers have argued the ‘young and stupid’ semi-defense for their youthful clients. Now, we can have the ‘I didn’t know it was on the hard drive’ objection for the unsophisticated computer user in child pornography cases-or at least they can […]

Timothy Zick, Clouds, Cameras, and Computers: The First Amendment and Networked Public Places

59 Fla. L. Rev. 1 (2007) | | | | INTRODUCTION :: It seems to be a common assumption that physical places like parks, sidewalks, and public squares, and “cyber-places” like the Web, constitute separate locations of communication. In reality, however, the intersection and collision of these two spaces is imminent. In some respects it […]

Mary-Rose Papandrea, Student Speech Rights in the Digital Age

60 Fla. L. Rev. 1027 (2008) | | | | ABSTRACT :: For several decades courts have struggled to determine when, if ever, public schools should have the power to restrict student expression that does not occur on school grounds during school hours. In the last several years, courts have struggled with this same question […]

Emily S. Wilbanks, Constitutional Law: Speaking with your Mouth Shut? Exploring the Outer Limits of First Amendment Protection in The Context of Military Recruiting on Law School Campuses

59 Fla. L. Rev. 437 (2007) | | | | TEXT :: In response to the increasing refusal of law schools and other institutions of higher education to allow the U.S. military to engage in on-campus recruiting, Congress passed the Solomon Amendment. The Solomon Amendment mandates a denial of federal funds to any school that […]

Jason Marques, To Bear a Cross: The Establishment Clause, Historic Preservation, and Eminent Domain Intersect at the Mt. Soledad Veterans Memorial

59 Fla. L. Rev. 829 (2007) | | | | INTRODUCTION :: High above San Diego, a solitary Latin cross casts its shadow over the picturesque coastline of Southern California. The cross, a towering icon of concrete and faith, is encircled by several massive walls of granite into which thousands of names are meticulously carved. […]

Jessica Furst, Money and Politics: Will Expenditure Limits Take Candidates out of the Money Race And Put Them Back in the Office?

59 Fla. L. Rev. 873 (2007) | | | | INTRODUCTION :: On March 4, 1897, William McKinley capped a prominent career in public service when he became America’s twenty-fifth President. Perhaps most onlookers attributed the victory to McKinley’s character, intellect, or years of political experience. However, those watching a bit closer may have correctly […]

Mark C. Weber, Reflections on the New Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act

58 Fla. L. Rev. 7 (2006) | | | | INTRODUCTION :: The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act, Orwellian title and all, received its presidential signature on December 3, 2004. The Act is already fully in effect, and the United States Department of Education proposed regulations to implement it on June 21, 2005. Although […]

Michael Richard Dimino, Sr., Counter-Majoritarian Power and Judges' Political Speech

58 Fla. L. Rev. 53 (2006) | | | | INTRODUCTION :: Judges and judicial candidates are regularly restricted in their political speech and association by two categories of ethical canons that have only recently come under constitutional examination: those that restrict the ways judges conduct their own campaigns, and those that restrict judges’ participation […]

Jessica Gavrich, Constitutional Law: Judicial Oversights-Inconsistency in Supreme Court Establishment Clause Jurisprudence

58 Fla. L. Rev. 437 (2006) | | | | TEXT :: Texas State Capitol grounds contain a display of seventeen monuments and twenty- one historical markers. Amidst the monuments, Texas state officials erected a six-foot high and three and one-half foot wide structure inscribed with the Ten Commandments. The State accepted the monument from […]

Jessica C. Furst, Election Law: "Three's a Crowd": Supreme Court Protection for the Two-Party System

58 Fla. L. Rev. 921 (2006) | | | | TEXT :: Oklahoma’s semiclosed primary law permits a political party to invite voters registered as Independent to vote in that party’s primary election. The Libertarian Party of Oklahoma (LPO) notified state election officials of its intent to open its primary to all voters, regardless of […]

Patrick M. Garry, Religious Freedom Deserves more than Neutrality: The Constitutional Argument for Nonpreferential Favoritism of Religion

57 Fla. L. Rev. 1 (2005) | | | | INTRODUCTION :: Some of the earliest American colonies began as havens for religious believers. Religious institutions operated nearly the entire educational system in eighteenth-century America. The first liberty mentioned in the Bill of Rights is religious freedom. During the eighteenth century, Congress consistently permitted the […]

O. Carter Snead, Dynamic Complementarity: Terri's Law and Separation of Powers Principles in the End-Of-Life Context

57 Fla. L. Rev. 53 (2005) | | | | INTRODUCTION :: The bitter dispute over the proper treatment of Theresa Marie Schiavo-a severely brain damaged woman, unable to communicate and with no living will or advance directive-has garnered enormous attention in the media, both national and international. What began as a heated disagreement between […]

Alan E. Garfield, Protecting Children from Speech

57 Fla. L. Rev. 565 (2005) | | | | INTRODUCTION :: The notion that children need to be sheltered from inappropriate speech long predates Janet Jackson’s “wardrobe malfunction” or Bono’s expletive-enhanced acceptance of a Golden Globe. Plato expressed concern about youths’ impressionable minds 2300 years ago, stressing that the tales the “young first hear […]

Heidi Kitrosser, Containing Unprotected Speech

57 Fla. L. Rev. 843 (2005) | | | | INTRODUCTION :: The Supreme Court long has deemed a few categories of speech so harmful and so lacking in value as to be unworthy of First Amendment protection. Under this approach, which this Article calls categorization doctrine, legislatures may regulate-even ban-unprotected speech categories in their […]

Janelle A. Weber, The Spending Clause: Funding a Filth-Free Internet or Filtering out the First Amendment?

56 Fla. L. Rev. 471 (2004) | | | | TEXT :: The Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) sets conditions on public libraries’ receipt of federal financial assistance for Internet access. Under CIPA, libraries must install filters on all of their Internet-connected computers to help block obscene and pornographic images and prevent minors from accessing […]

Dennis J. Shields, A Response to Professor Crump's Narrow Tailoring Analysis of Grutter: Does It Matter How Many Angels Can Dance on the Head of a Pin?

56 Fla. L. Rev. 761 (2004) | | | | INTRODUCTION :: On occasion the Supreme Court is faced with a conflict between important public values. The two cases contesting race-conscious admissions decision-making at the University of Michigan placed the Court in just such a circumstance. The plaintiffs represented the powerful principle of color-blindness in […]

Monica Vila, Constitutional Law: Thou Shalt Not Establish Religion

56 Fla. L. Rev. 819 (2004) | | | | INTRODUCTION :: Appellant, the Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, erected a two-and- one-half ton monument of the Ten Commandments in the rotunda of the Alabama State Judicial Building. The monument, which Appellant installed to reflect the moral foundation of law, was also engraved […]

Marisa Lopez, Constitutional Law: Lowering the Standard of Strict Scrutiny

56 Fla. L. Rev. 841 (2004) | | | | INTRODUCTION :: Respondents adopted a law school admissions policy that considered, among other factors, applicants’ race and ethnicity. The admissions policy was designed to achieve the educational benefits of a diverse student body. As part of this policy, admissions officers often considered daily reports that […]

Robert A. Caplen, Constitutional Law: Forecasting the Sunset of Racial Preferences in Higher Education while Broadening their Horizons

56 Fla. L. Rev. 853 (2004) | | | | INTRODUCTION :: Respondents implemented admissions policies designed to select an academically qualified and diverse student body with substantial promise for success within the legal profession and filed a lawsuit alleging discriminated against her on the basis of race in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment held […]