Recent Articles

First Amendment Scholarship Update

October 12, 2008 12:55

Here is this week's collection of new papers with a First Amendment dimension: 1) Paul Horwitz (University of Alabama School of Law), Religion and American Politics: Three Views of the Cathedral. The abstract states: The relationship between religion and politics...

NY City Teachers Challenge Ban Against on-the-job Political Expression

October 11, 2008 03:22

From the NYTimes: The New York City teachers’ union filed a federal lawsuit on Friday claiming that a policy banning political pins and signs in schools violates teachers’ First Amendment rights by blocking them from political expression. The lawsuit comes...

SCT Rejects Parents Appeal in Parker v. Lexington

October 11, 2008 00:22

Parents who objected that the children's book King & King was being read in an elementary classroom will not have their appeal heard by the Supreme Court. The story of two princes who fall in love and grow up to...

UT Suspends Sign Ban

October 11, 2008 00:06

To update an earlier post, officials at the University of Texas at Austin have suspended enforcement of a ban that prohibited students from displaying signs in their dorm room windows, agreeing to establish a committee to review whether the policy...

Arizona Constitution Requires Stricter "Secondary Effects" Inquiry, State Justices Say

October 10, 2008 04:34

The Arizona Supreme Court put some teeth into the "secondary effects" analysis when it concluded that the protections afforded to adult businesses under the state's constitution are broader than those provided by the federal constitution. The law that requires adult...

Oral Arguments in Locke v. Karass

October 08, 2008 13:13

The First Amendment Center provides an overview of oral arguments in Locke v. Karass, argued Monday before the Supreme Court. Their prediction: doesn't look like the First Amendment poses a bar to the union fees at issue. From the website:...

Locke v. Karass: SCT Heard Oral Arguments Today

October 06, 2008 22:15

Oral argument transcript available from SCOTUSblog. SCOTUS Wiki has related documents and commentary.

UT Students Protest Sign Ban On Eve of Election

October 06, 2008 22:14

Students at UT Austin are teaming up to challenge a University policy that says they can be kicked out of school for displaying a sign in a dorm-room window or on their dorm room doors. Ordinarily the policy might not...

First Amendment Scholarship Update

October 06, 2008 03:11

Here is this week's collection of newly available papers on FIrst Amendment topics: 1) Martha M. Ertman (University of Maryland Law School), 'They Ain't Whites; They're Mormons': An Illustrated History of Polygamy as Race Treason. The abstract states: Legal doctrines...

Pulpit Freedom Sunday - Where From Here?

October 06, 2008 01:20

"Pulpit Freedom Sunday" took off last week when ministers around the country endorsed their presidential candidate of choice, openly violating IRS rules that prohibit a non-profit 501c3 from engaging in political participation. Calvin Massey explains why the IRS rules may...