Law 798:  First Amendment

This course centers on the Speech Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Topics include governmental regulation of obscenity, commercial speech, and speech implicating national security concerns; restrictions on the time, place and manner of expression; fighting words and offensive speech; punishment of false factual statements and defamation; regulation of student speech (on and off campus) and rights of protest; governmental efforts to compel private expression; public subsidies for speech the government seeks to promote; First Amendment issues in electoral processes and campaigning; symbolic speech; associational rights; and conflicts between free expression and other democratic values. Consideration of the historical origins and theoretical underpinnings of the First Amendment will help inform doctrinal rules. Some attention will also be given in the course to First Amendment issues of press, assembly, and petition.   

Sequence and Prerequisites:  Constitutional Law (Law 606) is a prerequisite or may be taken concurrently.

Evaluation: Final Exam