First Amendment

• 
• SOURCE: FIRE
  3/7/2023
  

  Why NYT v. Sullivan Matters More than Ever

  Conservative politicians want to use libel laws to intimidate critics. One Supreme Court case stands in their way. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Hill
  3/3/2023
  

  At its 150th Anniversary, the Comstock Law is Relevant Again

  by Jonathan Friedman and Amy Werbel

  Anthony Comstock drew on elite connections to give himself near unilateral power to confiscate "obscene, lewd, lascivious, indecent, or immoral" materials —terms he was free to define on his own—and prosecute people for possessing them. Right-wing politicians seem to be inspired by the example. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  1/30/2023
  

  The Latest SCOTUS Case to Privilege Religion Over Civil Society

  by Linda Greenhouse

  Historically, the Supreme Court has viewed workplace accommodations for religious workers in terms of protecting minority faiths and relieving undue burdens on employers and coworkers. A pending case brought by a Christian postal worker promises to upend that balance. 

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• SOURCE: Religion Dispatches
  1/10/2023
  

  For "Religious Freedom Day," Take Back the Term's Revolutionary Meaning

  The religious right has hijacked the story of Virginia's Statute for Religious Freedom, obscuring the law's intention to prevent the domination of the religious preferences of the powerful.

• 
• SOURCE: NPR
  10/4/2022
  

  The Writer of "The Onion" SCOTUS Brief Takes Parody Seriously

  The satirical newspaper's brief employed the rhetorical mode to lay out the free speech implications of a case involving a man who faced retaliatory arrest for making a parody facebook account for his local police department. 

• 
• SOURCE: Juan Cole
  7/29/2022
  

  Alito Laments "Disrespect" for Faith – But His Dobbs Ruling Will Push More Americans Away

  by Juan Cole

  "Ironically, even as Alito has managed to impose 20th century Roman Catholic dogma on all Americans, striking down any right to privacy or for women to control their own bodies, he is puzzled as to why anyone would be hostile to his agenda."

• 
• SOURCE: Boston Globe
  8/1/2022
  

  The Demise of the Church-State Wall

  by Steven V. Mazie

  A political scientist and court correspondent says that SCOTUS has adopted a radical version of the "free exercise" clause of the First Amendment that makes a mockery of the historic separation of religious and political authority. 

• 
• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  7/6/2022
  

  Conservatives Attacking Pornography Carry on History of Politicized Moral Panics

  by Kelsy Burke

  Calls by J.D. Vance and other conservative politicians for bans on pornography echo the tactics and the failures of America's first anti-obscenity crusader, Anthony Comstock. 

• 
• SOURCE: The New Republic
  7/5/2022
  

  SCOTUS's Religious Decisions are Part of War on Public Education

  by Charles McCrary and Leslie Ribovich

  "The court’s conservatives do not oppose secularism so much as they oppose public things. And so, that is what we ought to defend."

• 
• SOURCE: Vox
  4/2/2022
  

  A Bizarre War on Protest By Republican Judges

  "If protest leaders can be hauled into court — and potentially forced to pay out of their own pockets — for the actions of a single protest attendee, then no sensible person will organize a protest."

• 
• SOURCE: Salon
  1/7/2022
  

  Secularism: The Essential, Fatally Weak Guardrail of Democracy

  by Jacques Berlinerblau

  The framers of the US Constitiution failed to build in the protections against religious belief overpowering the rights of others or the security of the state that Locke and other political theorists thought were urgently necessary. This oversight might imperil democracy.

• 
• SOURCE: Editorial Board
  12/21/2021
  

  Should Your Taxes Fund Religious Schools? Why SCOTUS Might Say Yes

  Christopher Jon Sprigman of NYU Law discusses the oral arguments in Carson v. Makin, and how the conservatives on the Court seem to be maximizing "free exercise" over "establishment." 

• 
• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  10/27/2021
  

  There's Little Doubt: The Second Amendment Threatens the First

  by Diana Palmer and Timothy Zick

  "In short, the visible presence of firearms increases the risk of violence and death when exercising one’s First Amendment rights."

• 
• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  10/14/2021
  

  The Sleeper SCOTUS Case that Threatens Church-State Separation

  by Kimberly Wehle

  "If the plaintiffs win, states and municipalities could be required to use taxpayer dollars to supplement strands of private religious education that many Americans would find deeply offensive, including schools that exclude non-Christian or LGBTQ students, families, and teachers."

• 
• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  7/15/2021
  

  A Major Supreme Court First Amendment Decision Could Be At Risk

  by Samantha Barbas

  The "actual malice" standard of proof in libel suits established by New York Times v. Sullivan is an imperfect fit for the social media age, but right-wing calls to overturn the ruling would allow the rich and powerful to bully the press with expensive lawsuits. 

• 
• 6/20/2021
  

  50 Years Later, the Pentagon Papers Remain an Historic Landmark for Freedom of the Press

  by Jared Schroeder

  While democratic norms have, at times, seemed paper thin in recent years, the Court’s terse decision in the Pentagon Papers decision persists as a bulwark against government efforts to halt publication.

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  6/9/2021
  

  "We're Going to Publish": The New York Times' Oral History of the Pentagon Papers

  From RAND Corporation leaker Daniel Ellsberg to first amendement litigator Floyd Abrams, the key players in the 1971 publication of the Pentagon papers reflect on their work 50 years later.  

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  5/26/2021
  

  Laws Against Teaching Critical Race Theory in College are Unconstitutional

  by Ronald J. Krotoszynski Jr.

  "Since the 1950s — when a Red Scare mentality led legislators to try to ban the teaching of communist or socialist theories in state educational institutions — the Supreme Court repeatedly has held that universities, as well as individual professors, enjoy a First Amendment right to academic freedom."

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Monthly
  5/5/2021
  

  “Gimme an F!” Supreme Court Mulls the Case of the Cursing Cheerleader

  by Garrett Epps

  As the Supreme Court considers whether a school district has the authority ot punish a high school cheerleader for a profane social media rant made off campus, the author wonders if legal arguments about schools' authority are overshadowing schools' obligations to prepare students for citizenship. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  2/10/2021
  

  Larry Flynt, Who Built a Porn Empire With Hustler, Dies at 78

  "Mr. Flynt’s interpretation was simpler. 'If the First Amendment will protect a scumbag like me,' he said, 'then it will protect all of you. Because I’m the worst'."