This was by far the Supreme Court’s most newsworthy First Amendment case this term. (You may have read about it in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, or other news organization.) Missouri has a program that will partially reimburse schools, daycares, and other entities if they resurface their playgrounds with rubber from… Read More Missouri Must Pay Church for Resurfaced Playground
Okay, this is not the case involving the NFL football team from Washington, D.C., but it’s related. A young man named Simon Tam is the leader of an all-Asian-American band named “The Slants.” (They got the idea for their name from asking their friends about what Asians have in common, and they replied “slanted eyes.”)… Read More Federal Government Cannot Ban Disparaging Trademarks
This case has the potential to be one of the most important First Amendment cases you might never hear about. Lester Packingham plead guilty in 2002 to “taking indecent liberties with a child” for having sex with a 13-year-old girl when he was 21. This made him a registered sex offender. Fast forward 8 years.… Read More North Carolina Cannot Prohibit Sex Offenders from Using Facebook
So this was not a full-blown First Amendment case, but it involved an important question that courts sometimes have to answer in First Amendment cases: is the government regulating speech or conduct? (Generally speaking, speech is protected by the First Amendment and conduct is not.) Expressions Hair Design is a company that specializes in…well you… Read More New York Law Prohibiting Surcharges for Credit-Card Users Might Violate the First Amendment
First Amendment Blog 