The contraction under the Roberts and Rehnquist courts of the government's First Amendment duty to facilitate private speech related to democratic self-governance
The problem defined : could the Selma march take place today?
The ever-expanding First Amendment universe theory reconsidered : the iImportant, but underappreciated, growing relationship of property to speech
The evolution in First Amendment theory and doctrine from facilitating speech to constraining judicial discretion in First Amendment cases
Tracing the evolving boundaries of the First Amendment : an overview of the arguments and proofs that follow
Facilitating democratic deliberation by providing would-be speakers with access to public property for expressive activities : a positive First Amendment
Right of access to government property under the Warren and Burger courts
The public forum and time, place, and manner doctrines vest government with broad discretion to limit or prohibit speech activity on public property
Toward a renewed commitment to making public space reliably available for speech activity
The Warren court's recognition of free speech easements to private property under the First Amendment
In defense of Logan Valley : the affirmative case for deploying the First Amendment to create mandatory free speech easements to certain kinds of tangible and intangible private property
The profound dangers of casting a blind eye on the unlimited power of social media and Internet search engine providers to censor speech : why continued reliance on self-regulation presents a clear and present danger to the process of democratic deliberation and hence to democratic self-government itself
The Warren and Burger courts' contingent protection of government employees as citizen-participants in the process of democratic self-government
Reduced protection for government workers' speech activity under the Rehnquist and Roberts courts
The paradox of conferring comprehensive First Amendment protection against government employers retaliating against a government employee based on the employee's partisan affiliation
The need to provide enhanced protection to government workers who facilitate democratic accountability by engaging in whistleblowing activity
The First Amendment as a guarantor of academic freedom in public colleges and universities
One step forward, two steps back : the Supreme Court's jurisprudential efforts to extend academic freedom principles to primary, middle, and secondary public schools
The difficulty of calibrating "disruption" to the learning environment as a legal test and the concomitant risk of regulatory creep
The Warren court and transborder speech : tentative recognition and modest, but inconsistent, First Amendment protection
The Burger court and transborder speech : retrenchment and grudging acknowledgment of the First Amendment's application to transborder speech
Retrogression : the Rehnquist and Roberts courts' failure to afford meaningful protection to transborder speech activity
Mapping the First Amendment on to transborder speech : the relevance of Meiklejohn's democratic self-government theory of freedom of expression
The Warren and Burger courts : limited but meaningful protection for newsgathering activities
The abject failure of the Rehnquist and Roberts to deploy the First Amendment to protect newsgathering activities
Growing threats to newsgathering activity and the concomitant need for a strong judicial response to protect the ability of journalists to provide the citizenry with the information necessary to hold government accountable
The inevitability of balancing legitimate governmental interests and privacy against the need to facilitate newsgathering and reporting activities should not render the press clause a constitutional nullity
The growing problem of state governments using their broad regulatory powers over the professions to regulate professional speech to advance ideological, rather than bona fide regulatory, objectives
Efforts to propagandize the body politic via social media : the problem of stealth government speech
Police and prosecutors use trespass, breach of peace/disorderly conduct and unlawful assembly laws to burden or prohibit public protest
The Warren and Burger courts' efforts to use the First Amendment to prohibit the abuse of trespass, breach of peace/disorderly conduct, and unlawful assembly laws to silence unpopular protesters
The difficulties associated with establishing meaningful judicial review of discretionary police and prosecutor powers to charge protesters with conduct-based crimes
The empirical claim : speech rights have clearly declined in some important areas over time
The doctrinal claim : the federal courts can and should do better to advance expressive freedoms in the contemporary United States
The normative claim : fear of judicial discretion in First Amendment cases and the systematic failure to advance critically important First Amendment values.