Rights skepticism and majority rule at the birth of the modern first amendment / Vincent A. Blasi Every possible use of language? / Frederick Schauer Rethinking the myth of the modern First Amendment / Laura Weinrib The discursive benefits of structure : federalism and the First Amendment / Heather K. Gerken Citizens United : predictions and reality / Floyd Abrams On the legitimate aim of congressional regulation of political speech : an originalist view / Lawrence Lessig The classic First Amendment tradition under stress : freedom of speech and the University / Robert C. Post Keeping secrets / David A. Strauss The First Amendment : an equality reading / Catharine A. MacKinnon Does the clear and present danger test survive cost-benefit analysis? / Cass R. Sunstein Reflections on the firstness of the First Amendment in the United States / Albie Sachs Freedom of expression abroad : the state of play / Tom Ginsburg Hate speech at home and abroad / Sarah H. Cleveland The unintentional press : how technology companies fail as publishers / Emily Bell Defining the boundaries of free speech on social media / Monika Bickert Is the First Amendment obsolete? / Tim Wu Epilogue / Lee C. Bollinger & Geoffrey R. Stone.
Summary
The Supreme Court's 1919 decision in Schenck vs. the United States is one of the most important free speech cases in American history. Written by Oliver Wendell Holmes, it is most famous for first invoking the phrase "clear and present danger." Although the decision upheld the conviction of an individual for criticizing the draft during World War I, it also laid the foundation for our nation's robust protection of free speech. Over time, the standard Holmes devised made freedom of speech in America a reality rather than merely an ideal. In The Free Speech Century, two of America's leading First Amendment scholars, Lee C. Bollinger and Geoffrey R. Stone, have gathered a group of the nation's leading constitutional scholars--Cass Sunstein, Lawrence Lessig, Laurence Tribe, Kathleen Sullivan, Catherine MacKinnon, among others--to evaluate the evolution of free speech doctrine since Schenk and to assess where it might be headed in the future. Since 1919, First Amendment jurisprudence in America has been a signal development in the history of constitutional democracies--remarkable for its level of doctrinal refinement, remarkable for its lateness in coming (in relation to the adoption of the First Amendment), and remarkable for the scope of protection it has afforded since the 1960s. Over the course of The First Amendment Century, judicial engagement with these fundamental rights has grown exponentially. We now have an elaborate set of free speech laws and norms, but as Stone and Bollinger stress, the context is always shifting. New societal threats like terrorism, and new technologies of communication continually reshape our understanding of what speech should be allowed. Publishing on the one hundredth anniversary of the decision that laid the foundation for America's free speech tradition, The Free Speech Century will serve as an essential resource for anyone interested in how our understanding of the First Amendment transformed over time and why it is so critical both for the United States and for the world today. -- Publisher's website.
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 299-340) and index.
