The First Amendment

Catalog description

A comprehensive examination of the speech and religion guarantees of the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. Insofar as speech is concerned, the course, among other objectives, (a) explores the principal categories of content-based expression – among them incitement, defamation, obscenity, child pornography, and commercial speech; and (b) probes the special constitutional rules created for distinctive contexts – such as the American public school – in an effort to reconcile the expressive rights of individuals with the responsibility of government to retain an ordered society. Insofar as the Constitution’s twin protections for religious liberty are concerned, we explore a host of anti-establishment and free exercise concerns. On the anti-establishment side, issues include prayer, moments of silence, and the pledge of allegiance in the nation’s public schools; government-sponsored displays of religious significance; and public financial assistance alleged to benefit religion and religious institutions. On the free exercise side, we examine the constitutional conflict produced when religious practices – among them Sabbath worship, the rejection of compulsory education, animal sacrifice, drug use, and conscientious objection – meet up with the contrary demands of civil society. This examination culminates in our consideration of the landmark Supreme Court decision construing the free exercise guarantee in a manner alleged to reflect insufficient concern for the practices of minority religions, the effort in Congress to overturn that decision, and ensuing developments. The course pauses periodically to explore both Wisconsin’s contributions to the development of the First Amendment law (for instance, in areas of school choice and crimes of hate) and the ways in which such law plays out on the ground in communities across Wisconsin (e.g., the controversy in Wauwatosa concerning the cross on the municipality’s emblem). Satisfies the Law School’s public law requirement. Not open to students who have taken Constitutional Law 2: Speech and Equality or Seminar: Advanced Issues in the First Amendment. Satisfies the Law School’s Public Law requirement