Const Law II: Free Speech

Semester: Fall 2015
Course ID: 381C
Credit Hours: 3
Unique: 28755

Course Information

Grading Method: Pass/Fail Not Allowed

Registration Information

Upperclass-only elective
Reversed priority

Meeting Times

Day	Time	Location
MON, TUE, WED	1:15 - 2:05 pm	TNH 2.124

Evaluation Method

Type	Date	Time	Location
Final exam	December 14, 2015	8:30 am	A-Z in 2.137

Description

This course will cover the history and the recent judicial interpretation of the First Amendment's free speech clause. Beginning with debate over the original meaning of the First Amendment, the course will proceed chronologically through World War I. Subjects will include the Alien and Sedition Laws of 1798,the suppression of abolitionist literature before the Civil War, the range of popular and legal views about the meaning of free speech between the Civil War and World War I, and the suppression of dissent during World War I. Most of the course will address the modern judicial interpretation of free speech that began in the years immediately following World War I. Coverage of modern judicial interpretation will be topical rather than chronological. Subjects will include subversive advocacy, prior restraints, tort law and the First Amendment, offensive speech, symbolic dissent, freedom not to speak, the government as employer, the government's management of public property, access to the mass media, campaign finance, obscenity, and commercial speech. Readings, particularly for the historical portion of the course, will consist of secondary sources as well as legal decisions. NO PREREQUISITES.

Textbooks ( * denotes required )

The First Amendment in the Twenty-First Century *

Van Alstyne and Lash

Foundation , edition: 5th
ISBN: 978-1-60930-437-9

Free Speech in Its Forgotten Years *

Rabban

Cambridge
ISBN: 0-521-62013-9

Instructors

Rabban, David M.

Important Class Changes

Date	Updated
09/25/2015	Exam information updated
	Meeting times changed

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