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  This course focuses on the First Amendment jurisprudence of the United States Supreme Court.  Only forty-five words long, the First Amendment guarantees of religious freedom, free speech, a free press, freedom to assemble, and freedom to associate are at the heart of some of our country's most persistent and difficult questions.  For example, how does one reconcile the inherent tension between the Free Exercise Clause and the Establishment Clause?  Is sexually explicit material a type of "speech" worthy of First Amendment protection?  What about hate speech?  What is the role of a free press?  Should we be free to discriminate in our associative relationships?

   The First Amendment decisions of the Supreme Court attract controversy, in part, because of the nature of the cases themselves which involve ideas and values upon which most Americans simply cannot agree.   This controversy is heightened when the evolving First Amendment jurisprudence of the Court appears to be dependent upon little more than the changing composition of the bench.
 
 

PO 502 
Civil Liberties Syllabus

   Follow the links below for helpful websites and relevant secondary source material on the First Amendment issues and cases discussed in class.  The links are categorized according to the section headings on the syllabus.
 
Obscenity and Pornography
Fighting Words and Offensive Speech 
Libel
Commercial Speech
Symbolic Speech and Speech-plus-Conduct
Speech and Technology
Freedom of the Press
Freedom of the Press and Due Process
Freedom of Religion
Free Exercise of Religion
Freedom of Association
General First Amendment Information



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