In the personal and frank Confessions of a Free Speech Lawyer, Rodney A. Smolla offers an insider's view on the violent confrontations in Charlottesville during the "summer of hate." Blending memoir, courtroom drama, and a consideration of the unhealed wound of racism in our society, he shines a light on the conflict between the value of free speech and the protection of civil rights. Smolla has spent his career in the thick of these tempestuous and fraught issues, from acting as lead counsel in a famous Supreme Court decision challenging Virginia's law against burning crosses, to serving as co-counsel in a libel suit brought by a fraternity against Rolling Stone magazine for publishing an article alleging that one of the fraternity's initiation rituals included gang rape. Smolla has also been active as a university leader, serving as dean of three law schools and president of one and railing against hate speech and sexual assault on US campuses. Well before the tiki torches cast their ominous shadows across the nation, the city of Charlottesville sought to relocate the Unite the Right rally; Smolla was approached to represent the alt-right groups. Though he declined, he came to wonder what his history of advocacy had wrought. Feeling unsettlingly complicit, he joined the Charlottesville Task Force, and he realized that the events that transpired there had meaning and resonance far beyond a singular time and place. Why, he wonders, has one of our foundational rights created a land in which such tragic clashes happen all too frequently?

Traditionally, the university or college is thought to be the ultimate location for the discovery and sharing of knowledge. After all, on these campuses are some of the great minds across all fields, as well as students who are not only eager to learn, but who often contribute to our shared wisdom. For those ideals to be achieved, however, ideas require access to some kind of virtual marketplace from which people can sample and consider them, discuss and debate them. Restricting the expression of those ideas for whatever reason is the enemy of not only this process, but also of knowledge discovery. Speech freedom on our college and university campuses, like everywhere else, is fragile. There are those who wish to suppress it, more often than not when the words express ideas, opinions, and even facts that conflict with their beliefs. Why is this effort, so completely at odds with the foundational values of this country, made? This topic explored in Speech Freedom on Campus: Past, Present and Future is multi-layered, and its analysis is best accomplished through multiple perspectives. Joseph Russomanno’s edited collection does precisely that, utilizing 10 different scholars to examine various aspects and issues related to speech freedom on campus.

Criminal justice professionals often do not receive the training they need to recognize the constitutional principles that apply to their daily work. Constitutional Law for Criminal Justice offers a way to solve this problem by providing a comprehensive, well-organized, and up-to-date analysis of constitutional issues that affect criminal justice professionals. Chapter 1 summarizes the organization and content of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Fourteenth Amendment. The next eight chapters cover the constitutional principles that regulate investigatory detentions, traffic stops, arrests, use of force, search and seizure, technologically assisted surveillance, the Wiretap Act, interrogations and confessions, self-incrimination, witness identification procedures, the right to counsel, procedural safeguards during criminal trials, First Amendment issues relevant to law enforcement, capital punishment, and much more. The final chapter covers the constitutional rights of criminal justice professionals in the workplace, their protection under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, and their accountability under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for violating the constitutional rights of others. Part II contains abstracts of key judicial decisions exemplifying how the doctrines covered in earlier chapters are being applied by the courts. The combination of text and cases creates flexibility in structuring class time. Constitutional Law for Criminal Justice makes complex concepts accessible to students in all levels of criminal justice education. The chapters begin with an outline and end with a summary. Key Terms and Concepts are defined in the Glossary. Tables, figures, and charts are used to synthesize and simplify information. The result is an incomparably clear, student-friendly textbook that has remained a leader in criminal justice education for more than 45 years.

This thoroughly updated classic textbook provides an overview of communication and media law, including the most current legal developments. It explains laws affecting the daily work of writers, broadcasters, public relations practitioners, photographers, bloggers and other public communicators. By outlining statutes and cases in an accessible manner, even to students studying law for the first time, the authors ensure that readers acquire a firm grasp of the legal issues affecting the media. The book examines legal topics such as libel, privacy, intellectual property, obscenity and access to information, considering the development and current standing of relevant laws and important cases. It examines how these laws affect public, political and commercial communication. The 13th edition covers contemporary U.S. Supreme Court cases, including the true threats case Counterman v. Colorado, the Andy Warhol fair use case and the Jack Daniel's trademark parody case. It also presents the Biden administration's revision of policy on the use of subpoenas and search warrants to uncover reporters' confidential sources along with the gag orders imposed by courts handling criminal and civil trials in which Donald Trump is a defendant. Further cases explored include the attacks by legislatures against the LGBTQ community, exemplified by a Tennessee law banning drag performances, and the emerging issues presented by artificial intelligence and the content moderation policies of social media platforms. The Law of Public Communication is an ideal core textbook for undergraduate and graduate courses in communication law and mass media law. A test bank for instructors is available at www.routledge.com/9781032676388

In this book, Amy Lai examines the current free speech crisis in Western universities. She studies the origin, history, and importance of freedom of speech in the university setting, and addresses the relevance and pitfalls of political correctness and microaggressions on campuses, where laws on harassment, discrimination, and hate speech are already in place, along with other concepts that have gained currency in the free speech debate, including deplatforming, trigger warning, and safe space. Looking at numerous free speech disputes in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada, the book argues for the equal application of the free speech principle to all expressions to facilitate respectful debates. All in all, it affirms that the right to free expression is a natural right essential to the pursuit of truth, democratic governance, and self-development, and this right is nowhere more important than in the university.

An analysis of the Miranda decision and the rights of the accused in the criminal justice system

The Law of Public Communication provides an overview of media law that includes the most current legal developments today. It explains the laws affecting the daily work of writers, broadcasters, advertisers, cable operators, Internet service providers, public relations practitioners, photographers, bloggers, and other public communicators. Authors Kent Middleton and William Lee take students through the basic legal principles and methods of analysis that allows students to study and keep abreast of the rapidly changing field of public communication. By presenting statutes and cases in a cohesive manner that is understandable, even to students studying law for the first time, the authors ensure that students will acquire a firm grasp of the legal issues affecting the media. This 2016 Update brings the Ninth Edition up to date with the most recent cases and examples effecting media professionals and public communicators. New topics include Supreme Court decisions on internet harassment and the streaming company Aereo, the FCC’s efforts to reclassify broadband providers as telecommunication services, court cases dealing publicity rights for celebrity athletes in video games, and the recent presidential executive order regarding new government information sources.

When a trial lawyer stands before a jury to argue a case about a Black victim killed by a white person, how should the lawyer best argue the case? Critical race theorists (CRTs) are pessimistic that a white jury can set aside its own racism in judging the Black victims’ actions, and are skeptical of a jury’s ability to fairly judge a white actor’s motives. Before the George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery killings, there was strong evidence (The Innocence Project) that the CRTs were right. After all, the prosecutors in the Ahmaud Arbery case were so convinced that a white jury in a Georgia county would not convict white vigilantes, that they initially didn’t even charge the killers with a crime. However, then, back-to-back, in both cases, prosecutors prosecuted, and the jury returned guilty verdicts. They convicted Derrick Chauvin of murder. They convicted Travis and Gregory McMichael and “Roddie” William Bryant of murder. This book examines the how and why of these verdicts and asks whether they hold lessons vital to withstanding CRT challenges to the American justice system.

Hate speech law can be found throughout the world. But it is also the subject of numerous principled arguments, both for and against. These principles invoke a host of morally relevant features (e.g., liberty, health, autonomy, security, non-subordination, the absence of oppression, human dignity, the discovery of truth, the acquisition of knowledge, self-realization, human excellence, civic dignity, cultural diversity and choice, recognition of cultural identity, intercultural dialogue, participation in democratic self-government, being subject only to legitimate rule) and practical considerations (e.g., efficacy, the least restrictive alternative, chilling effects). The book develops and then critically examines these various principled arguments. It also attempts to de-homogenize hate speech law into different clusters of laws/regulations/codes that constrain uses of hate speech, so as to facilitate a more nuanced examination of the principled arguments. Finally, it argues that it is morally fitting for judicial and legislative judgments about the overall warrant of hate speech law to reflect principled compromise. Principled compromise is characterized not merely by compromise over matters of principled concern but also by compromise which is itself governed by ideals of moral duty or civic virtue (e.g., reciprocity, equality, and mutual respect). The Open Access version of this book, available at https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315714899, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.