LAW 612

Constitutional Law: Speech and Religion

Law School

Recommended for route(s):

[ Transactional ] Business Law: Media, Entertainment, Sports

General course Description:

This is a course about the freedoms of speech, press, religion, and association under the First Amendment. It builds upon Constitutional Law I by examining intensively these two areas of individual rights. Two-thirds of the course will be about freedom of speech. We will ask why government regulates speech (to prevent harms? to protect sensibilities? to redistribute power? to advance the interests and ideas of the politically powerful?), how government regulates speech (by aiming at messages? by aiming at markets? by aiming at when and where speech takes place? by conditioning subsidies?), and what justifications are ever sufficient for limiting speech. We will include consideration of the institutional press and new technologies including the Internet, as well as the rights of private organizations to determine their membership and organization. One-third of the course will be about religion. We will ask how the twin constraints of the Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses relate, looking especially at notions of neutrality, voluntarism, separation, and accommodation. We will also explore the implications of religious convictions for democratic politics

Course Style: A Substantive course teaches the law, theory, and policy in a particular area of law

Course Frequency: Offered twice a year

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