Week 1

Week 1: The Digital World and the Bill of Rights

This week we will review the Bill of Rights and discuss the historical backdrop in which the Amendments were drafted. Then with this as our frame, we will explore the role of digital technology in daily life. We will assess the many areas of our lives in which we have become a digitally dependant society and the many ways in which digital technology enhances some of the fundamental values underpinning the Bill of Rights.

Required readings:

• U.S. Const. Amend. I-X.
• Jack Balkin, Digital Speech and Democratic Culture, 79 N.Y.U. L. REV. 1 (2004).
• John Palfrey & Urs Gasser, Born Digital: Understanding The First Generation of Digital Natives (2008), Ch. 1: Identities and Ch. 2: Dossiers.
• John Perry Barlow, The Economy of Ideas, WIRED, Mar. 1994.