Week 4: First Amendment: Prohibiting Speech – Limitations on Student Speech and Filtering

With young people composing a large part of the population in the digital world, concerns about student speech and arguments in favor of Internet filtering come up frequently. This class will explore both the increasing government regulation of what young people are allowed to say and the information they are allowed to receive. In assessing various cases, this class will touch on the “overbreadth” doctrine, central to First Amendment law, which requires government restrictions on speech to be narrowly tailored so as not to unnecessarily trample on free speech.

Required readings:

1. Student Speech:

• Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, 399 U.S. 503 (1969) – case summary only, available at http://www.abanet.org/publiced/lawday/tinker/case.html.
• Morse v. Frederick, 551 U.S. 393 (2007), available at http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/06pdf/06-278.pdf .
• Doninger v. Niehoff, No. 07-3885-cv (2d Cir. 2008), available at http://www.citmedialaw.org/sites/citmedialaw.org/files/2008-05-29-Doninger%20Second%20Circuit%20Opinion.pdf.

2. Filtering:

• Reno v. ACLU (Reno I), 521 U.S. 844 (1997) (The CDA Case), available at http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=000&invol=96-511.
• United States v. ALA, 539 U.S. 194 (2003), available at http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/jbalkin/telecom/us_v_ala.pdf.
• Declan McCullagh, N.Y. Attorney General Forces ISPs to Curb Usenet, CNet News, June 10, 2008, http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-9964895-38.html.