Overview of Major Topics Covered:
Freedom of Speech, The Justifications for Protesting Speech; Advocacy of Illegal Action; Content-Based Restrictions on Speech; The “Fighting Words” Doctrine; Defamation; Emotional Distress; Invasion of Privacy; Obscenity; Offensive Speech; Child Pornography; Pornography as Discrimination Against Women; Commercial Speech; Hate Speech; Campaign Finance; Overbreadth and Vagueness; The Prohibition Against Prior Restraints, Licensing; Injunctions; Content-Neutral Speech Restrictions, Public Forum Doctrine; O’Brien and Other Time, Place, and Manner Restrictions; Technology and the First Amendment; The Press Clause; Does the Constitution Grant the Press a Preferred Position?; Access to Judicial Proceedings; The Press and Due Process; Prior Restraints; Freedom of Expression and Compelled Speech, The Right of Association; Compelled Speech; Government as Employer, Educator, and Funder, First Amendment Rights of Public Employees; Student Free Speech Rights; Government Funding of Speech; The Religious Clauses, Overview of the Religious Clauses; The Establishment Clause; Financial Aid to Religion, Early Cases; The Lemon Test and Doctrinal Turmoil; Agostini & Mitchell; School Vouchers; School Prayer; Curricular Issues; Official Acknowledgement; Establishment-Free Exercise and Free Speech Tensions; The Free Exercise Clause; Burdens on Religion, Early Cases; Sherbert, Yoder, and the Heightened Review; Modern Cases (Smith and Lyng); Discrimination Against Religion

About the Professor:
Russell L. Weaver holds the titles of Professor of Law and Distinguished University Scholar at the Louis D. Brandeis School of Law at the University of Louisville. He is particularly noted for his work in the constitutional law area, having served as a consultant to the constitutional drafting commissions of Belarus and Kyrgyzstan and as a commentator on the Russian Constitution. His constitutional law writings have focused on free speech issues, particularly those relating to the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision in N.Y. Times v. Sullivan, and include a Constitutional Law casebook, a First Amendment casebook, The First Amendment Anthology and The Constitutional Law Anthology. In 1992 and 1993, he served as a consultant to the Administrative Conference of the United States. He was named the Judge Spurgeon Bell Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law at South Texas College of Law during the 1998–1999 academic year, and he held the Herbert Herff Chair of Excellence at the Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law, University of Memphis, during 1992–1993.