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Last week Rowman and Littlefield released Collins & Skover's  (hard cover: $30 with photos). Here is the abstract of our latest book:

 name does not appear in any First Amendment treatise or casebook. And yet when the best-selling poet and proprietor of was indicted under California law for publishing and selling poem, , Ferglinghetti buttressed the tradition of dissident expression and ended an era when minds were still closed, candid literature still taboo, and when selling banned books was considered a crime.

The People v. Ferlinghetti is the story of a rebellious poet, a revolutionary poem, an intrepid book publisher, and a bookseller unintimidated by federal or local officials. There is much color in that story: the bizarre twists of the trial, the swagger of the lead lawyer, the savvy of the young ACLU lawyer, and the surprise verdict of the Sunday school teacher who presided as judge. With a novelist’s flair, noted free speech authorities, Ronald K. L. Collins and David Skover tell the true story of an American maverick who refused to play it safe and who in the process gave staying power to freedom of the press in America. The People v. Ferlinghetti will be of interest to anyone interested [in] the history of free speech in America and the history of the Beat poets.

Blurbs

• • “Lawrence Ferlinghetti is a too little recognized one-hundred year old First Amendment hero, a poet, painter, bookseller and book publisher whose devotion to freedom of expression has been boundless. In this splendid book about Ferlinghetti, Collins and Skover combine a mastery of narrative with profound insight in a manner that inspires us all to recommit ourselves to the uniquely American experiment in free-speech freedom.” (Floyd Abrams, Senior Counsel, Cahill Gordon & Reindel)
  • “When it comes to First Amendment scholarship and storytelling, Collins and Skover are in a league of their own. With verve and vision, their engaging free speech narratives capture what has often been overlooked. That their latest work should focus on Lawrence Ferlinghetti (that rebel poet and publisher) is no surprise. His story lends itself perfectly to the kind of First Amendment history that sorely needs to be retold with historical accuracy, jurisprudential insight, and literary élan — the very kind of undertaking Collins and Skover have perfected.” (Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean and Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law, University of California, Berkeley School of Law)
  • “A riveting and rollicking account of a mad effort to prosecute a poem — and its publisher and Bookseller. Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s bold defense of freedom of the press is a remarkable story, told here in the poetic spirit of its protagonists.” (David Cole, National Legal Director, American Civil Liberties Union)
    
    

    Related

    • Collins & Skover, , Publishers Weekly (March 8, 2019)
    • FAN 42: (January 7, 2015)

    Upcoming Appearances 

    • City Lights Bookstore, San Francisco, Tuesday, March 26th at 7 pm
    • Flying Dog Brewery, Frederick, MD, Sunday, April 14th at 3:00 – 5:00 pm

    Headline: Rep. Devin Nunes Sues Twitter in Defamation Action

    • Quint Forgey, , Politico (March 18, 2019)

    Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) has sued Twitter and three of its users for $250 million in damages, alleging that he was defamed and that the social media juggernaut engages in the “shadow-banning” of conservative opinions and selectively enforces its terms of service to benefit opponents of the Republican Party.

    Nunes also claims in the 40-page lawsuit, dated Monday and filed in the Virginia Circuit Court in Henrico County on Tuesday, that Twitter sought to influence his 2018 reelection race and interfere with his investigation into Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and Russian involvement in the 2016 elections. Nunes oversaw that inquiry as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee — a role he held until Democrats officially retook the House in January.

    9th Cir. Rejects Student's First Amendment Claim RE: Off-Campus Private Journal "Hit List" Entry

    • (9th Cir., 2019) (per curiam) ("An Oregon student has lost out on a First Amendment challenge to his one-year expulsion from school over a private journal entry that threatened violence to fellow students and a former employee at his high school. . . ." Source )

    ACLU, Knight First Amendment Institute, & Reporters Committee File Amicus Brief in DNC v. Russian Federation

    :

    [W]hether an act of publication that would otherwise be protected by the First Amendment loses that protection simply because a source acquired the published information unlawfully.

    The brief explains that the Supreme Court has recognized broad First Amendment protection for the publication of information of public concern and that it has extended that protection even to the publication of information acquired unlawfully in the first instance, so long as the publishing party was "not involved in the initial illegality."

    Adler: "SCOTUS Still Won't Allow TV Cameras — But What About Same-Day Audio?"

    • Jonathan H. Adler, , The Volokh Conspiracy (March 15, 2019)

    Laura Weinrib to Lecture on the "Weaponization" of the First Amendment

     Center for Western Civilization, Thought & Policy:

    The  will host law professor for an event on Wed. March 20. Weinrib's lecture "The First Weaponization of the First Amendment," will discuss how the first amendment first became "weaponized" in the 1930s and how that has affected constitutional rights today. She is speaking as part of the Western Civ Dialogue Series.

    Weinrib's lecture will explain how in the 30s, radical labor activists first weaponized the first amendment. She argues that the unusual coalition between the activists and business leaders helped to make judicial enforcement of free speech a central feature of American constitutional democracy. Weinrib will explain how this forgotten bargain backfired and how it has implicated the contest over constitutional rights in the present day.

    Sponsors: , the , and the 

    Date: March 20, 2019

    Location: Hale Science, room 270, beginning at 5:30 pm. The discussion will be followed by a Q&A session and a small reception.

    Register: via . Students, faculty, and members of the public are encouraged to attend the lecture.

    Preempting Common Law: State Torts, Other Civil Actions & the First Amendment 

    • Jeff Gordon, , William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal (2018). Abstract:

    In state courts across the Nation, an absolutist conception of the First Amendment is preempting common law speech torts. From intentional infliction of emotional distress and intrusion upon seclusion, to intentional interference with contractual relations and negligent infliction of emotional distress, state courts are dismissing speech tort claims on the pleadings because of the broad First Amendment defense recognized by Snyder v. Phelps in 2011. This Article argues, contrary to the scholarly consensus, that Snyder was a categorical departure from the methodology adopted by New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, the landmark 1964 case that first applied the First Amendment against state common law. Sullivan, on the one hand, was a classical common law decision, taking the internal point of view with respect to state common law. Snyder, on the other, was only concerned with the existence of protected speech, an issue for which state common law was irrelevant. This Article contends that Snyder's absolutism has negative systemic consequences for judicial federalism: courts are unnecessarily prevented from judging certain conduct right or wrong under the local standards of state tort law, even if the First Amendment ultimately immunizes a defendant from liability. Sullivan's methodology is better than Snyder's because it embraced cooperative judicial federalism. Sullivan has underwritten fifty years of productive state-federal judicial dialogue; in just seven years, Snyder has censored every significant opportunity for cross-systemic judicial conversation.

    Bollinger & Stone: The Free Speech Century

    • (video)
    • , Carnegie Council (video)
    • , WTTW (video)
    • Stepehen Rohde, , LA Review of Books
    • , Columbia Law School

    In Case You Missed It: Yoo & Phillips on Free Speech

    • John Yoo & James C. Phillips, , National Review (Dec. 31, 2018)

    → See also: James R. Stoner, , Claremont Review of Books (Feb. 8, 2018)

    Grants Available for Campus First Amendment PR Campaigns

    Brian Buchanan writing in :

    Now colleges and universities to help public relations and communications classes design public relations campaigns that promote understanding of the First Amendment.

    A new project of 1 for All and the Free Speech Center at Middle Tennessee State University, the program offers $2,000 grants to support college public relations and strategic communications professors who wish to give their students hands-on PR campaign experience while building understanding of the First Amendment.

    “The client is the First Amendment and democracy the beneficiary,” said Ken Paulson, founder of 1 for All and dean of the Middle Tennessee State University College of Media and Entertainment. “With support from these grants, students can design and carry out a campaign that engages their campus on the importance of our First Amendment freedoms.

    “This effort is purely nonpartisan and educational,” said Paulson. “We just want to encourage your people to reflect on the importance of free speech and the value of actually listening to a wide range of ideas.”

    Professors or student PR organizations can apply for the grants simply by sending an email to 1forall@mtsu.edu and making the request. A confirmation will come within 48 hours. Classes will have until Dec. 31, 2019, to spend the funds.

    → Go for more information.

    

    Samuel Chamberlain for : "Shepard Smith Honored with Leonard Zeidenberg Award for Protecting First Amendment Freedoms"

    Fox News' was honored on Wednesday night at the Radio Television Digital News Foundation's 29th annual First Amendment Awards dinner in Washington, D.C., where he received the Leonard Zeidenberg First Amendment Award.

    Smith, the chief news anchor and managing editor for the network's breaking news division, said he was 'humbled and thankful' to receive the award, which previously was given to broadcasting legends David Brinkley, John Chancellor, Mike Wallace and Walter Cronkite.

    'This award I share with my team here [in Washington] and back in New York, who produced and edited and copy-edited and checked again, as we do every single day, our newscast," Smith, the anchor of "Shepard Smith Reporting," said. "... They really are the backbone of what we do because they work so hard to get everything exactly right."

    Forthcoming Book on "Weaponizing the First Amendment" 

    • William Bennett Turner, (June 11, 2019)

    Forthcoming Book on Campus Speech 

    • Miachael S. Roth,  (Aug. 20, 2019)

    Tim Wu: "Is the First Amendment Obsolete?"

    • Tim Wu, , Michigan Law Review (2018)

    New Scholarly Articles 

    • Elizabeth Aronson, , New York University Law Review (2018)
    • Clay Calvert, , William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal (2018)
    • Brian Murchison, , William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal (2018)
    • Student Note, , Harvard Law Review (2018)
    • Abby K. Wood & Ann M. Ravel, , Southern California Law Review (2018)
    • Scott Skinner-Thompson, , Michigan Law Review (2018) (review of The First Amendment & LGBT Equality)

    Podcast Interview: NYT Counsel on Press Freedom in Trump Era

    • Terry Gross, , NPR (March 12, 2019)

    Podcast: "The Great Firewall of China: How to Build and Control an Alternative Version of the Internet"

    • Maury Shenk interviews , a journalist based in Hong Kong and the author of the new book, "," The Volokh Conspiracy (March 13, 2019)

    So to Speak Podcast: Worst Colleges RE: Free Speech 

    • FIRE’s 2019 Worst Colleges for Free Speech

    Related

    • Sarah McLaughlin, UC Davis confirms professor will not be investigated for years-old tweets amid legislative pressure, ��ݮ��ƵAPP���� (March 18, 2019)

    New & Notable Blog Posts

    • Ruthann Robson, , Constitutional Law Prof Blog (March 15, 2019)
    • Ruthann Robson, , Constitutional Law Prof Blog (March 14, 2019)

    News, Editorials, & Op-Eds

    • Greg Piper, , The College Fix (March 18, 2019)
    • Eriq Gardner, , Hollywood Reporter (March 15, 2019)
    • Matthew S. Schwartz, , NPR (March 15, 2019)
    • David Hudson, Jr., , First Amendment Encyclopedia (March 14, 2019)
    • Jeff Joseph, , The Hill (March 13, 2019)
    • David L. Hudson, Jr., , ABA J (March 12, 2019)

    2018–2019 Term: Free Expression & Related Cases

    Cert. Granted

    Pending: Cert. Petitions

    Cert. Denied

    • (reply brief)
    • (Thomas, J., concurring in denial of cert. with opinion)
    • (net neutrality)

    FOIA: Review Granted

    Free Expression Related Cases: Review Granted

    • (probable cause, first amendment, and retaliation)

    Pending Free Expression Related Cases

    • (standing and gerrymandering)
    • (state action)
    • (Art. III, standing)

    Last Posted FAN

    204.1: Catherine J. Ross: “Trump’s Latest Threat to Free Speech and the Academy”

    Last Scheduled FAN

    204: Brooklyn Law School to Host Symposium: Incitement at 100—and 50—and Today: Free Speech and Violence in the Modern World

    Archived First Amendment News