Under the "commercial speech doctrine," corporations were restricted for many years from speaking out on public issues or engaging in certain advertising practices. This "doctrine" was based on a case from the 1940s, in which the court ruled that purely commercial advertising had no constitutional protection from government…

A review of 16 Federal Court of Appeals cases indicates the impact of the "Connick v. Myers" case on the nature of freedom of speech in public organizations. The case involved the firing of an assistant district attorney for circulating a job satisfaction survey after she was transferred to a less desirable section of the courts. Since…

Argues that the Supreme Court's decision--upholding the constitutionality of disciplinary actions taken against a public high school student who delivered a speech laden with sexual metaphor (though not obscene language) in a nominating assembly--was improper in that it attempted to articulate a false dichotomy between "political…