The past few years have seen an increase in partisan political attempts to restrict the public education curriculum and to portray some forms of public education as a social harm. Two targets are particularly evident: teaching about the history, policies, and actions of the state of Israel and teaching about the history and perpetuation of racism…

Academic freedom is at the very center of the modern university; it promotes discovery and teaching of the best possible knowledge. The need for improved regulations governing academic freedom is currently growing as a century-long consensus that focused on granting faculty members the most expansive academic freedom rights is breaking down; other…

Each year, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) conducts a wide, detailed survey of restrictions on speech at America's colleges and universities. The survey and resulting report explore the extent to which schools are meeting their obligations to uphold students' and faculty members' rights to freedom of speech, freedom of…

The Christian Right opposes the inclusion of sexual orientation in school policies, charging that the schools are legitimating and promoting homosexuality. The arguments have moved past the trite, "God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve," to claims of violations of parental rights and the First Amendment, often positioning…

First Amendment principles are fragile, unless they have widespread public support. People form lasting views about civil liberties and other political issues in adolescence. They are influenced by many factors, including what they learn and experience in schools. Therefore, schools' treatment of the Constitution and the press is important for the…

A study examined the current United States Supreme Court's treatment of the legal concept of freedom of expression by exploring its decisions and opinions on a quantitative basis. The individual votes and the opinions or legal rationales of the justices were recorded for the 43 First Amendment cases decided by the court between the 1981…

John Tinker and Mary Beth Tinker are back in a classroom in their hometown, once again wearing black armbands and drawing attention to a war. Now in their 50s, the siblings are living symbols of constitutional rights for secondary school students. In 1965, they and a handful of others were suspended for wearing black armbands to their public…

Noting that seldom in American history has a president had the potential opportunity to appoint a majority to the Supreme Court as does Ronald Reagan and that scholars and columnists claim that First Amendment freedoms of the press have been eroding with little public notice over the past few years, this paper explores the prognosis for press…

Intended to summarize the ideals underlying the struggle for freedom of the press and to reinforce the basic Constitutional principles upon which the United States functions, this collection of quotations reflects the beliefs of prominent people throughout history who have championed press freedom, as well as the ideas of some who have opposed it.…

The Williamsburg Charter Foundation is a group a leaders from business, academic, political, and religious communities concerned about the importance of the First Amendment's guarantee of religious liberty in public life and about the ability of people to live together in a spirit of civility despite deep religious differences. This document is a…

A study analyzed U.S. Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell's court opinions on First Amendment issues that affect the daily work of journalists. The results showed that he preferred compromises, guidelines, and tests to either/or solutions. Because Powell sought to balance all interests, he developed no firm theoretical position on the First…

It remains to be seen how a task force from the American Political Science Association will contrive an equality of voice for the politically apathetic, but that goal, they say, is crucial to the continued workings of American democracy. Robert Weissberg wonders how muffling the appeals of those actively engaged in the political process will sit…

Two of Susan Moller Okin's articles are discussed: "Reason and feeling in thinking about justice", "Ethics" 99(2), 1989: 229-49 and "Mistresses of their own destiny: group rights, gender, and realistic rights of exit", "Ethics" 112(2), 2002: 205-30. Her argument on the foundation necessary for Rawls's…

Examines the current relationship between religious liberty and U.S. democracy. Presents a proposal to reforge the U.S. public philosophy according to the notion of chartered pluralism that celebrates the diversity embodied in the First Amendment. Ties this to the conflict between communitarianism and libertarianism. (DB)

The purpose of this study was to determine the attitudes of teenagers toward the First Amendment, to compare the attitudes of Florida teenagers with those of non-Florida teenagers, and to compare the attitudes of journalism students with teenagers not in journalism classes. A total of 430 students from Florida high schools and 457 from high…