09/01 Introduction to C339 Freedom of Speech

09/03 Can You Paint "Free Speech" Green?

Read: “There is No Such Thing As Free Speech … and It’s A Good Thing
Too,” an interview with Stanley Fish, Australian Humanities Review February, 1998.*

09/08 “Free Speech” as Liberal-Democratic Ideograph

Read: Michael C. McGee, “The Ideograph: A Link Between Rhetoric and Ideology,”
Quarterly Journal of Speech 66 (1980): 1-16.*

Tedford and Herbeck, 3-24.

U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights (Find Law.com)

09/10 Read a Free Speech Controversy Legally

Read: Tedford and Herbeck on "Flag Desecration," 284-288

Texas v Johnson (1989) 109 S. Ct. 2533

*** Find Texas v. Johnson on Lexus/Nexus (available through the IUB Library portal),
print the entire decision and bring it with you to class.

09/15 Reading A Free Speech Controversy Legally Continued

Read: Texas v. Johnson (1989) 109 S.Ct. 2533

09/17 Reading A Free Speech Controversy Rhetorically

Read: Transcript of the Oral Argument in Texas v. Johnson*

William Lewis, “Of Innocence, Exclusion, and the Burning of Flags: The Romantic Realism
of the Law,” Southern Journal of Communication 60 (1994): 4-21.*

09/22 In-Class Writing Workshop

*** Bring draft of Essay #1 to class.

09/24 The First Challenge to “Free Speech” – The Alien and Sedition Acts

Read: Tedford and Herbeck, 24-39 (esp. 28-33).

Debates on “Seditious Practices” in Annals of the History of Congress, June 16, 1798,
pp. 1954-1971.*

Essay #1 Due In-Class

09/29 Establishing the 20th Century Grounds of Dissent – Free Speech and Free Markets

Read: Tedford and Herbeck, 45-51.

Background on the case of Charles T. Schenck, Assert Your Rights*

Schenck v. U.S., 249 U.S. 47 (1919)

10/01 From “Bad Tendency” to “Clear and Present Danger

Read: Tedford and Herbeck, 51-53

Abrams v. U.S., 250 U.S. 616 (1919)

10/06 Group Reports on The Evolution of Seditious Libel

Read: Tedford and Herbeck, 53-58

Group A Presentation: Gitlow v. New York, 268 U.S. 652 (1925)
Group B Presentation: Whitney v. California, 274 U.S. 357 (1927)

10/08 Group Reports on The Evolution of Seditious Libel

Read: Tedford and Herbeck, 58-72

Group C Presentaton: Dennis v. U.S., 341 U.S. 494 (1951)
Group D Presentation: Brandenburg v. Ohio, 395 U.S. 444 (1969)

10/13 Sedition and Dissent Post 9/11

Read: Law 107-56-Oct. 26, 2001 (Patriot Act) (esp. Sects. 1, 206, 214, 215, 216, 411,
and 802).

Review the DOJ Website: Preserving Life and Liberty

10/15 Sedition and Dissent Post 9/11 Continued

Read: Chang, Silencing Dissent, 43-66, 92-124.

The Case of Brett A. Burney

Review the EFF Website: Chilling Effects of Anti-Terrorism

10/20 Constituting “Free Speech” in the We of 9/11

Essay # 2 Due In-Class

10/22 The “Fighting Words” Exception

Read: Tedford and Herbeck, 164-174

Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire, 315 U.S. 568 (1942)

Cohen v. California, 403 U.S. 15 (1971)

10/27 The Liberal Defense of “Provocation” – The “More Speech” Standard

Read: Franklyn S. Haiman, “Nazis in Skokie: Anatomy of the Heckler’s Veto.” Keynote
Address to the Pennsylvania Speech Communication Association, October, 1978.*

Franklyn S. Haiman, “Symbolic Battery,” in Speech and Law in a Free Society. Chicago:
U. of Chicago Press, 1981. 131-156.*

10/29 The Radical Critique of “Hate Speech” – “Equality” vs. “Free Speech”

Read: Tedford and Herbeck, 175-181.

Matsuda, Mari J. “Public Response to Racist Speech: Considering the Victim’s
Story” in Mari J. Matsuda, et al., Words That Wound: Critical Race Theory,
Assaultive Speech, and the First Amendment. Boulder, CO: Westview Press,
1993. 17-51. *

Description of your final project + preliminary bibliography due-in class.

11/03 The Liberal Defense of the “Free Market” Rediva

Read: Transcript of Oral Argument in R.A.V. vs. City of St. Paul, MN**

R.AV. v. City of St. Paul, MN, 505 U.S. 377 (1992)

Matsuda, Mari J. and Charles R. Lawrence III, “Epilogue: Burning Crosses and
the R.A.V. Case” in Words That Wound, 133-136.*

11/05 Evaluating Campus Speech Codes

Read: A Robust Discussion of "Hate Speech" and the College Campus

Code of Student Rights, Responsibilities, and Conduct

PART FOUR
“FREE SPEECH,” HYPERSPACE, AND THE
FUTURE OF LIBERAL-DEMOCRACY

11/10 Surfing and “Free Speech”

Read: Tedford and Herbeck, 385-409

Reno v. ACLU (CDA), 521 U.S. 844 (1997)

11/12 Does The Internet Provide More Democracy?

Read: Sunstein, Republic.com, 1-88.

Skim Book Reviews of Republic.com

11/17 Cybercitizens

Read: Sunstein, Republic.com, 89-166

Review the website The Nuremberg Files. Please note that some of the images on this site
are disturbing

11/19 Technology and Democracy: Is the Future Utopian or Dystopian?

Read: Sunstein, Republic.com, 167-202

11/24 No Class – National Communication Association Convention

11/26 Thanksgiving

12/01 Presentation of Final Essays

12/03 Presentation of Final Essays

Essay #3 Due in-class

12/08 Presentation of Final Essays

12/10 Presentation of Final Essays, Class Wrap-Up

 

Return to Course Home Page