Communication Law<\/p>\n
Paper instructions:
COMM LAW | Prof. Shepard
Midterm Exam Study Guide | Summer 2014<\/p>\n
Textbook Chapters Covered:<\/p>\n
\u2022 1: The American Legal System
\u2022 2: The Legacy of Freedom
\u2022 3: Modern Prior Restraints
\u2022 10: Obscenity
\u2022 4: Libel and Slander<\/p>\n
Major Legal Doctrines and Key Cases (course pack pages 1-145):<\/p>\n
For the following cases, be sure to know the basic facts, the legal question presented, the holding and its rationale, and the central arguments in the majority decision as well as key concurrences and dissents. Know also why the case is significant to Communications Law.<\/p>\n
Sedition and Incitement
? Schenck v. U.S. (1919)
? Abrams v. U.S. (1919)
? Whitney v. California (1927)
? Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969)<\/p>\n
Prior Restraints
? Near v. Minnesota (1931)
? New York Times v. U.S. (Pentagon Papers Case) (1971)
? U.S. v. Progressive (W.D. Wis. 1979)
? Colorado v. Bryant (Col. Sup. Ct. 2004)<\/p>\n
Scrutiny: Intermediate vs. Strict
? U.S. v. O\u2019Brien (1968)
? Texas v. Johnson (1989)
? Ward v. Rock Against Racism (1989)<\/p>\n
Obscenity and Pornography
? Miller v. California (1973)<\/p>\n
Violent, Offensive and Harmful Speech
? U.S. v. Stevens (2010)
? Snyder v. Phelps (2010)
? Brown v. EMA (2011)<\/p>\n
Libel
? New York Times v. Sullivan (1964)
? Gertz v. Robert Welch (1974)<\/p>\n
Topics\/Issues\/Questions:<\/p>\n
The American Legal System
\u2022 Sources of law: Who makes constitutional, common, statutory, administrative, and equity law? What are the differences of each?
\u2022 Structure and role of court system (know the basics about each of the three levels of courts)
\u2022 Civil vs. criminal systems (who are the legal players and what are the punishments in each type of law)
\u2022 Precedent: how\/when do courts accept\/apply, modify, distinguish, overturn precedent? What is judicial restraint?
\u2022 Structure and role of Supreme Court : How the court accepts and handles cases, writ of certiorari<\/p>\n
Freedom of Speech and Press: History and Theory
\u2022 English and colonial roots of free speech and press principles
o Why was the John Peter Zenger libel case so important?
\u2022 1st Amend. values: truth, marketplace of ideas, self-governance, liberty, checking value, safety valve
o Know how particular kinds of First Amendment claims, such as offensive political speech, pornography, or journalist-rights claims, raise different First Amendment values
\u2022 Incorporation: The First Amendment applies to the state governments (Gitlow v. NY) \u2013 know what that means and why it is significant<\/p>\n
Sedition, Incitement and Prior Restraints
\u2022 Sedition (what is it, how were laws punishing sedition treated by the courts historical, what case retroactively said such laws were unconstitutional?
\u2022 Bad tendency and clear and present tests (Schenck, Abrams and Whitney)
\u2022 Brandenburg\u2019s three-prong incitement test
\u2022 \u201cTeaching function\u201d speech \u2013 how do the courts assess what is \u201cabstract advocacy\u201d and \u201cincitement\u201d?
\u2022 What\u2019s a true threat? (has to single out a person for harm)
\u2022 Prior restraints: What are they? When might they be appropriate based on the key precedents of Near v. Minnesota and the Pentagon Papers case?
o Near v. Minnesota and New York Times v. U.S. cases \u2013 What were the lower court rulings in the case? Who sued to stop publication? Why did the courts reject the prior restraints sought?
\u2022 How did the district judge in the Progressive case apply Near and Pentagon Papers to the facts?
\u2022 Based on what rationale\/logic did the Colorado Supreme Court uphold the prior restraint against the press in the Kobe Bryant case?<\/p>\n
First Amendment as Legal Rules
\u2022 Unprotected vs. protected speech
\u2022 Categories of unprotected speech: what are the major categories of unprotected speech?
o Chaplinsky and fight words case set forth principles of unprotected categories
\u2022 Expressive conduct
o Why was flag burning considered to be \u201cexpressive conduct\u201d and not just conduct? (Texas v. Johnson?) How was strict scrutiny applied to strike down the flag burning statute in the case?
o O\u2019Brien case \u2013 sets forth intermediate scrutiny test (\u201cO\u2019Brien test\u201d) \u2013 What were the facts and how did the court treat O\u2019Brien\u2019s claim of expressive conduct?
\u2022 Content-based vs. content-neutral laws: What is the difference between the two? How do the courts decide if a law is content-based?
\u2022 Scrutiny: what is strict scrutiny, intermediate scrutiny and rationale basis, and when is each used?
o What are \u201ccompelling\u201d interests and \u201cleast restrictive means\u201d? (elements of strict scrutiny)
\u2022 Overbreadth and vagueness: What is each and what are examples of cases in which the court used these doctrines to strike down laws as unconstitutional?
\u2022 Public forums: How are they defined, and what First Amendment protections apply there?
\u2022 Time\/place\/manner restrictions (content-neutral laws)
o How did the court apply the time\/place\/manner standards in Ward v. Rock Against Racism?
\u2022 Other key terms: Chilling effect, Secondary effects, Incidental burdens, Heckler\u2019s veto, Captive audience<\/p>\n
Obscenity
\u2022 Miller v. California: know the three prongs of the obscenity test and how they are applied
o How does the majority explain why obscenity is not protected by the First Amendment?
o Who decides whether something is obscene or not?
\u2022 Pornography \u2013 \u201cSecondary effects\u201d and zoning laws: how have courts upheld regulations on accessing adult content?
o Why is nude dancing \u201cexpressive conduct\u201d that gets First Amendment protections?
o What did the 7th circuit say about the status of pornographic expression in Hudnut? Is there social value to pornography?
\u2022 Pornography and the Internet: holding and significance of Reno v. ACLU<\/p>\n
Violent, Offensive and Harmful Speech
\u2022 Brown v. EMA
o How is violence like and dislike obscenity, from a legal standpoint?
o How does the Court apply strict scrutiny analysis in its decision?
o Why does the Court characterize the law as a content-based law?
\u2022 U.S. v. Stevens (2010)
o What was the Supreme Court\u2019s decision and rationale?
o How was the law overbroad?
\u2022 Snyder v. Phelps (2010)
o Why did the Courts strike down the jury\u2019s verdict in this case? What were the rationales? Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress: has First Amendment limitations based on the Hustler v. Falwell precedent
o Why was it important that the speech at issue was on a matter of public concern?<\/p>\n
Libel
\u2022 Elements of libel: defamation, identification, publication, falsity, fault, damages
\u2022 Who has the burden of proof in libel cases?
\u2022 Types of Plaintiffs and different levels of fault: Public officials, public figures (all purpose, limited), private people: what are the general standards courts use to determine status and why it matters
\u2022 Know the two basic levels of fault: Actual Malice and Negligence
o What is it? Who has to prove it? What elements are needed to prove it?
o What are some of the ways to prove actual malice?
\u2022 What standard of fault are required for what types of damages (and for what kinds of plaintiffs)?
\u2022 Defenses: truth, fair report, fair comment and criticism (What is needed to show in order to successfully invoke this defense?)
\u2022 How do courts decide whether a statement in the libel lawsuit is considered a fact vs. opinion? Why is this important? (Milkovich and Ollman cases)
\u2022 Under CA law, what legal incentive is there for news organizations to run corrections for errors?
\u2022 What is the statute of limitations for libel lawsuits in CA?
\u2022 Major Casesd (Sullivan and Gertz): Know basic facts, legal issues, and how the case changed libel law
\u2022 SLAPP statutes: what are they aimed for? How do they work?
\u2022 Online libel issues: ISP immunity from Section 230 of CDA: know the basics, know the definition of ISP vs. \u201cpublisher\u201d and why that\u2019s important<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Communication Law Paper instructions: COMM LAW | Prof. Shepard Midterm Exam Study Guide | Summer 2014 Textbook Chapters Covered: \u2022 1: The American Legal System \u2022 2: The Legacy of Freedom \u2022 3: Modern Prior Restraints \u2022 10: Obscenity \u2022 Read More …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75070\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}