Clay Calvert, director of the Marion B. Brechner First Amendment Project and Brechner Eminent Scholar in Mass Communication at the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications (UFCJC), and Frank LoMonte, UFCJC Brechner Center for Freedom of Information director  were published in the Washington University Journal of Law and Policy, Volume 65 (2021: The New First Amendment.

Calvert is the author of “Curing the First Amendment Scrutiny Muddle: Through a Breyer-Based Blend Up? Toward a Less Categorical, More Values-Oriented Approach for Selecting Standards of Judicial Review.”

In the article, Calvert argues that the U.S. Supreme Court should significantly alter its current categorical approach for discerning standards of judicial review in free-speech cases.

According to Calvert, “Given the frequent divide along partisan lines on today’s Supreme Court over scrutiny in First Amendment speech cases, a two-tiered approach that blends aspects of a categorical strategy with a values-and-interests tack provides a path forward as the Court moves fully into the third decade of the twenty-first century.”

LoMonte is the author of “Censorship Makes the School Look Bad: Why Courts and Educators Must Embrace the ‘Passionate Conversation.’” In the article, he draws a map for the Supreme Court to revisit its 1988 Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier decision legitimizing censorship in public schools, pointing to advances in publishing technology and the flow of information that make it both futile and unnecessary for schools to filter the content of student publications in a way that might have been justifiable in the 1980s.

According to LoMonte, the article specifically highlights how the Court’s focus in Hazelwood on preserving the reputation of the school against association with political controversy has been discredited, which calls for revisiting the doctrine as the Court has done with other outdated precedents.

Posted: June 23, 2021
Category: Brechner Center, College News, Marion B. Brechner First Amendment Project News
Tagged as: Brechner Center for Freedom of Information, Clay Calvert, Frank LoMonte, Marion B. Brechner First Amendment Project