CONTEMPORARY FIRST AMENDMENT ISSUES

FREE SPEECH THEORY IN A COMMERCIAL CULTURE,
THE MEANING OF "DISSENT,"
AND SPEECH RIGHTS IN THE AGE OF ROBOTICS

PROFESSOR SKOVER

 

READING ASSIGNMENTS

 

 
Assignment 1:

Text of the First Amendment - PDF File

History of Speech and Press Freedoms - PDF File

First Amendment Speech Flowchart - PDF File

Outline of First Amendment Doctrines - PDF File

 
Assignment 2:

Normative Value Theories for the Freedoms of Speech and Press - PDF File

Excerpts from John Milton, Areopagitica - PDF File

Excerpts from John Stuart Mill, On Liberty - PDF File

Excerpts from Alexander Meiklejohn, Political Freedom - PDF File

Martin Redish, "The Value of Free Speech" - PDF File

 
Assignment 3:

Ronald Collins & David Skover, On Dissent (2013)

Prologue
Chapter I: From Judicial Dissent to Peaceful Protest
Chapter II: From Civil to Uncivil Disobedience
Chapter III: The Vagaries of Violence

 
Assignment 4:

Ronald Collins & David Skover, On Dissent (2013)

Chapter IV: Dissent, Inc.
Chapter V: Dissent and Law's Parameters
Representation of Conceptual Relationships among Speech Activities & Dissent - PDF File
Epilogue

 
Assignment 5:

Prospectus for Paper or Project #1 due at the beginning of class

Steven Shiffrin, What's Wrong with the First Amendment? (2016)
Introduction & Chapters 3-7

Robert Corn-Revere, "Certainty and the Censor's Dilemma" - PDF File

  
Assignment 6:

Paper or Project #1 due at the beginning of class

Nadine Strossen, HATE: Why We Should Resists It with Free Speech (2018)

 
Assignment 7:

Ronald Collins & David Skover, The Death of Discourse (2005)

Foreword to the 3rd edition (2022) - PDF File
P
rologue
Part I: The Paratroopers' Paradox

 
Assignment 8:

Ronald Collins & David Skover, The Death of Discourse (2005)

Part II: Commerce & Communication

 
Assignment 9:

Prospectus for Paper or Project #2 due at the beginning of class

Ronald Collins & David Skover, The Death of Discourse (2005)

Part III: Discourse & Intercourse

 
Assignment 10:

Paper or Project #2 due at the beginning of class

Ronald Collins & David Skover, The Death of Discourse (2005)

Epilogue
Afterword

 
Assignment 11:

Ronald Collins & David Skover, Robotica (2018)

Prologue
Part I: The Progress & Perils of Communication
Part II: Robots & Their Receivers

  
Assignment 12:

Ronald Collins & David Skover, Robotica (2018)

Part III: The New Norm of Utility
Epilogue: Areopagitica to Robotica
Commentaries
Reply: Robotica Redefined

  
Assignment 13:

Class Presentation of Paper or Project #3


 

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