Monday, September 14 First Amendment ruling; you are the judge

On Friday, we had the First Amendment Assessment.  If you were absent, you will need to make this up in class now.

On Friday, the following cases were posted, and you were requested to select one. The instructions follow.  

Please select one of the following case studies, and rule on the situation as if you were the judge. Cite specific evidence for your ruling based upon your knowledge of the First Amendment. You may use the handout or refer back to last Friday's blog for a copy. Open up a word document. This is due at the close of class on Tuesday. I am giving this to you early, so you may decide how much time you need. Again, the deadline is Tuesday at the close of class, after which the essay is late. 

      (length- 250-300 words) Send along as a word document.  Thank you.

Note that this is a writing assignment. As such, you will be assessed on grammar, spelling, sophistication of syntax and vocabulary, as well as content. You must have specific evidence to make your point. Use the reading from last week and any other sources you wish. (Make sure to cite these!)

This counts in the writing category at 50%.

IMPORTANT: this is not an opinion piece, so detach yourself from emotions and support your ruling based upon the First Amendment.

1. A popular public art project in recent years has been the placement of poetry posters on public transportation for people to read while commuting. Imagine a project to place these posters in buses and subways with the content of the Andres Serrano's "Piss Christ" that presumably would be offensive to some religious sensibilities. What arguments would support exhibition of the posters on the bus? Should a government agency provide funding for the poster? Why or why not?

2. If a consumer reporter said falsely that a restaurant served her food with cockroaches in it, the restaurant could maintain a lawsuit for defamation. If a food critic wrote a review that, in the opinion of the critic, the restaurant's food tasted dreadful, the restaurant could not maintain a lawsuit for defamation. Yet, if the critic is a respected food critic in the city, that opinion could cause as much (if not more) economic harm to the restaurant than the erroneous news report of the consumer reporter. Does the distinction between "falsehood" and "opinion" result in fair results for the restaurant? Is the rationale for allowing defamation lawsuits as a restriction on speech justifiable?