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First Amendment

The First Amendment Issue Group explores the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses and the appropriate relationship between church and state in contemporary society, as well as free speech, free press, free association, and other fundamental rights.

The Issue Group Co-Chairs are:


To get involved in the work of the First Amendment Issue Group, please fill out the Issue Group Sign-Up Form.

Also, please note that ACS ResearchLink features a number of topics related to the First Amendment Issue Group’s work on which law students are encouraged to focus their academic scholarship.
Recent Stories

ACS Convention Panel: Citizens United v. FEC: The Decision, Its Implications, and the Road Ahead

On June 19, at the 2010 ACS National Convention, a panel of experts discussed Citizens United v. FEC: The Decision, Its Implications, and the Road Ahead. The panel featured:

  • Joan Biskupic, Supreme Court Correspondent, USA Today, Moderator;
  • Marc E. Elias, Partner, Perkins Coie LLP;
  • Benjamin L. Ginsberg, Partner, Patton Boggs LLP;
  • Mark Schneider, Associate General Counsel, SEIU;
  • Monica Youn, Counsel, Brennan Center for Justice, New York University School of Law.

ACS Press Briefing on Christian Legal Society v. Martinez

Christian Legal Society v. Martinez

On Wednesday, April 7, 2010, ACS hosted a press briefing on Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, where the Supreme Court will confront the question of whether the Constitution allows a state law school to deny recognition to a religious student organization because the group believes that complying with the school's anti-discrimination policy will compromise its core religious viewpoints. In this case, in order for students to be eligible to be voting members or officers of the Christian Legal Society, the students must affirm their commitment to the group's core beliefs and pledge to live their lives accordingly. Adhering to these core beliefs would exclude a variety of students from these roles, including non-Christian and gay, lesbian, and bisexual students, which conflicts with the school's open-membership policy for recognized student groups.

Beyond Citizens United v. FEC: Re-Examining Corporate Rights


Jeffrey D. Clements

Wed, 11/04/2009

ACS is pleased to distribute “Beyond Citizens United v. FEC: Re-Examining Corporate Rights,” an Issue Brief by Jeffrey D. Clements, an attorney in private practice who specializes in litigation and appeals with the Clements Law Office, LLC. One of the most highly anticipated decisions of the Supreme Court's 2009-2010 term will be the Court's resolution of Citizens United v. FEC. In this campaign finance law case, the Court is considering overruling two of its earlier decisions - Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce and McConnell v. FEC - that upheld the constitutionality of restrictions on corporate political spending at the state and federal levels. Drawing on arguments he made in an amicus brief filed in Citizens United on behalf of five non-profit citizens groups, Mr. Clements argues that, "[w]hether or not the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United explicitly addresses 'corporate rights' under the Constitution, a holding that overrules Austin and McConnell would rest on the remarkable - and erroneous - assumption that the Constitution provides corporations with First Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment rights equivalent to those of people for purposes of political expenditures."

 

Mr. Clements contends that the Citizens United case would lead to an alarming expansion of corporate rights, and discusses how the issues presented in the case have made their way into the mainstream media and prompted warnings to the Court from politicians across the political spectrum about overruling the existing precedent. He argues that these reactions have resulted, in part, because "the Court's decision to examine whether corporations have First and Fourteenth Amendment rights to free speech and political activity has renewed a debate about the place of corporations in our constitutional jurisprudence that has simmered for more than a century." Mr. Clements concludes that "if the Court deems Congress and the states to be powerless to restrict corporate political expenditures ... [s]uch a conclusion by the Court would not only be wildly out of touch with the realities of corporate power in contemporary American life, but would disregard the Court's proper separation over 200 years of the constitutional rights of people from those claimed by corporations."

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The Future of the First Amendment

The American Constitution Society for Law and Policy and the Willamette Center for Religion, Law and Democracy presented:

The Future of the First Amendment

On October 16, 2009, ACS and the Willamette Center for Religion, Law and Democracy co-hosted a symposium that explored various developments in First Amendment law and jurisprudence that have occurred over the past 10 years and what those changes bode for the future interpretation and application of the rights contained in the First Amendment. Nationally recognized scholars and experts explored topics that included government secrecy; access to government information; the regulation of private expression in government workplaces, schools and forums; the regulation of the Internet; the government’s use of religious discourse and displays; and the faith-based initiative.

Who Will Speak for the Child? Human Rights at Home and the Convention on the Rights of the Child

The American Constitution Society for Law and Policy, the PEN American Center, the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at NYU School of Law, and the ACS New York Lawyer Chapter presented:

Who Will Speak for the Child? Human Rights at Home and the Convention on the Rights of the Child

Roughly a year ago, the American Constitution Society for Law & Policy (ACS) published Catherine Powell's Human Rights at Home: A Domestic Policy Blueprint for the New Administration. In this plan for reaffirming and implementing the US commitment to human rights, many recommendations were made, including a call for "the ratification, accompanied by fully adequate implementing legislation, of important human rights treaties to which the United States is not yet a party." One of the treaties mentioned by name is the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). The United Nations General Assembly unanimously adopted the CRC in 1989 and it was instituted as international law in 1990. As the 20th anniversary of its UN adoption passes, the US and Somalia remain the only two nations party to the UN that have not ratified this document.

In their vulnerability and lack of political power, children occupy a unique status in our society and, arguably, are most in need of safeguards to ensure their protection. Acknowledging these realities, the CRC was intended to be a comprehensive, legally-binding human rights treaty for the protection of children irrespective of national boundaries. What may be done to build momentum for CRC ratification? What role can lawyers and policymakers play? What role can writers and the arts play? In the legal and political struggle for human rights, writers have awakened the consciences of nations and reminded citizens of the values that undergird rights, a core belief of the PEN American Center. This panel brought together writers, legal scholars, and advocates for an evening of law and literature.

The panel included introductory remarks from Philip Alston, co-chair of the NYU Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, and featured:

  • Deborah Ellis, award-winning Author of Off to War, The Breadwinner Trilogy, and Three Wishes, among others.

  • Uzodinma Iweala, award-winning Author of Beasts of No Nation
  • Laura W. Murphy, President, Laura Murphy & Associates, LLC
  • Walter Dean Myers, award-winning Author of Dope Sick, Amiri & Odette, and Sunrise Over Fallujah, among others
  • Jonathan Todres, Associate Professor, Georgia State University Law School
  • Moderator, Nadine Strossen, Professor of Law, New York Law School

 

6:30 pm-8:30 pm
Monday, December 7, 2009
New York University Law School, Tishman Auditorium at Vanderbilt Hall
40 Washington Square South
New York, NY 10012

The Internet Revolution and Its Effect of the First Amendment

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