Law Faculty

Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, No. 08-205 (2010) Facts—The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (BCRA) prohibited corporations and unions from making independent expenditures for electioneering communications within 30 days of a primary election. McConnell v. Federal Election Commission…

Republican Party of Minnesota v. White, 536 U.S. 765; 122 S. Ct. 2528; 153 L. Ed. 2d 694 (2002) Facts—The Minnesota Supreme Court issued a rule that prohibited judicial candidates from announcing their view on disputed legal or political issues.…

Elrod v. Burns, 427 U.S. 347; 96 S. Ct. 2673; 49 L. Ed. 2d 547 (1976) Facts—Non–civil service employees of the Cook County Sheriff’s Office in Illinois who were Republicans sought an injunction to prevent the newly elected Democrat from…

Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U.S. 1; 96 S. Ct. 612; 46 L. Ed. 2d 659 (1976) Facts—Congress passed in 1971, and in 1974 amended, the Federal Election Campaign Act. This act broadly attempted to limit individual political contributions to $1,000…

Hustler Magazine v. Falwell, 485 U.S. 46; 108 S. Ct. 876; 99 L. Ed. 2d 41 (1988) Facts—In a district court Jerry Falwell, a nationally known minister, sought to recover damages for libel and intentional infliction of emotional distress arising…

Chandler and Granger v. Florida, 449 U.S. 560; 101 S. Ct. 802; 66 L. Ed. 2d 740 (1981) Facts—A canon of the Florida Code of Judicial Conduct permitted still photography and electronic media coverage of judicial proceedings subject to the…

Richmond Newspapers, Inc. v. Commonwealth of Virginia, 448 U.S. 555; 100 S. Ct. 2814; 65 L. Ed. 2d 973 (1980) Facts—Before the trial of a suspected murderer began, counsel for the defendant moved that the proceedings be closed to the…

Gannett Co. v. DePasquale, 443 U.S. 368; 99 S. Ct. 2898; 61 L. Ed. 2d 608 (1979) Facts—Two men committed murder. At their pretrial hearing their attorneys requested that the public and the press be excluded so as not to…

Herbert v. Lando, 441 U.S. 153; 99 S. Ct. 1635; 60 L. Ed. 2d 115 (1979) Facts—In 1969–1970, Anthony Herbert, a retired army officer, received substantial publicity when he accused his superiors of covering up war atrocities. Three years later,…

Nebraska Press Association v. Stuart, 427 U.S. 539; S. Ct. 2791; 49 L. Ed. 2d 683 (1976) Facts—On October 18, 1975, the police found six members of the Henry Kellie family murdered in their home in Sutherland, Nebraska, a town…

Branzburg v. Hayes, in re Pappas; United States v. Caldwell, 408 U.S. 205; 92 S. Ct. 2646; 33 L. Ed. 2d 626 (1972) Facts—On November 15, 1969, the Louisville Courier-Journal carried a story under Paul Branzburg’s byline describing in detail…

New York Times Company v. United States, 403 U.S. 713; 91 S. Ct. 2140; 29 L. Ed. 2d 820 (1971) Facts—The U.S. went to district court to enjoin publication of the Pentagon Papers by the New York Times and the…

New York Times Company v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254; 84 S. Ct. 710; 11 L. Ed. 2d 686 (1964) Facts—Sullivan, a City Commissioner of Montgomery County, Alabama, brought a civil action for libel against the New York Times and various…

Martin v. City of Struthers, Ohio, 319 U.S. 141; 63 S. Ct. 862; 87 L. Ed. 1313 (1943) Facts—An ordinance of the city of Struthers made it unlawful for any person distributing circulars or handbills from door to door to…

Bridges v. California (Times-Mirror Co. v. Superior Court of California) 314 U.S. 252; 62 S. Ct. 190; 86 L. Ed. 892 (1941) Facts—While a motion for a new trial was pending in a case involving a dispute between an AFL…

Grosjean v. American Press Co., 297 U.S. 233; 56 S. Ct. 444; 80 L. Ed. 660 (1936) Facts—A group of newspapers in the state of Louisiana brought suit to prevent enforcement of a statute levying a 2 percent gross receipts…

Near v. Minnesota ex rel. Olson, 283 U.S. 697; 51 S. Ct. 625; 75 L. Ed. 1357 (1931) Facts—A Minnesota statute provided for the abatement, as a public nuisance, of a “malicious, scandalous and defamatory newspaper, magazine, or other periodical.”…

Abrams v. United States, 250 U.S. 616; 40 S. Ct. 17; 63 L. Ed. 1173 (1919) Facts—Abrams and four other Russians were indicted for conspiring to violate the Espionage Act. They published two leaflets that denounced the efforts of capitalist…

Rumsfeld v. Forum, 547 U.S. 47; 126 S. Ct. 1297; 164 L. Ed. 2d 156 (2006) Facts—The Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights, Inc. (FAIR), an association of law schools and law faculties, challenged the Solomon Amendment, which tied federal…

Boy Scouts of America v. Dale, 530 U.S. 640; 120 S. Ct. 2446; 147 L. Ed. 2d 554 (2000) Facts—The Monmouth Council of the Boy Scouts of America revoked the adult membership of an assistant scoutmaster, James Dale, a former…

Hurley v. Irish-American Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Group of Boston, 515 U.S. 557; 115 S. Ct. 2338; 132 L. Ed. 2d 487 (1995) Facts—Since 1947 an unincorporated group of veterans has sponsored the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Boston. In…

Frisby v. Schultz, 487 U.S. 474; 108 S. Ct. 2495; 101 L. Ed. 2d 420 (1988) Facts—Brookfield, Wisconsin, is a residential suburb of Milwaukee. It has a population of about 5,000. Antiabortionists Sandra Schultz and Robert Braun, along with others,…

Board of Directors of Rotary International v. Rotary Club of Duarte, 481 U.S. 537; 107 S. Ct. 1940; 95 L. Ed. 2d 474 (1987) Facts—Each local Rotary Club is a member of Rotary International in which (as of 1982) there…

Branti v. Finkel, 445 U.S. 507; 100 S. Ct. 1287; 63 L. Ed. 2d 574 (1980) Facts—Finkel and Tabakman, two Republican assistant public defenders, were about to be discharged by Branti, the newly appointed county public defender, who was a…

NAACP v. Alabama, 357 U.S. 449; 78 S. Ct. 1163; 2 L. Ed. 2d 1488 (1958) Facts—Alabama sought to enjoin the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) from conducting further activities within the state. As a foreign…