Overview

In Fear and the First Amendment, Kevin A. Johnson and Craig R. Smith offer an examination of the ways fear figures in First Amendment questions ruled on by the Supreme Court. Johnson and Smith focus on the rulings from the Roberts Court. Each chapter in this book analyzes one or more First Amendment cases and a variety of related fears that pertain to a given case. These cases include Morse v. Frederick, which takes up the competing fears of school administrators' loss of authority and students' loss of free speech rights. The authors touch on corporate funding of elections in Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission. They explore religious freedom and fears of homosexuality in Christian Legal Society v. Martinez. Similarly, in Snyder v. Phelps, the authors delve further into fears of God, death, emotional distress, failing as a parent, and losing one's reputation. Next, they investigate parents' anxieties about violence in video games in Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association. Finally, Johnson and Smith examine the role of fear in indecent, obscene, and graphic communication in three cases. Together these cases reveal fear to be an endemic factor in the rhetoric of First Amendment cases. This work will appeal to current legal practitioners and students of law, rhetoric, philosophy, and the First Amendment.

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Craig R. Smith is emeritus professor of communication studies at California State University, Long Beach. He has published over twenty books and sixty-five scholarly articles. Kevin A. Johnson is professor of communication studies at California State University, Long Beach, and director of the Center for First Amendment Studies. He has published over thirty scholarly articles and served as editor of the National Communication Association's First Amendment Studies and Communication and Democracy journals. David Marantz is a voice talent and Earphones Award-winning narrator.

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