The First Amendment is vital to our political system, our cultural institutions, and our routine social interactions with others. In this provocative book, Kevin Saunders asserts that freedom of expression can be very harmful to our children, making it more likely that they will be the perpetrators or victims of violence, will grow up as racists, or will use alcohol or tobacco. Saving Our Children from the First Amendment examines both the value and cost of free expression in America, demonstrating how an unregulated flow of information can be detrimental to youth. While the great value of the First Amendment is found in its protection of our most important political freedoms, this is far more significant for adults, who can fully grasp and benefit from the freedom of expression, than for children. Constitutional prohibitions on distributing sexual materials to children, Saunders proposes, should be expanded to include violent, vulgar, or profane materials, as well as music that contains hate speech. Saunders offers an insightful meditation on the problem of protecting our children from the negative effects of freedom of expression without curtailing First Amendment rights for adults.
Free Expression and Democracy takes on the assumption that limits on free expression will lead to authoritarianism or at least a weakening of democracy. That hypothesis is tested by an examination of issues involving expression and their treatment in countries included on The Economist's list of fully functioning democracies. Generally speaking, other countries allow prohibitions on hate speech, limits on third-party spending on elections, and the protection of children from media influences seen as harmful. Many ban Holocaust denial and the desecration of national symbols. Yet, these other countries all remain democratic, and most of those considered rank more highly than the United States on the democracy index. This book argues that while there may be other cultural values that call for more expansive protection of expression, that protection need not reach the level present in the United States in order to protect the democratic nature of a country.
This timely and accessible volume takes a fresh approach to a question of increasing public concern: whether or not the federal government should regulate media violence. In Violence as Obscenity, Kevin W. Saunders boldly calls into question the assumption that violent material is protected by the First Amendment. Citing a recognized exception to the First Amendment that allows for the regulation of obscene material, he seeks to expand the definition of obscenity to include explicit and offensive depictions of violence. Saunders examines the public debate on media violence, the arguments of professional and public interest groups urging governmental action, and the media and the ACLU's desire for self-regulation. Citing research that links violence in the media to actual violence, Saunders argues that a present danger to public safety may be reduced by invoking the existing law on obscenity. Reviewing the justifications of that law, he finds that not only is the legal history relied on by the Supreme Court inadequate to distinguish violence from sex, but also many of the justifications apply more forcefully to instances of violence than to sexually explicit material that has been ruled obscene. Saunders also examines the actions that Congress, states, and municipalities have taken to regulate media violence as well as the legal limitations imposed on such regulations by the First Amendment protections given to speech and the press. In discussing the current operation of the obscenity exception and confronting the issue of censorship, he advocates adapting to the regulation of violent material the doctrine of variable obscenity, which applies a different standard for material aimed at youth, and the doctrine of indecency, which allows for federal regulation of broadcast material. Cogently and passionately argued, Violence as Obscenity will attract scholars of American constitutional law and mass communication, and general readers moved by current debates about media violence, regulation, and censorship.
African Americans have risen from the slave plantations of nineteenth-century Florida to become the heads of corporations and members of Congress in the twenty-first century. They have played an important role in making Florida the successful state it is today. This book takes you on a tour, through the 67 counties, of the sites that commemorate the role of African Americans in Florida's history. If we can learn more about our past, both the good and the not-so-good, we can make better decisions in the future. Behind the hundreds of sites in this book are the courageous African Americans like Brevard County's Malissa Moore, who hosted many Saturday night dinners to raise money to build a church, and Miami-Dade's Gedar Walker, who built the first-rate Lyric Theater for black performers. And of course also featured are the more famous black Floridians like Zora Neale Hurston, Jackie Robinson, Mary McCleod Bethune, and Ray Charles.
The First Amendment is vital to our political system, our cultural institutions, and our routine social interactions with others. In this provocative book, Kevin Saunders asserts that freedom of expression can be very harmful to our children, making it more likely that they will be the perpetrators or victims of violence, will grow up as racists, or will use alcohol or tobacco. Saving Our Children from the First Amendment examines both the value and cost of free expression in America, demonstrating how an unregulated flow of information can be detrimental to youth. While the great value of the First Amendment is found in its protection of our most important political freedoms, this is far more significant for adults, who can fully grasp and benefit from the freedom of expression, than for children. Constitutional prohibitions on distributing sexual materials to children, Saunders proposes, should be expanded to include violent, vulgar, or profane materials, as well as music that contains hate speech. Saunders offers an insightful meditation on the problem of protecting our children from the negative effects of freedom of expression without curtailing First Amendment rights for adults.
Constitutional law is one of the most engaging and yet challenging first year law classes. At the confluence of history, politics, legal theory, and judicial review, it requires students to learn a new framework for legal interpretation and thought unique from other areas of law. For the first time, Oxford University Press equips students with an accessible guide to acing these challenging constitutional law exams. In Constitutional Law: Model Problems and Outstanding Answers, Kevin Saunders and Michael Lawrence help students demonstrate their knowledge of constitutional law in the structured and sophisticated manner that professors expect on law school exams. The book provides clear introductions on the fundamental topics in constitutional law, provides hypotheticals similar to those that students can expect to see on an exam, including multi-issue questions, and offers model answers to those hypotheticals. Professors Saunders and Lawrence then also coach students in how to evaluate their own work with a comprehensive self-analysis section. Constitutional Law: Model Problems and Outstanding Answers prepares students by challenging them to use the law they learn in class while also explaining the best way to express sophisticated answers on law school exams. Model Problems and Outstanding Answers is an innovative new series by Oxford University Press. Featuring topical introductions and clear fact patterns, each book contains exercises designed to help students develop methods to craft organized, relevant, and thoughtful responses to exam-style questions. These exercises show the student how to think like a lawyer. By guiding students to the most appropriate ways to apply their knowledge to new facts, the series offers meaningful and significant preparation for law school exams and bar-exam essays. Current titles in the series include Federal Income Taxation, Civil Procedure, and Criminal Law.
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