The First Amendment, Cases―Comments―Questions (American Casebook Series)

This widely adopted soft cover casebook, adapted from Choper, Dorf, Fallon, and Schauer’s Constitutional Law but with numerous additional references and comments, is designed for a two- or three-unit course in the First Amendment. The new Seventh Edition has been thoroughly revised, tightened, and updated. The authors present the materials in a way that permits instructors to depart from the organization of the casebook with relative ease. The authors also expose students to original perspectives or perspectives they might otherwise miss. Notes and questions enable students to study the variety of competing views embodying the First Amendment as they emerge from concrete cases rather than imposing an abstract characterization and classification on the student at the outset of the study. And the extensive references help students to situate the cases within larger academic and theoretical debates.

The new edition of the casebook contains a revised organization of the basic freedom of speech materials on content regulation, forum analysis, and the coverage/scope of the First Amendment, and further includes hundreds of new cases and references. There has been substantial editing to make way for the new material, and thus the book remains of appropriate size for either a two- or three-unit course. The new speech cases cover issues involving the types of content regulation (Reed v. Town of Gilbert), government speech (Walker v. Texas Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans), racist speech (Matal v. Tam), commercial speech (Expressions Hair Design v. Schneiderman), compelled expression (Janus v. AFSCME and National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v. Becerra), and government motive (Heffernan v. City of Paterson). On freedom of religion, the 7th edition adds extensive coverage of the new cases involving argued hostility to particular religions or religious beliefs (Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission and Trump v. Hawaii) while also providing materials to facilitate discussion and analysis of questions regarding claimed exemptions from laws of general application.