This seminar is designed to explore the role of the Supreme Court and the First Amendment in protecting, encouraging, and regulating free expression in the United States. Class discussion, readings, (and to the extent possible) individual participant reports, will focus on key doctrinal developments, on the extent to which First Amendment values have become part of the prevailing legal/political culture, on the effectiveness of judicial protection of First Amendment rights, and on contrasting liberal and conservative approaches to defining and implementing First Amendment values.

Since the 1960s consistently, and before that sporadically, the Supreme Court has articulated a liberal theory of the First Amendment which emphasizes the importance of free expression for its own sake as well as its unique instrumental role in the achievement and preservation of other cherished rights.