This is the 43rd and last FAN post for this year. All the hyperlinked posts for this year are listed below by month. Also below are some highlights of the past year along with a few “best ofs” of 2016:
Selected Highlights
Deaths: Justice Antonin Scalia. See FAN 97.1: Justice Scalia Dies — Free-Speech Legacy (Feb. 13, 2016)
Supreme Court: The Court decided two First Amendment free speech cases:
- April 26, 2016: Heffernan v. City of Paterson
- March 29, 2016: Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, et al (affirmed by an equally divided Court in a per curiam opinion)
Retirements: Steven Shapiro, the ACLU’s national legal director
Biggest First Amendment issue of 2016: Campus free-speech controversy (yet again!)
Beta launch of FIRE’s online First Amendment Library (Nov. 14, 2016)
Man of the Year
John Ellison, University of Chicago Dean of Students
Woman of the Year
Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo
vetoes overbroad “revenge porn” bill
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The First Amendment & The Best of 2016
→ Best Supreme cert. petition: Deepak Gupta, brief in Expressions Hair Design v. Schneiderman
→ Best Supreme Court amicus briefs:
- Brief amici curiae of First Amendment Scholars and the First Amendment Lawyers Association field in Expressions Hair Design v. Schneiderman (Mahesha P. Subbaraman, counsel or record)
- Brief amici curiae of Constitutional Law Professors filed in Lee v. Tam (Floyd Abrams, counsel of record, and Rodney Smolla)
→ Best Supreme Court oral argument: Thomas Goldstein in Heffernan v. City of Patterson (2016)
→ Best lower court First Amendment opinion: Women’s Health Link, Inc. v. Fort Wayne Public Transportation Corp. (7th Cir., 2016, per Posner, J.)
→ Best lower court amicus brief: Wikimedia Foundation v. National Security Agency (4th Cir., 2016) (Chelsea J. Crawford, Joshua Treem, Margot E. Kaminski, Marc J. Blitz, A. Michael Froomkin, David Goldberger, James Grimmelmann, Lyrissa Barnett Lidsky, Neil M. Richards, & Katherine Jo Strandburg)
→ Best new First Amendment organization: Knight First Amendment Institute (see here)
→ Best group defending First Amendment rights: Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE)
→ Best report: PEN America, And Campus for All: Diversity, Inclusion & Free Speech at U.S. Universities
→ Best speech: Geoffrey Stone, “Free Speech on Campus: A Challenge of Our Times”
→ Best interview: Nico Perriono, The Daughters: Carlin, Pryor & Bruce Speak Out, So to Speak
→ Best book: Stephen Solomon’s Revolutionary Dissent: How the Founding Generation Created the Freedom of Speech (2016) (see Salon discussion here)
→ Best documentary: Can We Take a Joke?
→ Best essays:
- Robert Corn-Revere, Hate Speech Laws: Ratifying the Assassin’s Veto, Cato Institute Policy Analysis (2016)
- Lee Levine & Stephen Wermiel, The Court and the Cannonball: An Inside Look, American University Law Review (2016)
→ Best law review articles:
- Eugene Volokh, Speech as Conduct: Generally Applicable Laws, Illegal Courses of Conduct, “Siuuation-Altering Utterances,” and the Uncharted Zones, Cornell Law Review (2016)
- Jacob Gersen & Jeannie Suk, The Sex Bureaucracy, California Law Review (2016)
→ Best scholarly conference: Brooklyn Law Symposium: “Free Speech Under Fire — The Future of the First Amendment” (see also here)
→ Best conference for practitioners: Abrams Institiute Conference on Commercial Speech (June 13, 2016)
→ Best new First Amendment blog: In A Crowded Theater
→ Best event: Newseum Institute: Pear v. United States (see also here)
→ Best funder of First Amendment: John S. and James L. Knight Foundation (see here)
→ Best supporter of the First Amendment: Flying Dog Beer (see here and here)
→ The Year in Review: FAN Posts for 2016 ←
January
FAN 92: Another License-Plate Case — Wooley v. Maynard Defense Raised in Cert. Petition (Jan. 6, 2016)
FAN 93: “What’s Wrong with the First Amendment?” — Steve Shiffrin Book Coming This Summer (Jan. 13, 2016)
FAN 94: Brooklyn Law School to Host Symposium: “Free Speech Under Fire — The Future of the First Amendment” (Jan. 20, 2016)
FAN 95: “Fifty Shades of Grey” too Blue for Idaho? (Jan. 27, 2016)
February
FAN 96: Animal Rights Group Claims First Amendment Right to Lift Park Service Closure of Yellowstone Park During Bison Capture (Feb. 3, 2016)
FAN 97: Trend Continues: ACLU’s 2016 Workplan Omits Mention of Protecting First Amendment Free-Expression Rights — No Longer a Fundraising Concern? (Feb. 10, 2016)
FAN 98: The Roberts Court’s 5-4 First Amendment Rulings — Will They Survive? (Feb. 17, 2016)
FAN 99: Welcome to the Marketplace of Ideologies — Where Ideas go to Die (Feb. 24, 2016)
March
FAN 100: FIRE Spreads — Group to Launch Online First Amendment Library (March 9, 2016)
FAN 101: Levine & Wermiel on First Amendment & Right of Publicity — Using Justices’ Papers to Understand Zacchini v. Scripps-Howard Broadcasting Co. (March 16, 2016)
FAN 102: Len Niehoff on Hulk Hogan’s $140.1M Award Against Gawker (March 23, 2016)
April
FAN 103: Coming Soon: New Book by Stephen Solomon on Dissent in the Founding Era (April 6, 2016)
FAN 104: Documentary on Comedy, Campus Codes & Free Speech to Air at National Constitution Center (April 13, 2016)
FAN 105: Forthcoming: Tushnet, Chen & Blocher, “Beyond Words” — The Art of Protecting Non-Speech as Speech” (April 20, 2016)
FAN 106: The Heffernan Case, the Chief Justice’s Curious Vote, the Significance of Justice Scalia’s Absence, & the Importance of Motive (April 27, 2016)
May
FAN 107: FTC’s Power to curb misleading ads remains intact (May 4, 2016)
FAN 108: Senate Races Could Shape the Future of the First Amendment — Campaign Spending Wars in Play (May 11, 2016)
FAN 109: Abrams Institute to Host Event on Commercial Speech (May 18, 2016)
FAN 110: Steve Shapiro to Step Down as ACLU’s Legal Director (May 25, 2016)
June
FAN 111: Flying Dog Brewery Launches First Amendment Society (June 1, 2016)
FAN 112: “Is First Amendment “almost entirely without content”? Yes, writes Mark Tushnet” (June 8, 2016)
FAN 113: “Abrams Court” Breaks with Tradition & Allows Cameras in Courtroom (June 22, 2016)
FAN 114: 2015 Term: What Happened to the Big Cases? — Equally Divided or Cert. Denied (June 29, 2016)
July
FAN 115: Profile: Jameel Jaffer to Head New Knight First Amendment Institute (July 6, 2016)
FAN 116: Farber on Scalia & the Abortion Protest Cases (July 13, 2016)
FAN 117: Center for Competitive Politics Prevails in Challenge to Utah Campaign Finance Law (July 20, 2016)
FAN 118: University of Cape Town Disinvites Flemming Rose — Floyd Abrams Dissents (July 27, 2016)
August
FAN 119: Snapshots of David Cole #2: Chipping Away at Citizens United (Aug. 17, 2016)
FAN 120: Snapshots of David Cole #2: Chipping Away at Citizens United (Aug. 24, 2016)
FAN 121: New York law to combat Citizens United is “constitutionally unsound” says NYCLU (Aug. 31, 2106)
September
FAN 122: Alito’s prophesy? Cert. petition in Gov. Speech case raises questions about future of doctrine (Sept. 7, 2016)
FAN 123: When you think of free speech, think of “45” — New book by Stephen Solomon (Sept. 13, 2016)
FAN 124: Ellen DeGeneres raises First Amendment defense in defamation case (Sept. 21, 2016)
FAN 125: Forthcoming book spotlights First Amendment freedom & LGBT equality (Sept. 28, 2016)
October
FAN 126: Geoffrey Stone: “Free Speech on Campus: A Challenge of Our Times” (Oct. 5, 2016)
FAN 127: Cert Petition Raises Question of Standard of Review in Retaliation Case for Calling the President a “Communist” (Oct. 12, 2016)
FAN 128: Ten States Buttress High School Students’ Press Rights — Extend Protection Beyond (Oct. 19, 2016)
FAN 129: A 10-year chronology: Trump’s lawsuits & threatened ones involving freedom of speech & press (Oct. 26, 2016)
November
FAN 130: “Porn Panic” Prompts Pushback (Nov. 2, 2016)
FAN 131: Forthcoming: Chemerinsky & Gillman on the importance of free speech on college (Nov. 10, 2016)
FAN 132: FIRE Launches First Amendment Online Library (Nov. 16, 2016)
FAN 133: Slants trademark case might be decided on statutory grounds (Nov. 23, 2016)
December
FAN 134: “Anti-Semitism Awareness Act” ignites First Amendment controversy (Dec. 7, 2016)
FAN 135: “Protect the Flag Act” Introduced in Congress” (Dec. 14, 2016)
→ Year in Review: FAN Posts for 2015 ←
→ FAN 91: The Year in Review, including “the best of” (Dec. 30, 2015)