Book Description

The 2007 Supplement integrates all significant First Amendment cases from the Supreme Court during its dramatic 2007 Term. Each has been carefully edited to preserve ample portions of both the principal and the dissenting opinions sufficient to sustain a thorough discussion in critical classroom reviews of their meaning and significance. And each is fitted within the topical framework and sequence of all other principal First Amendment decisions to come from the Court since 2002, the closing date of Van Alstyne's third edition. Teachers and professors using other principal casebooks, moreover, should find that the 2007 Van Alstyne Supplement's presentation of all new cases and developments since 2002 is easily adaptable to their own use. New cases in the 2007 Supplement include: Morse v. Frederick (5/4, the highly publicized BONG HITS FOR JESUS case severely dividing the Court and further limiting student freedom of speech) Heim v. Freedom From Religion Foundation et al. (5/4, denying standing to taxpayer suits to enjoin executive spending favoring religious groups, further limiting first amendment taxpayer standing under Flast v. Cohen) Federal Elections Commission v. Wisconsin Right To Life Inc. (5/4, invalidating provisions in the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) on First Amendment grounds) Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Ass'n v. Brentwood (Brentwood II) (rejecting First Amendment claim and sustaining a statewide association ban on coach-contact of desired student enrollees)