The Boundaries of Freedom of Expression & Order in American Democracy

On Monday, May 4, 1970, members of the Ohio National Guard, called onto the Kent State University campus to quell antiwar demonstrations, fired 61 roounds into a group of students protesting the U.S. invasion of Cambodia and Guard presence on campus. Thirteen seconds later, four students lay dead and nine were wounded. The tragedy of that day -- so representative of the civil, social, and political upheavals of the time -- placed this small Ohio college town at the center of continuing and heated debate and discussion. After decades of controversy surrounding the May 4 commemoration, the University moved in a new direction, choosing to use the 30th anniversary as an opportunity to recognize the past and embrace the future. A major component of this was the establishment of an annual scholarly symposium to focus on the great issues of American democracy. The Boundaries of Freedom of Expression and Order in American Democracy is the product of the first symposium, which explored the limits of freedom of expression in American society as they apply to business, education, media, law, politics, the Internet, and other venues. The book provides broad discussions of the past, present, and future of freedom of expression issues in the U.S. and in-depth analyses of such topics as hate speech, adademic freedom, threats to freedom of expression in public schools, and limiting Internet access in public libraries. The contributions to this book represent an impressive range of incisive analyses and commentary by leading First Amendment scholars, including the symposium's keynote speakers: Kathleen Sullivan, Dean of Stanford Law School; Anthony Lewis, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist of the New York Times and the author of two First Amendment books; and Cass Sunstein, Karl N. Llewellyn Professor of Jurisprudence at the University of Chicago Law School. The thought-provoking discussions of the challenges to freedom of expression today will be an invaluable resource not only for students of constitutional law and political theory and practice, but for anyone interested in the difficulties involved in determining when and how freedom can be limited in deference to other competing societal values. - Back cover.