First Amendment News 271: New and forthcoming books issue: The 2020-2021 list

In this special issue, we offer a wide range of new and forthcoming books on free expression. In the latter category is one that merits special attention — Robert Corn-Revere's "The Mind of the Censor and the Eye of the Beholder" (Cambridge University Press, 2021). With this book, Corn-Revere returns to the ranks of practicing First Amendment lawyers who have authored books on free speech — e.g. Floyd Abrams, Martin Garbus, Lee Levine, Charles Rembar, and Theodore Schroeder (also Ian Rosenberg, forthcoming).

With the "Mind of the Censor" Corn-Revere pivots from the world of free speech hornbook law and ventures into a wider world of readers. This eminently readable book (yes, I read the manuscript) is for anyone who wants to know more about why freedom of speech is important and how protections for free expression became part of the American identity. Beginning in the 19th century with Anthony Comstock, America’s “censor in chief,” Corn-Revere explores how censors operate and why they wore out their welcome in society at large.

Corn-Revere also explains how the same tactics were tried and eventually failed in the 20th century, with efforts to censor music, comic books, television, and other forms of popular entertainment. The historic examples illustrate not just the mindset and tactics of censors, but why they are the ultimate counterculture warriors and why, in free societies, censors never occupy the moral high ground.

Advance Praise 

• Corn-Revere’s engagingly written book provides a powerful defense of freedom speech and of freedom of thought -- a book of stunning originality and importance. -- Erwin Chemerinsky
• Regardless of how much or how little you know or care about free speech when you begin this book, you will be enlightened, inspired, and galvanized by every page! -- Nadine Strossen
• This book offers a riveting review and astute analysis of the evolution of free expression.  Corn-Revere brings to life the absurdities of censorship and the dangers such views pose to American liberty and democracy -- an original work, informative, insightful, and often wildly entertaining. -- Geoffrey R. Stone
• This book will prove to you that Bob is as groovy as Superman, without the stupid cape. -- Penn Jillette

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2020-2021 list of books 

General

• Corey Brettschneider, editor, "Free Speech" (Penguin, May 11, 2021)
  
• Ronald Collins, Will Creeley, David Hudson & Jackie Farmer, “First Things First: A Modern Coursebook on Free Speech Fundamentals” (Top Five Books, 2019)
• Ellis Cose, “The Short Life and Curious Death of Free Speech in America” (Amistad, Sept. 15, 2020)
• Anthony Leaker, “Against Free Speech” (Rowman & Littlefield, June 16, 2020)
• Michael C. LeMay & Alemayehu G. Mariam, “First Amendment Freedoms: A Reference Handbook” (ABC-CLIO, Oct. 31, 2020)
• Nikolaos Koumartzis & Andreas Veglis, “Internet Censorship and Regulation Systems in Democracies: Emerging Research and Opportunities” (IGI Global, 2020)
• Suzanne Nossel, “Dare to Speak: Defending Free Speech for All” (Dey Street Books, July 28, 2020)
• Jonathan Rauch, “The Constitution of Knowledge” (The Brookings Institute, June 2021)
• Ian Rosenberg, “The Fight for Free Speech: Ten Cases that Define Our First Amendment Freedoms” (New York University Press, Feb. 9, 2021)

Censorship

• Sharyl Attkisson, “Slanted: How the News Media Taught Us to Love Censorship and Hate Journalism” (Harper, Nov. 24, 2020)
• Eric Berkowitz, "Dangerous Ideas: A Brief History of Censorship in the West, from the Ancients to Fake News" (Beacon Press, May 4, 2021)
• Mike Donovan, "Not Free America: What Your Government Doesn't Want You to Know" (Forefront Books, Oct. 27, 2020)
• Bernard F. Dukore, “George Bernard Shaw and the Censors: Fights and Failures, Stage and Screen” (Palgrave Macmillan, Dec. 9, 2020)
• P.G. Ingram, "Censorship and Free Speech: Some Philosophical Bearings" (Routledge, Dec. 12, 2020)
• Hannah Marcus, “Forbidden Knowledge: Medicine, Science, and Censorship in Early Modern Italy” (University of Chicago Press, Sept. 25, 2020)
• Azar Nafisi, "Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times" (Dey Street Books, April 13, 2021)
• Richard Ovenden, “Burning the Books: A History of the Deliberate Destruction of Knowledge” (Belknap Press, Oct. 13, 2020)
• Dave Rubin, “Don’t Burn This Book: Thinking for Yourself in an Age of Unreason” (Sentinel, April 28, 2020)
• Juhani Sarsila, “Struggle of Faith and Reason: A History of Intolerance and Punitive Censorship: Part I: From Homer to Peter Abelard and Arnold of Brescia” (Peter Lang GmbH, 2020)

College campuses

• Joseph Russomanno, ed., “Speech Freedom on Campus: Past, Present, and Future,” Lexington Books (Dec. 15, 2020)

Corporations

• William Bennett Turner, "Free Speech for Some: How the Supreme Court Is Weaponizing the First Amendment to Empower Corporations and the Religious Right" (William Bennett Turner, Sept. 8, 2020)

Culture wars

• Charlotte Lydia Riley, “The Free Speech Wars: How Did We Get Here and Why Does It Matter” (Manchester University Press, Jan. 19, 2021)

Flag salute cases

• Michael Kent Curtis, “Constitution and the Flag: The Flag Salute Cases” (Garland Science, Jan. 1, 2021)

Government speech

• Helen Norton, “The Government’s Speech and the Constitution” (Cambridge University Press, 2019).

Hate speech

• Caitlin Ring Carlson, "Hate Speech" (MIT Press, Essential Knowledge series, April 6, 2021)
• Rodney Smolla, “Confessions of a Free Speech Lawyer: Charlottesville and the Politics of Hate” (Cornell University Press, May 15, 2020)
• Nadine Strossen, "HATE: Why We Should Resist it With Free Speech, Not Censorship" (Oxford University Press,  March 2, 2020)
• Gavan Titley, “Is Free Speech Racist?” (Polity, Aug. 24, 2020)

History

• Eric Berkowitz, "Dangerous Ideas: A Brief History of Censorship in the West, from the Ancients to Fake News" (Beacon Press, May 4, 2021)
• Wendell Bird, “The Revolution in Freedoms of Press and Speech: From Blackstone to the First Amendment and Fox’s Libel Act” (Oxford University Press, 2020)
• Wendell Bird, “Criminal Dissent: Prosecutions under the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798” (Harvard University Press, 2020)
• Eric T. Chester, “Free Speech and the Suppression of Dissent During World War I” (Monthly Review Press, Aug. 24, 2020)
• Hal Draper, “Berkeley: The Student Revolt” (Haymarket Books, July 7, 2020)
• Richard Ovenden, “Burning the Books: A History of the Deliberate Destruction of Knowledge” (Belknap Press, Oct. 13, 2020)

Intellectual freedom

• April M. Dawkins, “Intellectual Freedom Issues in School Libraries” (Libraries Unlimited, Sept. 30, 2020)
• Hannah Marcus, “Forbidden Knowledge: Medicine, Science, and Censorship in Early Modern Italy” (University of Chicago Press, Sept. 25, 2020)
• Azar Nafisi, "Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times" (Dey Street Books, April 13, 2021)
• Valerie Nye, ed., “Intellectual Freedom Stories from a Shifting Landscape” (ALA Edition, 2020)
• Richard Ovenden, “Burning the Books: A History of the Deliberate Destruction of Knowledge” (Belknap Press, Oct. 13, 2020)
• Jonathan Rauch, “The Constitution of Knowledge” (The Brookings Institute, June 2021)
• Dave Rubin, “Don’t Burn This Book: Thinking for Yourself in an Age of Unreason” (Sentinel, April 28, 2020)

Labor unions

• Donald W. Rogers, “Workers Against the City: The Fight for Free Speech in Hague v. CIO” (University of Illinois Press, Sept. 14, 2020)

Libraries

• April M. Dawkins, “Intellectual Freedom Issues in School Libraries” (Libraries Unlimited, Sept. 30, 2020)

Literature

• Azar Nafisi, "Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times" (Dey Street Books, April 13, 2021)

National Security

• Geoffrey Stone & Lee Bollinger, eds. "Leaks, National Security and Freedom of the Press" (Oxford University Press, early 2021)

Philosophy of free speech 

• P.G. Ingram, "Censorship and Free Speech: Some Philosophical Bearings" (Routledge, Dec. 12, 2020)
• Richard Ovenden, “Burning the Books: A History of the Deliberate Destruction of Knowledge” (Belknap Press, Oct. 13, 2020)
• John Durham Peters, "Courting the Abyss: Free Speech and the Liberal Tradition" (University of Chicago Press, Aug. 7, 2020)

Press freedoms

• Sharyl Attkisson, “Slanted: How the News Media Taught Us to Love Censorship and Hate Journalism” (Harper, Nov. 24, 2020)
• Karen Attiah, “Say Your Word, Then Leave: The Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi and the Power of the Truth” (Dey Street Books, Aug. 11, 2020)
• Joshua N. Azriel, “Restricting Los Angeles Paparazzi: California’s Legal Efforts Impacting Free Press Rights” (Lexington Books, Oct. 15, 2020)
• Mickey Huff & Andy Lee Roth, eds., “Project Censored’s State of the Free Press 2021” (Seven Stories Press, Dec. 1, 2020)
• Geoffrey Stone & Lee Bollinger, eds. "Leaks, National Security and Freedom of the Press" (Oxford University Press, early 2021)

Privacy 

• Scott Skinner-Thompson, “Privacy at the Margins” (Cambridge University Press, Nov. 30, 2020)

Protests

• Clayton Bohnet, “Toward a Philosophy of Protest: Dissent, State Power, and the Spectacle of Everyday Life” (Lexington Books, Oct. 15, 2020)
• Eric T. Chester, “Free Speech and the Suppression of Dissent During World War I” (Monthly Review Press, Aug. 24, 2020)
• Hal Draper, “Berkeley: The Student Revolt” (Haymarket Books, July 7, 2020)

Religious speech 

• Jack Phillips, "The Cost of My Faith: How a Decision in My Cake Shop Took Me to the Supreme Court" (Salem Books, May 11, 2021)

Sex and censorship

• Lynn Mills Eckert, “Free Speech Law and the Pornography Debate: A Gender-Based Approach to Regulating Inegalitarian Pornography” (Lexington Books, May 2020)
• Naomi Wolfe, "Outrages: Sex, Censorship, and the Criminalization of Love" (Chelsea Green Publishing, Oct. 9, 2020)

Surveillance

• Jillian York, “Silicon Values: The Future of Free Speech Under Surveillance Capitalism” (Verso, March 2021)

Terrorism

• Ian Cram, editor, "Extremism, Free Speech and Counter-terrorism Law and Policy" (Routledge, Dec. 20, 2020)

Theory

• Andrew T. Kenyon & Andrew Scott, eds., “Positive Free Speech: Rationales, Methods and Implications” (Hart Publishing, May 28, 2020)
• Helen Knowles & Brandon Metroka, editors, "Free Speech Theory: Understanding the Controversies" (Peter Lang, July 23, 2020)
• Alexander Tsesis, "Free Speech in the Balance" (Cambridge University Press, Sept. 30, 2020)

2020-2021 SCOTUS term: Free expression & related cases

Cert. granted

• Facebook, Inc. v. Duguid (Telephone Consumer Protection Act robocall case)
• Carney v. Adams  (TBD) (standing/judicial elections)
• Fulton v. City of Philadelphia (TBD) (religious expression: free exercise & free speech claims)

Pending petitions

• City of Sacramento, California v. Mann
• Hurchalla v. Lake Point Phase
• Trump v. Knight First Amendment Institute
• Stockman v. United States
• Lieu v. Federal Election Commission
• Hunt v. Board of Regents of the University of New Mexico
• Living Essentials, LLC v. Washington
• Evans v. Sandy City, Utah
• Bruni v. City of Pittsburgh
• Austin v. Illinois
• Mckesson v. Doe
• Reisman v. Associated Faculties of the University of Maine
• Institute for Free Speech v. Becerra
• Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Becerra
• Thomas More Law Center v. Becerra 
• Arlene’s Flowers Inc. v. Washington

First Amendment-related 

• Uzuegbunam & Bradford v. Preczewski, et al (nominal damages and mootness in campus speech context) (cert. granted)
• National Association of Broadcasters v. Prometheus Radio Project (RE: Section 202(h) of the Telecommunications Act of 1996) (petition pending)
• Federal Communications Commission v. Prometheus Radio Project (RE: FCC cross-ownership restrictions) (petition pending)

Last scheduled FAN

• FAN 270: "Justice Hans Linde (1924-2020) on freedom of expression: An ingenious jurisprudence”