Saving Our Children from the First Amendment

Front Cover
NYU Press, Mar 1, 2006 - Law - 307 pages

The First Amendment is vital to our political system, our cultural institutions, and our routine social interactions with others. In this provocative book, Kevin Saunders asserts that freedom of expression can be very harmful to our children, making it more likely that they will be the perpetrators or victims of violence, will grow up as racists, or will use alcohol or tobacco.
Saving Our Children from the First Amendment examines both the value and cost of free expression in America, demonstrating how an unregulated flow of information can be detrimental to youth. While the great value of the First Amendment is found in its protection of our most important political freedoms, this is far more significant for adults, who can fully grasp and benefit from the freedom of expression, than for children. Constitutional prohibitions on distributing sexual materials to children, Saunders proposes, should be expanded to include violent, vulgar, or profane materials, as well as music that contains hate speech.
Saunders offers an insightful meditation on the problem of protecting our children from the negative effects of freedom of expression without curtailing First Amendment rights for adults.

 

Contents

The Most Important Freedom
19
The Costs of Free Expression
43
Relieving the Strain on the First Amendment
67
Inculcating Values
86
Children and Other Constitutional Rights
104
Obscenity
124
Violence
146
The Internet
164
Hate Speech
179
The Coarsening of Society
202
Advertising
213
Speech in the Schools
228
Conclusion
256
Notes
263
Index
301
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Saving Our Children from the First Amendment
Kevin W. Saunders
Limited preview - 2003
Saving Our Children from the First Amendment
Kevin W. Saunders
Limited preview - 2006
Saving Our Children from the First Amendment
Kevin W. Saunders
No preview available - 2003

Common terms and phrases

accept addressed adults advertising Alexander Meiklejohn allow Amendment protection Amendment rights Amish argued argument audience basis behavior chil child Cohen communitarian concern concluded constitutional Dave Grossman debate decision depictions discussed distribution dren effect Establishment Clause exposure fighting words film Free Exercise Clause free expression Free Speech freedom Ginsberg harm hate speech individual interest Internet involved issue Jean Stefancic Jehovah’s Witness language less limited magazine media violence ment Miller test minors moral obscene material obscenity exception offensive one’s Pacifica parents pornography position prohibiting protect children prurient quoting racial racist recognized regard regulation religious restrictions Richard Delgado role sexual social society society’s state’s statute strict scrutiny supra note Supreme Court Suzanna Sherry teach television theory Tinker tion tobacco tolerate v-chip values video games violation violent material violent obscenity violent video youth

About the author (2006)

Kevin W. Saunders is Charles Clarke Chair in Constitutional Law at Michigan State University College of Law. He is the author of Violence as Obscenity: Limiting the Media's First Amendment Protection and Saving Our Children from the First Amendment (NYU Press, 2003).

Bibliographic information

TitleSaving Our Children from the First Amendment
Volume 38 of Critical America
AuthorKevin W. Saunders
PublisherNYU Press, 2006
ISBN0814786936, 9780814786932
Length307 pages
Subjects › 

Law / Constitutional
  
Export CitationBiBTeX EndNote RefMan