Free speech articles by Weinstein published

In a recently published Symposium in the journal, Constitutional Commentary, James Weinstein, Amelia Lewis Professor of Constitutional Law at the College of Law, wrote responses to lead articles by Seana Shiffrin and the late C. Edwin Baker defending different views of autonomy as the basis of free speech.

In “Seana Shiffrin’s Thinker-Based Theory of Free Speech: Elegant and Insightful, but will it Work in Practice?,” Weinstein contends that Shiffrin’s theory  would, among other pragmatic problems, likely weaken the core protection currently afforded core political speech. Shiffrin is Professor of Philosophy and Pete Kameron Professor of Law and Social Justice at UCLA School of Law. To read the article click here.

In “Free Speech and Political Legitimacy: A Response to Ed Baker,” Weinstein argues that there is a much closer connection between political legitimacy and the vision of participatory democracy that he endorses than between such legitimacy and the formal autonomy that Baker believed best explains free speech. At the time of his death in December 2009, Baker was the Nicholas F. Gallichio Professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Click here to read the full article.

Weinstein’s areas of academic interest are Constitutional Law, especially Free Speech, as well as Jurisprudence and Legal History. He is co-editor of Extreme Speech and Democracy (Oxford University Press 2009, paperback edition 2010); the author of Hate Speech, Pornography and the Radical Attack on Free Speech Doctrine; and has written numerous articles in law review symposia on a variety of free speech topics, including: free speech theory, obscenity doctrine, institutional review boards, commercial speech, database protection, campaign finance reform, the relationship between free speech and other constitutional rights, hate crimes, and campus speech codes. Weinstein has litigated several significant free speech cases, primarily on behalf of the Arizona Civil Liberties Union. Earlier in his career, he wrote several influential articles on the history of personal jurisdiction and its implication for modern doctrine.