Your exams: Time, Place and Manner
Since the spring of 2020, all tests and exams are open-book and online with a larger proportion of written questions.
The mid-term exam has two parts:
I: An essay section with libel and/ or privacy questions and other key points you should know from basic constitutional law and libel law, for example the six elements of the First Amendment, the five elements of libel, the three major defenses against libel, etc.
II: A general section with 40 to 50 matching questions about the structure of the courts, jurisprudence, constitutional law, legal terms, prior restraint, libel, privacy and ethics.
The final exam has four parts:
I: Written response questions about elements of the First Amendment; international law; the right to dissent; ethical traditions; the Sullivan standard; and major principles of civics and democracy.
II: General matching questions about cases and people in areas of prior restraint, libel, privacy, copyright, obscenity and ethics
III: A professional section with matching questions about the law and regulation of advertising, broadcasting, anti-trust and news-gathering
IV: Essay Section: Extra credit written response essay questions on contemporary issues such as Section 230 or social media censorship.
What do you need to know? Legal basics
Concepts & Terms — Equal justice, due process, constitutionality, stare decisis, federal supremacy and incorporation of Bill of Rights, hierarchy of protected speech; Also certiorari, diversity jurisdiction, demurrer, dissent, motion for summary judgement, opinion, overturn, remand, tort, venue, voir dire,
Constitutional tests — strict scrutiny, intermediate scrutiny, rational basis review, over breadth, forum analysis, Miller test (obscenity), Sullivan actual malice standard. (For final also include: Central Hudson (intermedia scrutiny) test, Lehman rule (ads in public media),
Legal institutions — Common law systems versus civil law systems, structure of courts, five sources of law, civil versus criminal law, elements of media law, content issues versus structural issues,
Cases and Laws — You should be able to match all cases on this list with descriptions, and all laws and treaties on this list with their descriptions as well.
For the mid term, you should know all the cases and trends in history, prior restraint, obscenity, libel, and privacy
Prior restraint — Schenck v US, Near v Minnesota, Whitney v California, Brandenburg v Ohio, New York Times v US, Holder v Humanitarian Law Project,
Also: Understand the shift in tests for prior restraint from “bad tendency” to “clear & present danger” to “imminent action”
Also dissent, flag burning, terrorism, hate speech and compelled speech cases
Obscenity & Indecency — Hicklin rule, Comstock Laws, Ulysses case, Roth v US, Ginzburg case, Miller v California, Pope v Illinois.
Also changing tests for obscenity from Hicklin to Roth to Miller.
Libel — Cherry v Des Moines Leader, New York Times v Sullivan, AP v Walker, Curtis v Butts, Texas Beef Group v Oprah Winfree // Burden of proof on plaintiff; Fault for public figure is actual malice as defined in cases after NYT v Sullivan
Also five elements of libel and three main defenses
Also definition of actual malice
Also veggie libel and SLAPP suits
Also be able to comment on a libel hypothetical
Privacy — Legal and ethical issues concerning crime victims and witnesses; Cox v Cohen, Smith v Daily Mail, Sherrod v Brietbart, Sipple v Chronicle Publishing, Bolea v Gawker
Also five privacy torts (Prosser’s four torts, Virginia’s Intentional Infliction tort)
Also three defenses in privacy lawsuits
Why “intentional infliction of emotional distress” is not a form of libel;
Also: what ethical issues are involved with the identification of crime victims and other sorts of private facts.
Also be able to comment on a privacy hypothetica
Ethics — Be prepared to apply civil traditions and professional codes to an ethical problem.
- Civil traditions of ethics – Virtue ethics, Utilitarianism, Duty ethics, Justice ethics, Bio-ethics
- Religious traditions — Eightfold path, golden rule, surrender to will of God, Ahimsa, Ten Commandments
- Ethical orientation – communitarian versus libertarian
- Professional ethics — Social responsibility (Nuremberg, Hutchins, MacBride); Professional codes such as AAF, PRSA and SPJ
For the final, you should know the above and these elements below
Advertising & Corporate Speech
Case history – Valentine v Christensen, New York Times v Sullivan, Bigelow v Virginia, Central Hudson v PUC, Ruben v Coors, 44 Liquormart v Rhode Island, Nike v Kasky, Virginia Pharmacy v Virginia Citizens Consumer Council,
Regulatory history – Origins of FTC, patent medicine, arc of regulatory change, Ban on TV tobacco ads, FTC regulation of special products and services (diet, tanning, green products, freebie claims, etc)
Right to advertising – Esp. Lehman v Shaker Heights, Tornillo v Miami Herald, and broadcasting Section 315 Equal Time rule
Corporate speech — Consolidated Edison Co. v. PSC, Nike v Kasky, First National Bank of Boston v Bellotti, Citizens United v Federal Election Commission
Broadcasting & Anti-Trust
Regulation & Statutory Laws: Equal Time (Section 315); Fairness Doctrine; hoax rule; news distortion rule, Radio Act of 1912, Radio Act of 1927, Telecommunications Act 1996, Cross ownership rules,
Case law: FCC v Pacifica, Fox v FCC, Mutual Film v. Industrial Commission of Ohio, 1915, Trinity Methodist Church v. FRC, 1933, Fox v FCC, 2012; FCC v Pacifica, 1978, Farmers Educational Cooperative Union v. WDAY, 1959, United Church of Christ v FCC, 1966
Anti-Trust Law & case law: Sherman Anti Trust Act, Clayton Anti-Trust Act, Loraine Journal Co. v. US, Associated Press v. U.S., US v Microsoft,
Digital issues: Net neutrality, Right to be forgotten; Good Samaritan (Section 230) part of 1996 Telecommunications Act
Journalism & Public Access
FOIA, Sunshine laws, Free Press – Fair Trial (Ethics and cases), Shield Laws (reporter privilege)
Case law: Sheppard v Maxwell, Richmond Newspapers v Virginia,
Student press and expression in schools: Tinker v Des Moines School District, Hazelwood v Kuhlheimer, Educational Media Corp. v Swecker
Digital —
Content: Section 230, deplatforming, privacy, defamation, sedition, copyright;
Structure: Anti-Trust, domain names, net neutrality.
Cases: Reno v ACLU, Zeran v AOL, Prager v Google, Google v Gonzales, Seaton v TripAdvisor.
Copyright —
Legal issues concerning music and video copyright protection; general duration of copyright protection versus trademark and patent;
Cases such as Campbell, Reid, Grokster and Sony; and new laws like the Music Modernization Act of 2018.
Extra credit sample questions
- Why does the FCC persist in clinging to broadcast indecency rules?
- What’s the controversy over Section 230?
- Is there a “right to be forgotten” in the US? Or elsewhere? What does that entail?
- What’s involved in the net neutrality debate?
- What ever happened to the Fairness Doctrine?
- Do reporters have a privilege to protect sources? Why or why not?
- How is it that corporations can say what they want about political issues and yet advertisers are tightly regulated with respect to commercial claims?
- Apply the Central Hudson test to the Radford City fraternity sign ban. Why might intermediate scrutiny be too low a bar?
- Who has the “right” to advertise? When? In what medium?
- How reckless do you have to be to lose a libel suit to a public figure under the Sullivan standard?
- How has copyright law changed with digital changes in music and video technology?
- What was the WWI era standard for government prior restraint and why and how did it change over time?
- What is the difference between strict scrutiny and intermediate scrutiny?
- How do we explain the Gawker verdict in light of the evolution of privacy law?
- Some areas of privacy law correspond with other areas of the law, for example, intrusion is like trespass. What are some of the other areas of correspondence?