fun with content neutrality...

here's a quick run-down of the topics in the readings this week for my first amendment class:

- 2000: protest-free buffer zones around abortion clinics
(this is okay -- people need unrestricted access to health care facilities, and ample alternatives for protesters exist)
- 1972: restrictions on demonstrations outside schools, with an exemption for labor demonstrations
(not okay, because the regulation was content-based and the first amendment doesn't allow that)
- 1968: setting fire to draft cards
(conviction stands because of the significant government interest in maintaining availability of selective service certificates)
- 1989: flag burning
(yea, Brennan! you're damn right it's expression! and the first amendment protects it!)
- 1986: adult bookstores and prostitution
(eh, not so much... prostitution is illegal -- the first amendment doesn't shield you from that)
- 1986: more adult bookstores, but the ones near schools and churches
(what a crappy decision. "secondary effects"? AYFKM!)
- 1987: more restrictions on demonstrations, but w/r/t anti-foreign government messages outside foreign embassies
(listeners' reactions to speech are NOT secondary effects, but only half of the ordinance is struck down)
- 2000: nude dancing as a form of expression
(sorry, ladies -- that's what pasties are for. the regulation against public nudity stands. de minimis, indeed!)