Historic Times v. Sullivan and Gertz v. Welch Supreme Court Decisions and Online Social Media Libel Law

Libel and Slander - A State Is Precluded from Imposing Liability Without Fault or Presumed or Punitive Damges in the Absence of New York Times Malice - Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc

Backlash Blunders: Obergefell and the Efficacy of Litigation to Achieve Social Change

On June 26, 2015, exactly two years after it invalidated key portions of the Defense of Marriage Act (“DOMA”) in United States v. Windsor, the Supreme Court issued its historic 5-4 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, holding that same-sex couples could no longer be barred from exercising the fundamental right to marriage. For marriageequality supporters, this judicial victory represented “the culmi...

What Lawrence v. Texas says about the history and future of reproductive rights.

This article explores the ways in which the court’s recognition of a broad zone of personal liberty in Lawrence v. Texas may serve to strengthen a woman’s constitutionally protected reproductive rights in future Supreme Court decisions. Part of the author’s analysis focuses on using particular Justices’ opinions (and dissents) to predict the direction of future challenges to abortion rights in ...

The Social Scientist as Expert Witness

The Supreme Court decision on school desegregation 25 years ago-Brown v. Board o f ~ducatio-ushered in an era in which the law courts have carried an ever-growing share of the burden of social reform and policy change in this country. Even though several current members of the Supreme Court were appointed as "strict constructionists," and think of themselves as not in the business of setting so...

An historical review of the legal and personal background to Jackson v. Indiana.

The landmark case of Jackson v. Indiana is well known to forensic psychiatrists, but little is known of the personal and legal background of this case. Mr. Jackson's state hospital records were reviewed, as were available transcripts and decisions of the Indiana court proceedings, before and after the U.S. Supreme Court decision, and local newspaper coverage, to understand how this case developed.