Performing Art: National Endowment for the Arts v. Finley

In this modified version of a chapter in his forthcoming book, ART AND FREEDOM OF SPEECH (Univ. of Illinois Press, 2008-09), Professor Bezanson begins to probe the nature of art and its relation to the first amendment free speech guarantee. The essay uses the Finley v. NEA case, and specifically its discussion of Finley\u27s performance art, to critique the Supreme Court\u27s very approach to the Finley case, and to view the issues from the perspective of art, artistic freedom, and the Supreme Court\u27s role in fashioning constitutional protection for art as art, and not simply as cognitive speech

The Foundations of Federalism: An Exchange

Our manuscript entitled The Foundations of Federalism: An Exchange is occasioned by the Supreme Court\u27s federalism jurisprudence which, in our judgment, calls for a broad ranging exploration of the constitutional concept of federalism itself. That exploration takes place in the form of a dialog between us which, while rewritten from its original form, nevertheless reflects our actual exchanges over an 18 month period. Our conclusion is that such terms as sovereignty generally have no place in American constitutional federalism, that the Supreme Court\u27s efforts to enforce federalism limitations have been ineffective and, in some instances, counterproductive, and most basically that federalism itself is best seen in non-theoretical terms, but instead as a practical and untidy system of occasions for sober second thought by federal and state governments engaged in the federal legislative process. On federal-state power conflicts, the Constitution should be seen as a purposeful incompletely theorized agreement, to quote Cass Sunstein

Performing Art: National Endowment for the Arts v. Finley

In this modified version of a chapter in his forthcoming book, ART AND FREEDOM OF SPEECH (Univ. of Illinois Press, 2008-09), Professor Bezanson begins to probe the nature of art and its relation to the first amendment free speech guarantee. The essay uses the Finley v. NEA case, and specifically its discussion of Finley\u27s performance art, to critique the Supreme Court\u27s very approach to the Finley case, and to view the issues from the perspective of art, artistic freedom, and the Supreme Court\u27s role in fashioning constitutional protection for art as art, and not simply as cognitive speech

Foundations of Federalism: An Exchange

Our manuscript entitled The Foundations of Federalism: An Exchange is occasioned by the Supreme Court\u27s federalism jurisprudence which, in our judgment, calls for a broad ranging exploration of the constitutional concept of federalism itself. That exploration takes place in the form of a dialog between us which, while rewritten from its original form, nevertheless reflects our actual exchanges over an 18 month period. Our conclusion is that such terms as sovereignty generally have no place in American constitutional federalism, that the Supreme Court\u27s efforts to enforce federalism limitations have been ineffective and, in some instances, counterproductive, and most basically that federalism itself is best seen in non-theoretical terms, but instead as a practical and untidy system of occasions for sober second thought by federal and state governments engaged in the federal legislative process. On federal-state power conflicts, the Constitution should be seen as a purposeful incompletely theorized agreement, to quote Cass Sunstein