Individual Academic Freedom: An Ordinary Concern of the First Amendment

64 Pages Posted: 28 Mar 2014 Last revised: 14 Aug 2014

See all articles by Scott R. Bauries

Scott R. Bauries

University of South Carolina School of Law

Date Written: March 27, 2014

Abstract

This contribution to the Mississippi Law Journal's symposium on education law makes the case that individual academic freedom is not a "special concern of the First Amendment," as the Supreme Court has often said it is. The article tracks the academic freedom case law in the Court and establishes that, while the Court has often extolled the value and virtues of individual academic freedom in its opinion rhetoric, no case it has ever decided has depended for its resolution on a "special" individual right to speech or association that inheres only in academics. The article then fleshes out the implications of this claim for the speech rights of publicly employed academics following the Court's decision in Garcetti v. Ceballos, concluding both that the decision is here to stay, and that recent efforts to craft exceptions to it are unavailing due to the underlying doctrinal structure of the First Amendment.

Keywords: academic freedom, First Amendment, public employee speech, Garcetti, Demers, Adams, academic speech

Suggested Citation

Bauries, Scott R., Individual Academic Freedom: An Ordinary Concern of the First Amendment (March 27, 2014). 83 Mississippi Law Journal 677 (2014), Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2416988

Scott R. Bauries (Contact Author)

University of South Carolina School of Law ( email )

1525 Senate Street
Columbia, SC 29208
United States

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