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Free Speech
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Free speech is one of the most debated concepts in political and legal theory, making it a central subject in government, constitutional law, political science, and public policy courses. Its foundations in the First Amendment and the Bill of Rights give it particular significance in American legal study, while its broader application to democratic society raises questions that cross disciplinary boundaries. Students are drawn to the topic because it sits at the intersection of individual rights, government authority, and social harm — tensions that courts, legislatures, and institutions continually struggle to resolve.

The papers archived here approach free speech from several distinct angles. Constitutional and legal analysis is especially common, with essays examining First Amendment interpretation, landmark cases such as Morse v. Frederick and the Westboro Church case, and how the Supreme Court has defined the boundaries of protected expression. Comparative and policy-oriented approaches also appear, including discussions of free speech frameworks in European courts and debates over whether universities should regulate or ban speech through formal codes. Some papers focus on digital contexts, exploring content controls and unrestricted expression in cyberspace.

A strong essay on free speech needs a clearly scoped thesis that takes a position rather than simply surveying the law. Evidence drawn from specific court rulings, constitutional text, or documented policy outcomes carries the most weight in a government-focused paper. One common pitfall is treating free speech as an absolute principle without engaging seriously with the competing rights and harms that courts and scholars use to justify reasonable limits — that tension is precisely what makes the topic analytically rich.

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Thesis Doctorate

American Modernist Art and Cold War Propaganda, 1950s

American expressionist art was an important tool that was used to promote American ideals in Europe. The Expressionist movement highlighted the spiritual portions of the human psyche, rather than representing the material world. This study explored the aesthetic aspects of the movement and compares it to artistic movements in the SOviet Union.

Research Paper Doctorate

Regulations of Outdoor Advertising

Billboard Advertising: "Litter on a Stick?"

Essay Doctorate

Equitable Remedy Applications Equity Remedies Come From

Equity remedies come from common law jurisdictions and are judge made from previous cases. They are applied to other cases that have some of the same circumstances to aid judges in deciding cases.

Research Paper Doctorate

Individual Rights vs. Public Order

Individual right - the right to privacy VS. public order - the need to use surveillance Cameras to deter crime.

Paper Doctorate

Correctional law principles and applications

Correctional institutions have tried to implement inmate postcard-only mail policies to reduce staffing needs and contraband trafficking. The U.S. Supreme Court and lower federal courts have tended to give correctional authorities the benefit of the doubt when prisons restrict the Constitutional rights of inmates, in order to ensure prison security and the safety of inmates and prison staff. However, the Court has established a reasonableness test under Turner v. Safley (1987) when it comes to prison policies infringing upon inmate speech. This essay examines the Constitutionality of prison postcard-only mail policies and offers recommendations based on established jurisprudence.

Research Paper Doctorate

Billboards and the First Amendment

¶ … First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees to us freedom of speech - promises to each citizen and resident of the United States that the government will not tell us what we can or cannot say. Right?

Paper Doctorate

History of the Tobacco Industry: Ethics and Ecology

Throughout its long and storied history, tobacco has served the various appetites of religious shamans, aristocratic noblemen, common sailors, money changers and modern-day captains of industry.

Thesis Undergraduate

On Liberty and the US Constitution

None of the issues being raised today by the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement are new, but rather they date back to the very beginning of the United States. At the time the Constitution was written in 1787, human rights and civil liberties were far more constrained than they are in the 21st Century. Only white men with property had voting rights for example, while most states still had slavery and women and children were still the property of fathers and husbands. Only very gradually was the Constitution amended to grant equal citizenship and voting rights to all, and even the original Bill of Rights was added only because the Antifederalists threatened to block ratification. In comparison, the libertarianism of John Stuart Mill in his famous book On Liberty was very radical indeed, even in 1859 much less 1789. He insisted that individuals should be left totally free to do as they pleased so long as they did no harm to others. To that extent, he would have supported the rights of OWS to protest and dissent, and been highly critical of how the authorities were suppressing the movement on the flimsiest of pretexts. As a supporter of free markets, he would also have opposed the trillions in dollars in bailout money that large banks and corporations have received from governments. On the other hand, he probably would have found the ideas of many OWS supporters too radical or socialistic, but at the same time have defended their right to assemble and demonstrate

Thesis Undergraduate

Internet Governance by US Government

It does seem that whenever there has been a lag between legislation and disruptive technology, ethics takes a backseat. Agencies admit that they are years behind where they would like to be—and where consumers think they should be. There has been some movement in the privacy arena as companies doing business on the Web voluntarily participate in programs that give consumers opportunity to opt out of tracking. Categorically speaking, Internet privacy is quite a different animal from freedom of expression on the Internet. Nevertheless, the point is taken that the temporal gap between praxis and regulation is a consistent source of difficulty and a drain on resources. As a globalized economy increasingly turns to professional information workers, the market is being altered by the proliferation of regulations that protect access to creative and intellectual property (Nakamura, 2000). Patents, copyrights, brands, and trademarks are all constructing exclusivity, which is largely temporary, but is monopolistic nonetheless (Nakamura, 2000). This wave of protective instruments is serving to erode unfettered access to markets (Nakamura, 2000).

Research Paper Masters

Should Religious Symbols Be Worn in Schools

Many parents and students were confused, when a school district in Nebraska stopped a 12 years old girl, Elizabeth Carey from wearing a necklace because it resembled a rosary. Rev. Joseph Taphorn said to press that "One ought to be able to figure out whether she's trying to promote a gang," he added. "If she's not, why would she be punished for her right of religious freedom and religious expression? (Haynes)"

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