Snapshots: Research and Creative Work – Judging Free Speech

Political science faculty member Helen J. Knowles co-edited and helped write Judging Free Speech (Palgrave MacMillan, 2015), a 300-page book exploring the First Amendment opinions of nine key justices over the course of a century of Supreme Court decisions.

The book, co-edited by Steven B. Lichtman of Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania, traces important developments in the jurisprudence of free speech and expression, from Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. through William J. Brennan and on to Anthony M. Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Stephen Breyer of today’s court. Conceived for use in the classroom, the book helps close a gap in the literature about free speech, particularly among textbooks for courses on the First Amendment or civil liberties.