Center for the First Amendment

About the Program

UVA Law is home to outstanding scholars of both the religion clauses and the speech and press clauses of the First Amendment. As the freedom of speech becomes an ever more important and contested right within our society, and as the religion clauses become an active and controversial area in Supreme Court jurisprudence, scholars at the Law School are at the forefront of the debates, in law reviews and philosophical journals, as well as in courthouses and the public square.

Among the school’s First Amendment scholars are Professors Frederick Schauer and Douglas Laycock. Schauer is one of the world’s leading legal theorists, and has made substantial contributions to thinking on free speech. His books include Schauer is the author of “The Law of Obscenity” and “Free Speech: A Philosophical Enquiry.” Laycock is perhaps the nation’s leading expert on religious liberty, and has argued such cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and served as lead counsel six times. He has also authored several influential amicus briefs, and his many writings on religious liberty have been collected and published in a five-volume series.

From Bad to Worse: Cyberstalking, Threats, and Free Speech

Danielle K. Citron

Cyber stalking involves repeated, often relentless targeting of someone with abuse. Death and rape threats may be part of a perpetrator’s playbook...

Religious Freedom and Abortion

Micah J. Schwartzman

Richard C. Schragger

The demise of Roe v. Wade has raised a host of religious liberty questions that were submerged prior to the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v...

Religion as Disobedience

Xiao Wang

Religion today offers plaintiffs a ready path to disobey laws without consequence. Examples of such disobedience abound. In the past few years alone...

How To Fix Section 230

Danielle K. Citron

Section 230 is finally getting the clear-eyed attention that it deserves. No longer is it naive to suggest that we revisit the law that immunizes...

The Cross, the Confederate, and the Constitution

Richard C. Schragger

Constitutional law has a great deal to say about what symbols are permitted in the public square. Somewhat baroque legal rules (sometimes created...

The Discipline of Rudy Giuliani and the Real Fraud of the 2020 Election

George M. Cohen

In Matter of Giuliani, the New York Appellate Division held that Rudy Giuliani’s knowingly false statements of fact during the period after the 2020...

News

Trump Conspiracy Case Could Test First Amendment, Says Professor

Students’ New Surveillance State

Diverse Law and Religion Scholars Clash and Collaborate at UVA Law Roundtable

Faculty Review 2022 Supreme Court Term

More News

Faculty Director

Leslie Kendrick

White Burkett Miller Professor of Law and Public Affairs

Elizabeth D. and Richard A. Merrill Professor of Law

Director, Center for the First Amendment

Special Advisor to the Provost on Free Expression and Inquiry

Fellow, UVA Shannon Center for Advanced Studies

Resident Faculty

Frederick Schauer

Constitutional law, evidence and legal reasoning, philosophy of law

Frank Stanton Professor the First Amendment, Emeritus, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University (also taught courses on evidence and freedom of speech at Harvard Law School)
Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a former fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation
Author of numerous books and articles, including "Thinking Like a Lawyer: A New Introduction to Legal Reasoning" and "The Force of Law" (forthcoming in 2015) (Faculty Q&A)
Was founding co-editor of the journal Legal Theory

Micah J. Schwartzman

Law and religion, jurisprudence and political philosophy

Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford, where he received his doctorate in politics
Clerked for Judge Paul V. Niemeyer of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
Received the Law School’s Carl McFarland Prize for outstanding research (Story)
Schwartzman's scholarship has explored the First Amendment's religion clauses, the free exercise clause and the establishment clause. He is the co-editor of "The Rise of Corporate Religious Liberty." (More)

Leslie Kendrick

First Amendment, constitutional law and torts

Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford, where she received her master's and doctorate in English literature
Clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter and for Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
Scholarly research has focused on free speech (Faculty Q&A), including the U.S. Supreme Court’s interpretations (C-SPAN Supreme Court Term Preview)
Received the Law School’s Carl McFarland Prize for outstanding research (Story)

G. Edward White

Legal history, constitutional law, torts

Clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren
White's 17 published books have won numerous honors and awards, including the final listing for the Pulitzer Prize in history.
Former fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, and twice a senior fellow of the National Endowment for the Humanities
Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, a fellow of the Society of American Historians, and a member of the American Law Institute.

Deborah Hellman

Affirmative action and equal protection, constitutional law and theory

Awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship for University Teachers in 1999
Author of the book "When Is Discrimination Wrong?"
Hellman's work primarily focuses on discrimination and equality. In addition, she writes about the constitutionality of campaign finance laws and the obligations of professional roles, especially in the context of clinical medical research. (Scholarship Profile | Faculty Q&A)

Thomas B. Nachbar

Constitutional law, antitrust and communications regulation, national security

Clerked for Judge Frank H. Easterbrook of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
Practiced with what is now Mayer Brown in Chicago
Is a U.S. Army Reserve judge advocate, and was a principal editor and contributor for the first three editions of "The Rule of Law Handbook: A Practitioners’ Guide" (2007-09)
Before he went to law school, Nachbar spent five years as a systems analyst, working for both Andersen Consulting and Hughes Space and Communications.

Scott Ballenger

Appellate litigation, civil liberties

Director of the Appellate Litigation Clinic
A former partner in Latham & Watkins’ Supreme Court and appellate practice, he has argued two cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and dozens in courts of appeals and trial courts across the country
Former senior counsel to the assistant attorney general in the antitrust division of the Department of Justice, where he worked on the trial and briefing team for United States v. Microsoft
Clerked for Judge J. Clifford Wallace on the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and Justice Antonin Scalia

Richard C. Schragger

Separation of church and state, property, local government and land use

M.A. in legal theory, University College London
Clerked for then-Chief Judge Dolores Sloviter of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
Authored articles on the establishment clause and local regulation of religion, the role of cities in a federal system, local recognition of same-sex marriage, takings law and economic development, and the history of the anti-chain store movement. (Faculty Q&A)

Danielle K. Citron

Privacy, First Amendment, feminism and the law, civil rights, administrative law

Named a 2019 MacArthur Fellow for her work on cyberstalking and intimate privacy
Adviser to then-California Attorney General Kamala Harris on privacy issues and a member of her Cyber Exploitation Task Force (2014-16)
Vice president of the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting civil rights and liberties in a digital age
Gave TED talk “How Deepfakes Undermine Truth and Democracy” that has had over 1.9 million views
Clerked for U.S. District Court Judge Mary Johnson Lowe of the Southern District of New York

Other Faculty

Gabe Rottman

Douglas Laycock

Religious liberty, church and state, law of remedies, constitutional law