First Amendment Law
The governing document
Constitution and Syllabus — First Amendment Law — Fall 2026
Read it in the first week. It is what the course runs on, and it is on this page because a syllabus nobody can find is a syllabus nobody reads.
Start here. Speech, religion, and the federal–state power questions underneath them — built on public-domain primary sources, free forever. The assigned reading is in the Chemerinsky casebook you already own; each Module page below tells you which pages. This site is the map — what each Module is doing, in what order, and what goes with it. Quizzes, discussion boards and assignments stay in Canvas.
Begin with Module 1 — Free Speech Values →
Freedom of Speech
- Module 1
Free Speech Values; What Is Speech? - Module 2
Free Speech Methodology - Module 3
Infringement of Speech - Module 4
Disfavored Categories of Speech, Part I: Incitement, Fighting Words and True Threats - Module 5
Disfavored Categories of Speech, Part II: Defamation and Emotional Distress - Module 5A ADI
Commercial Speech - Module 6
Disfavored Categories of Speech, Part III: Sexual Speech, and a Category the Court Refused to Create - Module 6A ADI
Speech and Participation in Elections - Module 7
Locations and Forums
Freedom of Religion
- Module 8
Free Exercise, Part I - Module 8A ADI
Free Exercise, Part II - Module 9
The Establishment Clause, Part I - Module 9A ADI
The Establishment Clause, Part II
Fundamental Rights and Substantive Due Process
- Module 10 ADI
Due Process and Unenumerated Fundamental Rights: The Framework - Module 11
Family Autonomy; Reproductive Autonomy - Module 11A ADI
Medical Care Decisions; Sexual Orientation and Sexual Activity - Module 12
Unenumerated and Quasi-Fundamental Rights: A Different Approach — Arms; Travel; Education
Federal versus State Power - Redux
- Module 12A ADI
Sovereign and Eleventh Amendment Immunities - Module 13
Congressional Power Under the Civil War Amendments