Why associations matter : the case for First amendment pluralism / Luke C. Sheahan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sheahan, Luke C., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Freedom of association--United States.

Freedom of association.

Associations, institutions, etc--Law and legislation--United States.

Associations, institutions, etc.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xii, 227 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Lawrence, Kansas : University Press of Kansas, [2020]

Summary:

"First Amendment rights are hailed as the hallmark of the American constitutional system, protecting religious liberty, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of association from government interference. In Christian Legal Society v. Martinez (2010), however, the Supreme Court demoted freedom of association in the panoply of First Amendment rights. This decline in protection for freedom of association has broad ramifications for the constitutional status of voluntary associations in civil society. Why Associations Matter examines how a fundamental right disappeared from the Supreme Court's reasoning and draws on the political sociology of Robert Nisbet to develop a theoretical framework for bolstering freedom of association in American constitutionalism. Luke Sheahan shows that the case law from NAACP v. Alabama (1958) through Boy Scouts v. Dale (2000) has recognized free association only as an individual right of expressive association derived from the Speech Clause alone. This pattern in Supreme Court jurisprudence culminated in Martinez, in which the Supreme Court refused to uphold the associational right of a student group at a public university to police its own membership based upon the purpose of the group. Sheahan argues that the association case law is flawed at a fundamental level and turns to Nisbet, whose sociological work exposes the problem with a focus on the state and individual to the neglect of nonpolitical associations and institutions"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Political Sociology and the Problem of the Vanishing Freedom of Association Pluralism and the "Social" Nature of the Social Group

The First Amendment Dichotomy and Freedom of Association: State and Individual from NAACP v. Alabama to Christian Legal Society v. Martinez

First Amendment Pluralism: Authority, Allegiance, and the Functional Autonomy Test

Conclusion : First Amendment Pluralism and the Freedom of Association.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-7006-2926-2

OCLC:

1378936479