Methods of Interpretation

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What's the Harm? The Future of the First Amendment

The First Amendment as a Procrustean Bed?: On How and Why Bright Line First Amendment Tests Can Stifle the Scope and Validity of Democratic Deliberation

Ronald J. Krotoszynski, Jr.

John S. Stone Chair, Professor of Law, and Director of Faculty Research, University of Alabama School of Law.

With my thanks and appreciation to the editors of the University of Chicago Legal Forum for inviting me to participate in the What’s the Harm?: The Future of the First Amendment symposium at the University of Chicago School of Law. I also wish to express my thanks to the other participants in the symposium for their helpful and constructive comments and suggestions on an earlier draft of this Essay. The usual disclaimer applies: any and all errors or omissions are the author’s responsibility alone.

In Greek mythology, Procrustes was a notorious bandit who would abduct travelers and then offer them a rather macabre form of hospitality.

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