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WORK TITLE: Free Speech beyond Words
WORK NOTES: with Mark V. Tushnet and Alan K. Chen
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PERSONAL
Male.
EDUCATION:Rice University, B.A. (magna cum laude), 2001; Trinity Hall, Cambridge University, M.Phil (Gates Scholar), 2003; Yale Law School, J.D., 2006.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Lawyer, educator, and writer. Institute for Economic Affairs, Accra, Ghana, Fulbright scholar, 2001-02; Hon. Rosemary Barkett, 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, Miami, FL, law clerk, 2006-07; O’Melveny & Meyers LLP, Washington, DC, associate, 2007-08; Hon. Guido Calabresi, 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, New Haven, CT, law clerk, 2008-09; Duke Law School, Durham, NC, assistant professor of law, 2009-2012, associate professor, 2012-14, professor, 2014–. Work-related activities include Fair Trial Initiative, executive committee, 2010-2012, board of directors, 2009-2012; Fair Punishment Project, legal advisory council, 2016–; Columbia Model International Mobility Treaty Commission, 2016–; American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina Legal Foundation, board of trustees, 2017–; American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina; board of directors, 2017–. Also served as Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization co-chair at Yale Law School.
MEMBER:
North Carolina Bar, Phi Beta Kappa.
WRITINGS
Contributor to law journals, including Columbia Human Rights Law Review, Duke Law Journal, Law and Contemporary Problems, Tulsa Law Review, and University of Chicago Law Review.
Guest blogger at Prawfsblawg, Concurring Opinions, ACSBlog, Take Care. Occasional Reviewer for Yale University Press, Yale Law Journal, Legal Theory, Duke Law Journal, International & Comparative Law Quarterly, European Journal of American Studies, and Land Use & Environmental Law Review. Served as comments editor of Yale Law Journal, symposium editor of Yale Law and Policy Review, and notes editor of Yale Human Rights and Development Law Journal.
SIDELIGHTS
Joseph Blocher is a law professor whose primary interests are federal and state constitutional law, the First and Second Amendments, capital punishment, and property. A contributor to law journals, Blocher is also coauthor with Mark V. Tushnet and Alan K. Chen of Free Speech Beyond Words: The Surprising Reach of the First Amendment. Blocher, Chen and Tushnet examine the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America in relation to cases that protect freedom of expression beyond the spoken word. For example, in cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, the court has ruled that paintings by abstract expressionist painter Jackson Pollock and the music of Arnold Schöenberg, an Austrian composer, music theorist, and painter, are guaranteed constitutional protection by the First Amendment.
“This book represents a sustained effort to account, constitutionally, for these modes of ‘speech,'” the author’s write in the introduction to Free Speech Beyond Words. They go on to examine how modes of expression that do not use language in a traditional way and that may not even express “articulable ideas” can be viewed as speech. The authors conclude that some things cannot be expressed with the traditional use of language but are still worth expressing and protection by the First Amendment.
Overall, Blocher, Chen, and Tushnet examine a wide range of nonrepresentational art, music, and even nonsensical works, such as Lewis Carroll’s poem “Jabberwocky.” They point out that these forms of expression typically do not represent what Americans think of as speech, that is, the use of words to convey meaning. Each of the authors contribute a chapter to the book, with Chen focusing on instrumental music, Tushnet on nonrepresentational art, and Blocher on nonsense.
In the book’s concluding chapter, “Going Further, Additional Problems and Concluding Thoughts,” Blocher, Chen, and Tushnet examine how forms of expression that typically do not contain a readily identifiable message or idea are problematic in terms of First Amendment coverage. They discuss what their examination on music, nonrepresentational art, and nonsense offer in relation to thinking about other forms of nonrepresentational expression such as dance, from social dancing to erotic dancing. Blocher, Chen, and Tushnet conclude that in the future each case will have to be addressed on an individual basis.
“Free Speech Beyond Words offers students of Free Speech, politicians, legal scholars, and the average person on the street a detailed and engaging overview of this tantalizing subject,” wrote History in Review Web site contributor Harry S. Chou. A Publishers Weekly contributor called Free Speech Beyond Words “a valuable introduction to a field that will become only more significant with the development of new media.”
BIOCRIT
BOOKS
Blocker, Joseph, and Alan K. Chen and Mark V. Tushnet, Free Speech Beyond Words: The Surprising Reach of the First Amendment, NYU Press (New York, NY), 2017.
PERIODICALS
Library Journal, December 1, 2016, Becky Kennedy, review of Free Speech Beyond Words: The Surprising Reach of the First Amendment, p. 107.
Publishers Weekly, November 14, 2016, review of Free Speech Beyond Words, p. 42.
ONLINE
Duke University School of Law Web site, https://law.duke.edu/ (August 29, 2017), author faculty profile.
History in Review, http://www.historyinreview.org/ (March 20, 2017), Harry S. Chou, review of Free Speech Beyond Words.
Joseph Blocher is Professor of Law at Duke University School of Law.
Joseph Blocher
Professor of Law
Email: blocher@law.duke.edu
Room: 3174
Phone: 919-613-7018
210 Science Drive
Box 90360
Durham, NC 27708-0360
Assistant: Marlyn Dail
Bibliography
Curriculum Vitae (PDF)
Joseph Blocher’s principal academic interests include federal and state constitutional law, the First and Second Amendments, capital punishment, and property. His articles have been published or are forthcoming in the Yale Law Journal, Stanford Law Review, California Law Review, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, The University of Chicago Law Review, New York University Law Review, Duke Law Journal and other journals, as well as in the online editions of the Yale Law Journal, Harvard Law Review, Virginia Law Review, Texas Law Review, Northwestern University Law Review, and others.
He returned to his hometown of Durham to join the Duke Law faculty in 2009, and received the law school’s Distinguished Teaching Award in 2012. Before coming to Duke, he clerked for Guido Calabresi of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and Rosemary Barkett of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. He also practiced in the appellate group of O’Melveny & Myers, where he assisted the merits briefing for the District of Columbia in District of Columbia v. Heller.
Blocher received his B.A., magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from Rice University, and studied law and economic development as a Fulbright Scholar in Ghana and as a Gates Scholar at Cambridge University, where he received an M.Phil in Land Economy. He received his J.D. from Yale Law School, where he served as comments editor of the Yale Law Journal, symposium editor of the Yale Law & Policy Review, notes editor of the Yale Human Rights & Development Law Journal, participated in or directed several clinics, and was co-chair of the Legal Services Organization.
CV: file:///C:/Users/malay/AppData/Local/Packages/Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe/TempState/Downloads/josephblochercv_-_2017.pdf
Tushnet, Mark V. & others. Free Speech Beyond Words: The Surprising Reach of the First Amendment
Becky Kennedy
141.20 (Dec. 1, 2016): p107.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.libraryjournal.com/
Tushnet, Mark V. & others. Free Speech Beyond Words: The Surprising Reach of the First Amendment. New York Univ. Feb. 2017.272p. photos, notes, bibliog. index. ISBN 9781479880287. $28; ebk. ISBN 9781479873746. LAW
Tushnet (William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law, Harvard Univ. Law Sch.; Why the Constitution Matters), Alan K. Chen (William M. Beaney Memorial Research Chair, Univ. of Denver Sturm Coll, of Law), and Joseph Blocher (law, Duke Univ. Sch. of Law) here collaborate to explore the unusual applications of the First Amendment. Throughout, the authors examine the protections of free speech and the nature of speech itself, using art and nonsense speech as examples. The first chapter, written by Chen, draws on the work of linguistic and legal philosophers in arguing that instrumental compositions are protected by the First Amendment because they represent ideas and can trigger protest actions. The Supreme Court case of Morse v. Frederick illustrates the concept of nonsense speech--the decision upheld the suspension of a high school student who displayed a banner reading "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" at an off campus school event. The student argued it was a joke, but the court ruled schools can restrict speech promoting illegal drug use. VERDICT This thoughtful book debates the nature of speech itself. Law students and legal professionals will want to read it, though general readers will want to look elsewhere. Recommended for law and academic libraries.--Becky Kennedy, Atlanta-Fulton P.L.
Kennedy, Becky
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Kennedy, Becky. "Tushnet, Mark V. & others. Free Speech Beyond Words: The Surprising Reach of the First Amendment." Library Journal, 1 Dec. 2016, p. 107. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA472371257&it=r&asid=d99bc0e6da28b8f130dc9848f95f4391. Accessed 10 Aug. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A472371257
Free Speech Beyond Words: The Surprising Reach of the First Amendment
263.46 (Nov. 14, 2016): p42.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Free Speech Beyond Words: The Surprising Reach of the First Amendment
Mark V. Tushnet, Alan K. Chen, and Joseph Blocher. New York Univ., $28 (272p) ISBN 978-1-4798-8028-7
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Lay readers might not typically consider Jackson Pollock's paintings, Arnold Schonberg's music, and Lewis Carroll's poem "Jabberwocky" to be protected expressions under the First Amendment, but law professors Tushnet, Chen, and Blocher effectively explain why they are considered free speech. They open with a significant paradox: as "nonrepresentational art, instrumental music, and nonsense do not employ language in any traditional sense," and may not even express "articulable ideas," how can they be considered speech? Their logical, if not intuitive, answer--"Sometimes things are worth expressing even when they cannot be put into words"--frames their exploration of First Amendment theory and the balancing tests that the Supreme Court has applied in the past. The authors ultimately conclude that both case-law and theoretical approaches to free speech issues offer limited general guidance, and that a case-by-case analysis of future controversies is the best one can hope for. This is a valuable introduction to a field that will become only more significant with the development of new media, such as virtual reality and digital mapping, that could merit First Amendment protection. (Feb.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Free Speech Beyond Words: The Surprising Reach of the First Amendment." Publishers Weekly, 14 Nov. 2016, p. 42+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA473459013&it=r&asid=06edc1d499fb0fa7e5e40f78cfcade83. Accessed 10 Aug. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A473459013
Free Speech Beyond Words
The Surprising Reach of the First Amendment
By Mark V. Tushnet, Alan K. Chen, and Joseph Blocher
NYU Press, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4798-8028-7
Reviewed by Harry S. Chou - March 20, 2017
We've all heard that the First Amendment is under attack. But what is the First Amendment, and why is it so important? This amendment covers a host of topics such as the Freedom of Religion and the Freedom of Assembly, but for the purposes of this review, we'll focus on one topic - the Freedom of Speech.
For starters, here is the text of this amendment:
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." (Constitution of the United States of America - Amendment I of the Bill of Rights)
In their new book, Free Speech Beyond Words, the book's authors: Mark V. Tushnet, Alan K. Chen, and Joseph Blocher, contend that free speech transcends oral speech and the written word. Free speech also covers traditional art and music. The authors and many legal scholars also contend that free speech includes non-representational art and instrumental music. They also content that something called 'nonsense' is also covered. In this timely book the authors examine these less traditional forms of free speech, and to examine what is meant by nonsense speech (speech or an action that lacks meaning) and how the courts have reacted to cases concerning nonsense speech.
The information provided in this timely book is divided into three main parts, instrumental music, non-representational, and nonsense speech. In each section the authors provide an overview of each type of speech, how these types of speech have been viewed by the courts, and what these types of speech mean for average Americans. The book concludes with a section called "Going Further" that looks at other forms of expression that are covered under the banner of free speech, such as dance, nonobscene pornography, sports, culinary arts, subliminal messages, new media, video games, and much more. The end result is a comprehensive overview of non-traditional forms of free speech and how they have been judged by the court system.
Free Speech Beyond Words offers students of Free Speech, politicians, legal scholars, and the average person on the street a detailed and engaging overview of this tantalizing subject. For those who want to study this subject in more detail, the authors have included an up-to-date bibliography and extensive endnotes that will guide you to additional resources on this subject.
Introduction pg. 1