Vagueness About the First Amendment

Larry Alexander, University of San Diego School of Law, is publishing There is No First Amendment Overbreadth (But There are Vague First Amendment Doctrines); Prior Restraints Aren’t ‘Prior’; and ‘As Applied’ Challenges Seek Judicial Statutory Amendments in Constitutional Commentary. Here is the abstract.

In this short paper I argue that there are no overbroad statutes, and that the worry about overbreadth is really a worry about the vagueness of some First Amendment doctrines. I further argue that there is nothing “prior” about prior restraints; the temporal worry about injunctions is due to the judicially-created collateral bar doctrine, and the temporal worry about licensing schemes is that of the delay occasioned by the license requirement. Finally, I argue that “as applied” constitutional analysis is an exercise in judicial statutory amendment. I conclude with an Appendix discussing two recent prominent articles that are inconsistent with some of my arguments.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.