The right of access, the right to hear, and the right to speak: applying First Amendment theories to the network neutrality debate

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2008-01-01
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Barrow, Sarah
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Jeffrey L. Blevins
Barbara Mack
Dirk Deam
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Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication
The Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication offers two majors: Advertising (instructing students in applied communication for work in business or industry), and Journalism and Mass Communication (instructing students in various aspects of news and information organizing, writing, editing, and presentation on various topics and in various platforms). The Department of Agricultural Journalism was formed in 1905 in the Division of Agriculture. In 1925 its name was changed to the Department of Technical Journalism. In 1969 its name changed to the Department of Journalism and Mass Communications; from 1969 to 1989 the department was directed by all four colleges, and in 1989 was placed under the direction of the College of Sciences and Humanities (later College of Liberal Arts and Sciences). In 1998 its name was changed to the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication.
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Abstract

Scholarship on the network neutrality debate has focused primarily on economic and technological arguments for or against regulation to protect the Internet's open and democratic qualities. Concerned that congressional discussion is similarly two-dimensional, this thesis examines the First Amendment concerns in the debate. Following Moran Yemini's 2007 paper, a matrix of possible First Amendment claims on the Internet is created. Legal case analysis identifies which of these claims are supported by Supreme Court precedent. The only potential First Amendment challenge to neutrality regulation would be broadband service providers' (BSPs') claim that the regulation infringed on their editorial rights. If regulations were brought before the Court, it would likely apply its intermediate scrutiny test from the Turner v. Federal Communications Commission cases in 1994 and 1997. Network neutrality regulation would almost certainly satisfy the Turner test, thus the Court would accept this minor infringement of BSPs' editorial rights.

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Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 UTC 2008