2008 Colorado We the People Summer Institute

The First Amendment: Founding Principles and Contemporary Debates

June 10– 13, 2008
–
University of Denver

Free expression guaranteed by the First Amendment is the cornerstone of our democracy. More than two hundred years after ratification, debates about its meaning continue. Participants in the 2008 Colorado We the People Summer Institute examined landmark decisions showing the evolution of First Amendment jurisprudence and how courts balance this right with other democratic values. Should speech be limited in wartime? Is hate speech protected? What First Amendment rights do students have in the 21st century? What should be the limits on public protests?
Content Sessions:
  • A Framework for Analyzing First Amendment Cases, Julie Nice, Delaney Chair and Professor of Law, University of Denver, Sturm College of Law
  • Speech in Wartime: The View from History, Susan Schulten, Department of History, University of Denver
  • Student Speech in School: Tinker, Technology, and Troubled Times, Kathleen Sullivan, Director of the Legal Services Program, Colorado School Boards Association
  • The Right to Protest: Public Spaces, Public Demonstrations, Taylor Pendergrass, Staff Attorney, Colorado American Civil Liberties Union; Richard Westfall, Hale-Friesen, LLP and former Solitictor General, State of Colorado
  • Hate Speech and the First Amendment, Tarek Saad, Esq., Holland and Hart, and Chair, Colorado Lawyers Committee, Hate Crime and Violence Task Force; Hon. Kristen L. Mix, United States Magistrate Judge, District of Colorado
  • Closing Luncheon Speaker, Mary Beth Tinker, Reflecting on a Landmark Supreme Court Case

Snapshots from the 2008 Colorado WTP Summer Institute
Teachers participating in culminating WTP hearings on the First Amendment. (See 2008 WTP Institute Hearing Questions.)
Closing luncheon speaker, Mary Beth Tinker, with Lori Mable, WTP mentor and Sara Edson, Mullen High School.