Faculty

Michael Curtis

Judge Donald L. Smith Professor in Constitutional and Public Law

Phone: 336.758.5714
Mobile: 336.327.6105
Email: curtismk@wfu.edu

Books

  • Free Speech: The People's Darling Privilege: Struggles for Freedom of Expression in American History (Duke Univ. Press, Nov. 2000). Winner of the N. C. Literary and Historical Society's 2001 Mayflower Cup Award for the best non-fiction book by a North Carolina author.  Selected by an Independent panel of judges as the Winner of the 2001 Playboy Foundation Heffner First Amendment Award for the best book of the year on the subject of the 1st Amendment. (Judges include 1st Amendment Attorney and author Floyd Abrams and Professor Robert O'Neil of the Univ. of Virginia Law School, Founding Director of the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression.) Selected comments on the book are included below.
  • No State Shall Abridge: The Fourteenth Amendment and the Bill of Rights, Duke University Press (1986); for selected reviews of No State Shall Abridge, see 101 Harvard Law Review 869-873 (1988), 85 Michigan Law Review 1118-92 (1987), 81 American Political Science Review 278-279 (1987). The book was described by Professor Akhil Amar of Yale Law School as "one of the most important and most impressive works of constitutional scholarship of the late twentieth century." In the Bimonthly Review of Law Books (March-April 2001), Professor Michael Gerhardt (then at William and Mary School of Law (now at UNC Law School) named it as one of the five law books every law student should read.
  • Michael Kent Curtis, J. Wilson Parker, Davison Douglas, and Paul Finkelman, Constitutional Law in Context (Carolina Academic Press, 2d ed. 2006), a constitutional law casebook with additional historical context.
  • Annual Supplement to Constitutional Law in Context.
  • Editor, The Constitution and the Flag: Vol. 1, The Flag Salute and Vol. 2, Flag Burning (Garland Press 1993). (Articles, Cases, and Materials on the flag salute and flag burning controversies with an introduction by Michael Kent Curtis.)

Contributions to books

  • Book chapter, "Democratic Ideas and Media Realities: A Puzzling Free Press Paradox," in Free Speech (Cambridge Univ. Press 2004, Paul, Miller, and Paul eds.)
  • Book chapter in The Law of Slavery, Madison House Publisher (1997): "The 1859 Crisis over Hinton Helper's Book The Impending Crisis: Slavery, Free Speech, and the Meaning of the First Section of the Fourteenth Amendment," a condensed version of the article that appears below.
  • "Reading the First Amendment by the Light of the Burning Flag," introduction to 1 The Constitution and the Flag.

Articles

  • "Transforming Teenagers Into Oral Sex Felons: The Persistence of the 'Crime Against Nature' After Lawrence v. Texas," Wake Forest Law Review, (March 2008).
  • "Lincoln, The Constitution of Necessity, and the Necessity of Constitutions: A Reply to Professor Paulsen, 59 Me. L. Rev. 1 (2007).
  • "St. George Tucker and the Legacy of Slavery," 47 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 1157 (2006).
  • Book Review of Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime from the Sedition Act of 1798 to the War on Terror by Geoffrey R. Stone, 21 Const. Comm. 757 (published 2006).
  • "Democratic Ideals and Media Realities: A Puzzling Free Press Paradox," 21 Social Philosophy and Policy 385 (2004).
  • "Judicial Review and Populism," 38 Wake Forest L. Rev. 313 (2003).
  • "John A. Bingham and the Story of American Liberty," 36 U. Akron L. Rev. 617 (2003) (contribution to symposium issue on John A. Bingham, who should be added to the pantheon of framers of the Constitution.)
  • "Historical Linguistics, Inkblots, and Life After Death: The Privileges or Immunities Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment," (78 North Carolina Law Review 1071 (2000)).
  • "Lincoln, Vallandigham, and Anti-War Speech in the Civil War," 7 William and Mary Bill of Rights Journal 105 (1998).
  • "The 1837 Killing of Elijah Lovejoy by an Anti-Abolition Mob: Free Speech, Mobs, Republican Government, and the Privileges of American Citizens," 44 University of California at Los Angeles Law Review 1109 (1997).
  • "Resurrecting the Privileges or Immunities Clause and Revising the Slaughter-House Cases Without Exhuming Lochner: Individual Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment," 38 Boston College Law Review (1996).
  • "Remembering Albion Tourgee on the 100th Anniversary of Plessy v. Ferguson," 13 Constitutional Commentary 187 (1996).
  • "Free Speech" and Its Discontents: The Rebellion against General Propositions and the Danger of Discretion, 31 Wake Forest Law Review 419 (1996)--comment on Oliver Wendel Holmes devise lecture by Professor Sunstein.
  • "The Curious History of Attempts to Suppress Anti-slavery Speech, Press, and Petition in 1835-1837," 89 Northwestern University Law Review 785 (1995).
  • "Monkey Trials: Science Defamation, and the Suppression of Dissent," 4 William and Mary Bill of Rights Journal 507 (1995). An article about a libel suit based on a Rolling Stone article reporting an hypothesis on the possible origin of AIDS.
  • "The Critics of Free Speech and the Uses of the Past," 12 Constitutional Commentary 29 (1995).
  • "The 1859 Crisis over Hinton Helper's Book The Impending Crisis: Slavery, Free Speech, and the Meaning of the First Section of the Fourteenth Amendment," 68 Chicago Kent Law Review 1113 [Symposium on Law and Slavery] (1993).
  • "In Pursuit of Liberty: The Levellers and The American Bill of Rights," 8 Constitutional Commentary 359 (1991).
  • "Privileges or Immunities, Individual Rights and Federalism," 12 Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy 53 (1989), originally presented at a Federalist Society conference.
  • "Conceived in Liberty: The Fourteenth Amendment and The Bill of Rights," 65 North Carolina Law Review 889 (1987), originally presented at a symposium on the bicentennial of the Constitution sponsored by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
  • "Obscenity: The Justices' (Not So) New Robes," 8 Campbell L. Rev. 387 (1986).
  • "Still Further Adventures of the Nine Lived Cat: A Rebuttal to Raoul Berger's Reply on Application of the Bill of Rights to the States" 62 North Carolina Law Review 517 (1984).
  • "Judge Hand's History" An Analysis of History and Methods in Jaffree v. Board of School Commissioners." 86 West Virginia Law Review 109 (1983).
  • "The Fourteenth Amendment and The Bill of Rights," 14 Connecticut Law Review 237 (1982).
  • "Further Adventures of the Nine Lived Cat: A Response to Mr. Berger on Incorporation of the Bill of Rights," 43 Ohio State Law Journal 89 (1982).
  • "The Bill of Rights as a Limitation on State Authority: A Reply to Professor Berger," 16 Wake Forest Law Review 45 (1980).
  • Student law review case notes including "Ads on Buses," 46 North Carolina Law Review 900, 1968.

Encyclopedia articles

  • Articles on Barron v. Baltimore and Saenz v. Roe in Encyclopedia of the Supreme Court of the United States, (2008).
  • Article on the Alien and Sedition Acts in Milestone Documents in American History, (2008).
  • Articles on "Incorporation Doctrine" and the "Fourteenth Amendment," in the Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court, (2005).
  • "Slavery and Civil Liberties," Encyclopedia of the American Constitution, 2424 (2d ed. 2000).
  • Articles on "Barron v. Baltimore," pp. 25-27 and "Incorporation of the Bill of Rights and the Religion Clauses," 236-39. Encyclopedia of Law and Religion, Paul Finkelman, ed., (2000).
  • Essays on "Incorporation Doctrine and Original Intent" at 1356 and "Fourteenth Amendment, Section 5" at 1087 in Encyclopedia of American Constitution (2d ed. 2000).
  • "Albion Tourgee," 21 American National Biography 769 (1999).
  • "The Fourteenth Amendment (Enactment)," in The Constitution and Its Amendments (1999).
  • Essays on the "Fourteenth Amendment" and "The Incorporation Doctrine" in The Oxford Companion to The Supreme Court of the United States (1993).

Symposium articles

  • "The Klan, the Congress and the Court: Congressional Enforcement of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments & the State Action Syllogism, a Brief Historical Overview," Journal of PAJ of Constitutional Law, 11.5 1381 (forthcoming 2009).
  • "Be Careful What You Wish For: Gays, Dueling High School T-Shirts, and the Perils of Suppression," 44 Wake Forest L. Rev. 431 (June, 2009).
  • "The Fourteenth Amendment: Recalling What the Court Forgot," 56 Drake L. Rev. 911 (2008) (Drake Constitutional Law Symposium on Forgotten Constitutional Provisions).
  • "St. George Tucker and the Legacy of Slavery," 47 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 1157 (2006) (contribution to the symposium on St. George Tucker).
  • "Democratic Ideals and Media Realities: A Puzzling Free Press Paradox," 21 Social Philosophy and Policy 385 (2004).
  • "Judicial Review and Populism," 38 Wake Forest L. Rev. 313 (2003) (Wake Law Review Symposium on the 200th Anniversary of Marbury v. Madison).
  • "John A. Bingham and the Story of American Liberty," 36 U. Akron L. Rev. 617 (2003) (contribution to symposium issue on John A. Bingham, who should be added to the pantheon of framers of the Constitution).
  • "Teaching Free Speech from an Incomplete Fossil Record," 34 University of Akron Law Review 231 (2000) (a contribution to a symposium on education and the Constitution).
  • "Two Textual Adventures," 66 George Washington Law Review 1269 (1998) (a comment at the George Washington University Conference on Textualism).
  • "Free Speech and Its Discontents: The Rebellion against General Propositions and the Danger of Discretion," 31 Wake Forest Law Review 419 (1996) -- comment on Oliver Wendell Holmes devise lecture by Professor Sunstein.
  • "Privileges or Immunities, Individual Rights and Federalism," 12 Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy 53 (1989) (symposium article, originally presented at a Federalist Society conference).
  • "Conceived in Liberty: The Fourteenth Amendment and The Bill of Rights," 65 North Carolina Law Review 889 (1987), originally presented at a symposium on the bicentennial of the Constitution sponsored by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Book Reviews

  • Geoffrey Stone, Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime, 21 Const. Commentary (2004, 2006).
  • Victory of Law: The Fourteenth Amendment, the Civil War, and American Literature, 1852-1867, by Deak Nabers, Civil War Book Review (Fall 2007), www.cwbr.com.
  • Slaughterhouse Cases: Regulation, Reconstruction, and the Fourteenth Amendment, by Ronald M. Labbe and Jonathan Lurie (2003), 37 Journal of Interdisciplinary History 143.
  • Robert Martin, The Free and Open Press: The Founding of American Democratic Press Liberty (1640-1800), 46 Am. J. Legal Hist. 108 (2004).
  • The Court and the Empire, A review of The Imperial Republic by James G. Wilson, 20 Constitutional Commentary 163 (2003).
  • William Nelson, Marbury v. Madison: The Origins of Judicial Review, in 5 The Green Bag 329 (2002).
  • Bruce Ackerman, We the People: Transformations, American Journal of Legal History, Vol. XLII, 417 (1998).
  • The Constitution, Law , and American Life: Critical Aspects of the Nineteenth Century Experience, 11 Constitutional Commentary 425 (1994).
  • William Nelson, The Fourteenth Amendment: From Political Principle to Judicial Doctrine, 26 Willamette Law Review 3 (1990).
  • Russell Mokhiber, Corporate Crime and Violence, 25 Willamette L. Rev. 733-38 (1989) and 21 Trial Briefs #2 at 17 (1989).
  • The End of Obscenity, 1 New Law Books Review 84 (1986-87).
  • The Politics of Judicial Interpretation: Courts, the Department of Justice, and Civil Rights, 1866-76, 56 U. Cincinnati Law Review 551 (1987).