Government and Its Speech Forum

This chapter examines the Supreme Court's decision inPleasant Grove City v. Summum. In the city of Pleasant Grove, Utah, sits Pioneer Park—the site of a local controversy that launched a landmark expansion of the doctrine known as “government speech.” The park's attractions are a hodgepodge of monuments and historical markers, including a privately donated Ten Commandments monument. A small and unconventional local religious group called Summun argued before the Supreme Court for the right to place its own monument next to the Ten Commandments in Pioneer Park. At issue in the Summun case was whether and how the claimed government speech forum would apply to monuments in a public park. Beneath the surface of this issue, however, were some very fundamental First Amendment questions. The chapter focuses on these questions. Is First Amendment immunity for government speech constitutionally justified, and if so, why? Should government's choice of private speech qualify as government speech? Should government's speech power be extended to a government speech forum in which only approved ideas and viewpoints can be expressed?

Jesse's train

Fourth graders at J. C. Sommer Elemen tary School in Grove City, Ohio, were introduced to a new mathematical tool. By exploring Cuisenaire® Rods, they were able to apply relationships that they noticed to the Jesse's Train problem.

Reaganism and the Dismantling of Civil Rights: Title IX in the 1980s

In the 1980s, Title IX and other civil tights laws faced significant challenges within a political climate of Reaganism and the growing strength of the alliance between the New Right and the Religious Right. In the 1980s two major events impacted all civil rights legislation based on the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The first was the Grove City College v. Bell (1984) Supreme Court decision and the second was the 1987 Civil Rights Restoration Act passed over the veto of President Reagan in 1988. This article examines the public discourse of these events through a critical media reading of mainstream newspaper coverage throughout the 1980s, highlighting the central role of Title IX in the debate over civil rights. This examination highlights the importance of dominant discourse in the enforcement of civil rights laws, as well as in the resulting lack of opportunity development over time.