Title

School Naming Rights and the First Amendment's Perfect Storm

Abstract

This Article uses public school naming rights as a lens through which to examine the conflicts between the tempestuous First Amendment categories of government speech, commercial speech, and forum analysis. Courts and scholars have noted the internal conflicts within these three categories, but have not yet explored the conflicts between them. As the growth of school naming rights shows, government sponsorship arrangements collapse the artificial divisions between the categories and demand a better understanding of their interactions. This Article represents a first attempt to bring coherence to these poorly defined and increasingly important areas of First Amendment law.

Disciplines

Constitutional Law | Education Law

Date of this Version

February 2007