America’s War on Terror Goes into Cyberspace. Will the First Amendment Prevent the Government from Giving Chase?

America’s War on Terror Goes into Cyberspace. Will the First Amendment Prevent the Government from Giving Chase?

by Zachary M. Mattison

ABSTRACT:
This Note evaluates the practicality of the United States Supreme Court’s First Amendment jurisprudence in light of the crisis of the internet being used as a safe haven for terrorist communication, training, and planning. The author criticizes the modern Clear and Present Danger test and discusses the tension between the First Amendment’s significance to American society and national security concerns involving internet communication.

The author posits two possible approaches for future Supreme Court First Amendment jurisprudence in recognition of the post-9/11 world: (1) full adoption of the “true threats doctrine” first articulated in Virginia v. Black, and; (2) broadening of the temporal requirement of “immanency” required by the Clear and Present Danger test, articulated most recently in Brandenburg v. Ohio.

Cite as:
Zachary M. Mattison, Note, America’s War on Terror Goes into Cyberspace. Will the First Amendment Prevent the Government from Giving Chase?, 12 SYRACUSE SCI. & TECH. L. REP. 105 (2005).

NOTE: Footnotes in this abstract were omitted.