J. Michael Bitzer, a graduate of Yale Law School, is the politics department chair and a professor of politics and history at Catawba College. His teaching focuses on American politics, public administration, public policy and the law, and courts and judicial processes. He researches Southern politics, North Carolina politics, campaigns and elections, law and judicial politics. He is the author of Redistricting and Gerrymandering in North Carolina: Battlelines in the Tar Heel State, which looks at 40 years of lawsuits and partisanship of drawing congressional and state legislative district lines.
More Articles from this Author
Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire (1942)
Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire (1942) established that fighting words are not protected by the First Amendment. The Court has since narrowed the fighting words doctrine.
Fighting Words
The fighting words doctrine, an exception to First Amendment-protected speech, lets government limit speech when it is likely to incite immediate retaliation by those who hear it.
Terminiello v. Chicago (1949)
Terminiello v. Chicago (1949) overturned on First Amendment grounds a disorderly conduct conviction against a suspended Catholic priest for making inflammatory public comments.
Texas v. Johnson (1989)
Texas v. Johnson (1989) struck down on First Amendment grounds a flag desecration law. The has decision served as the crux of the debate about burning of the U.S. flag in protest.
Tillman Act of 1907 (1907)
The Tillman Act of 1907, the first federal effort to regulate campaign finance in U.S. elections, banned corporations from expending treasury money to influence a federal election.