15 Oct 2020
Professor Richard Duncan’s article, Seeing the No-Compelled-Speech Doctrine Clearly though the Lens of Telescope Media, has been published in Martin Gardner memorial issue of the Nebraska Law Review..
Duncan is the Sherman S. Welpton, Jr. Professor of Law and teaches Property and Consitutional Law at Nebraska. He has a strong interest in writing and speaking about federalism, liberty, religious freedom, and the right to life.
The purpose of the Article is to take a close look at what has become the leading case on the right of expressive wedding vendors to resist speech compulsions—the Eighth Circuit’s decision in Telescope Media Group v. Lucero. Duncan briefly describes the Court’s longstanding doctrine protecting persons against compelled speech requirements and takes a careful look at the holding and reasoning of Telescope Media. Duncan suggests that Judge Stras’s majority opinion in Telescope Media is very persuasive and that the arguments against applying the no-compelled-speech doctrine to commercial wedding vendors are not persuasive.