POSTPONED | Minnesota - Ground Zero in First Amendment Battles

Due to the current situation, this program has been POSTPONED. For the bar association statement on COVID-19 click here .

How far can the government regulate speech before running afoul of the First Amendment? Minnesota has been at the forefront of that issue in recent years, generating a number of important—and controversial—judicial decisions. For example, in 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court invoked the First Amendment to strike down Minnesota’s ban on political apparel at polling places.  In 2019, the Minnesota Court of Appeals struck down Minnesota’s so-called “revenge porn” statute because it violated the First Amendment. Also in 2019, the Eighth Circuit ruled that the First Amendment trumped Minnesota’s efforts to use anti-discrimination laws to force wedding videographers to produce videos of same-sex weddings.

Minnesota also has been at the forefront of another battle implicating First Amendment concerns: How to balance the First Amendment’s protections in private defamation cases. For example, in 2019, the Minnesota Supreme Court limited the circumstances under which a private plaintiff can recover damages for defamatory statements involving a matter of public concern. In 2020, the Minnesota Supreme Court is set to decide the extent to which the press is protected from defamation claims when it reports on official, government proceedings.