Stanton First Amendment Clinic
Overview
Students in the Stanton Foundation First Amendment Clinic have responsibility for representing clients in civil litigation cases implicating First Amendment rights of persons and organizations otherwise unable to afford counsel for those matters. Casework focuses on free speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of assembly.
Through representation of their clients, students display the foundational principles of current First Amendment doctrine, including prior restraint, time/place/manner restrictions, content and viewpoint discrimination, and the intersection of the rights protected by the Amendment. As part of that work, students engage in legal advocacy, including: client interviewing and counseling; research, writing, and drafting; discovery; oral and written advocacy; negotiation; and client-centered lawyering. Critical reflection, consistent engagement with ethical rules, and examination of the role of the lawyer in a legal system and the local community will assist students in developing a professional understanding of their work.
This clinic is made possible by a grant from the Stanton Foundation.
Ongoing litigation
The Vanderbilt Law School Stanton Foundation First Amendment Clinic filed suit against Tennessee state representative Jeremy Faison on behalf of Tennessee citizen Dean Fox in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee. Plaintiff brought suit after Representative Faison deleted Mr. Fox’s comments from the official “State Representative Jeremy Faison” Facebook page and blocked Mr. Fox from engaging with the page. The lawsuit asserts that Representative Faison’s actions constituted impermissible viewpoint discrimination in violation of the First Amendment.
The Stanton Foundation First Amendment Clinic at Vanderbilt Law School was successful in their motion on behalf of their client, Alexa Renehan, a records requester in Montgomery County, Maryland.
Vanderbilt Law students in the Clinic filed an amicus brief with the ACLU in the sixth circuit in support of their client to advocate for robust speech protections at the collegiate level.
Clinic Filings
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Lindke v. Freed
The clinic has filed an amicus brief to advocate for the First Amendment rights to access the social media platforms of government officials and agencies.
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Netflix v. Babin
The appeal related to a prosecutor’s attempts to press criminal charges and retaliate against Netflix’s exercise of its First Amendment rights.
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O’Connor-Radcliff v. Garnier
The clinic has filed a second amicus brief advocating for the First Amendment right to access the social media platforms of government officials and agencies.
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Yelp v. Paxton
The clinic has joined an amicus brief arguing that the Ninth Circuit should reverse the District Court’s decision against protected speech.
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Berge v. School Committee of Gloucester
The clinic has filed an amicus brief on behalf of the Clinic and the National Press Photographers Association in a First Circuit Court of Appeals case.
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Open Justice Baltimore et. al v. Baltimore City Law Department et. al
The Clinic and BALT are representing Open Justice Baltimore, an organization dedicated to increasing transparency in the Baltimore Police Department, in their efforts to access records related to police misconduct.
Dealing with Retaliation
The Stanton First Amendment Clinic helped the National Women's Law Center and Know Your IX develop a new resource for survivors of sex-based harassment.
Clinic Director
Jennifer Safstrom
Assistant Clinical Professor of Law
Jennifer Safstrom teaches the Stanton Foundation First Amendment Clinic at Vanderbilt Law School. Before joining Vanderbilt's law faculty, Professor Safstrom worked as counsel at the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection and as supervising attorney and clinical teaching fellow with the Civil Rights Clinic at Georgetown Law. She also served as the Dunn Legal Fellow at the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia.
Have Questions?
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