Legal Commentary

Freedom of Speech and the Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress Tort

By Eugene Volokh

Cardozo Law Review?s de?novo online supplement is doing a symposium on the forthcoming Snyder v. Phelps case, and I agreed to write a short (9-page) essay expressing my views.

This is by design a short and therefore somewhat cursory treatment; I wouldn?t have had time to write a more detailed one, and in any event the symposium format calls for short essays. But I hope it makes its arguments as well as possible given the space constraint; so I was hoping to hear our readers? feedback about it. If you?re interested in having a look at the piece and posting or e-mailing your thoughts, that would be great. 

I?ll also serialize the article here this week, though reading the whole 9 pages in one sitting, rather than one post at a time, is probably the best way to see the whole argument. Note also that much of the material in the essay is based on some past Volokh Conspiracy posts of mine; my apologies if this makes the essay seem a bit old hat to some of you.

Full post as published by The Volokh Conspiracy on May 24, 2010 (boomark / email).