Faculty

Michael Curtis

Judge Donald L. Smith Professor in Constitutional and Public Law

Phone: 336.758.5714
Email: curtismk@wfu.edu

Selected Presentations

  • "Democratic Ideals and Media Realities," Conference on Freedom of Speech, Social Philosophy and Policy Center, Bowling Free State University, April 2003.
  • John Bingham and the Story of American Liberty, Legal History section, Association of American Law Schools, Washington, DC, January 2003.
  • Keynote Address:  "42 U.S.C. section 1983 and the Secret Story of American Liberty," at a North Carolina Bar Association program on litigation under 42 U.S.C. section 1983, March, 2003.
  • Lincoln and Civil Liberties During the Civil War, the American Society of Legal History, November 2003.
  • Lincoln and Vallandigham:  Civil Liberties During the Civil War, the Library of Congress program on the Civil War, November 2003.
  • "John A. Bingham and the Story of American Liberty:  The Lost Cause Meets the "Lost Clause.'"  Symposium, John Bingham and the Meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment, University of Akron School of Law, October 2002.
  • "The Constitution in Times of Crisis," North Carolina Bar Association, February 2002.
  • "The Constitution and the Other Constitution," symposium on the Constitution and the Presidential Election, Wake Forest University, October 2000. (Broadcast on C-Span).
  • Back to the Future:  What 19th Century Free Speech Law Can Teach Lawyers Today, Federalist Society National Lawyers Conference, Washington, DC, November 1999.
  • "Two Textual Adventures," symposium on textualism and the Constitution, George Washington University, February 1998.

Presentations based on "Free Speech, The People's Darling Privilege"

  • "Civil Liberties During the Civil War:  The Case of Clement Vallandigham," Library of Congress program on the Civil War in American Memory, October 2002.
  • Putting the Constitution in Context:  Adding History to the Teaching of Constitutional Law, focusing on use in teaching of stories from free speech history from the Sedition Act through the Civil War, AALS Annual Meeting, January 2002.
  • The Trial of Clement Vallandigham before a Military Commission for Making an Anti-War Speech During the Civil War, Program on the War and the Constitution, AALS Annual Meeting, January 2002.
  • The Development of Our Free Speech Tradition, DePaul Law School, November 2001.
  • A New Birth of Freedom:  The Crusade Against Slavery and the Nationalization of Freedom of Speech, Fourth Annual Bell Distinguished Lecture in Law, College of Wooster, Wooster, Ohio.
  • A New Birth of Freedom:  The Crusade Against Slavery and the Freedom of Speech, to the law faculty and another sponsored by the Center for the Study of the American South, UNC at Chapel Hill, February 2001.
  • Free Speech History, symposium on Free Speech, The People's Darling Privilege, William and Mary Law School, January 2001.
  • Teaching Free Speech from an Incomplete Fossil Record, symposium on Education and the Constitution, University of Akron School of Law, March 2000.