David Hudson serves as an attorney for the First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. The Center, which is funded by the Freedom Forum, seeks to foster a greater public understanding and appreciation for First Amendment rights and values. Hudson writes for the Freedom Forum's online publication, The Freedom Forum Online, and other leading publications devoted to First Amendment issues. He contributes regularly to the American Bar Association's Preview of United States Supreme Court Cases, the Commercial Speech Digest and the ABA Journal.

Commercial speech and the so-called commercial speech doctrine represent an evolving area of First Amendment jurisprudence. Commercial speech - or in the words of the U.S. Supreme Court, speech "which does no more than propose a commercial transaction" - originally received no First Amendment protection.

The Supreme Court still relegates commercial speech to a "subordinate status" as compared to other types of noncommercial speech, such as political speech. However, some Justices, most forcefully Justice Clarence Thomas, have questioned the distinction between commercial and noncommercial speech.

This course will briefly examine the history of the commercial speech doctrine and discuss the leading test used by the courts to examine the constitutionality of regulations that have an impact on commercial speech.

Then, the course will provide you with a series of examples from real cases designed to strengthen your knowledge of this area of the law and expose you to some of the leading issues.