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.


Obscenity represents one of the more colorful and controversial areas of First Amendment Jurisprudence. The U.S. Supreme Court has struggled mightily over the years in trying to draw the line between protected expression and unprotected obscenity. This course introduces participants to the leading cases and tests their knowledge with a series of fact patterns from real appellate cases.