Free Speech and Photography
I mentioned in the very first post on this blog that I love living in a country where taking photographs is almost always protected speech under the First Amendment even if I don’t like the photography. But I was taken to task for not being more specific about First Amendment rights for photographers and models. 
Not wanting to turn this blog into a First Amendment seminar I decided to sum up those rights as succinctly as possible. That led me to Professor Walter Dellinger’s “Five Minute Constitutional Law Course.” He sums up freedom of speech law like this:
As for speech, you can generally say whatever you want, but not necessarily where, when, or how you want. It’s also OK for the government to regulate “expressive conduct,” as long as the government is going after the “conduct” part and not the “expressive” part. Also, you have no right to dance naked unless you are a really, really good dancer, in which case it becomes art.
Plug in the word “photograph” for “say” in the first sentence and you have the basics of First Amendment law as it applies to photography. That does not mean, of course, that other laws may not impact photography. Privacy rights can restrict it somewhat; national security may prevent you from photographing the latest gazillion dollar airplane; Indians may prevent you from photography on their lands; child pornography is off limits; public safety may prevent you from nude photography in the middle of a freeway at the height of rush hour, etc. But the First Amendment cuts a broad swath. We are fortunate to live in a place where its writ runs.
That is a photo of the Bill of Rights in the National Archives.
