Professor Soucek Quoted by New Haven Independent on Free Speech Issues
Letters by Professor Brian Soucek to the City of New Haven Corporation Counsel regarding new laws proposed for the New Haven Green as a result of the Occupy New Haven protests are the subject of an article in the New Haven Independent. Soucek argues in his letters that the proposed new regulations are unconstitutional and do not clarify the City of New Haven's muddled relationship with the Proprietors of the Green, the private group that owns the Connecticut city's central square.
Soucek, a former resident of New Haven, argues that the new rules would be unconstitutional in part because they give city officials discretion to charge protestors for police protection, noting that "charging demonstrators for their own protection forces unpopular speakers to pay more for their right to speak than those whose expression is less controversial."
Professor Soucek holds a JD from Yale Law School and a PhD from Columbia University. He has clerked for U.S. District Court Judge Mark. R. Kravitz in Connecticut, and Judge Guido Calabresi of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. His primary teaching and research interests are discrimination law, civil procedure, constitutional law, the regulatory state, and immigration law.