The First Amendment tradition is paradigmatic for the development of communication doctrine in liberal democracies; no other national jurisprudence offers as extensive a body of commentary on a full range of media issues. Because of this, a study of First Amendment case law offers insights into the sociology and political economy of communications and communications law. How have U.S. Supreme Court decisions interpreted freedom-of-speech rights? How have these rulings defined the process of mass communication? How do they assess and describe the interests and characteristics of the public as audience, media firms, and advertisers? This volume presents a comprehensive examination of these issues and addresses related topics, including the relationships between citizen communication and legal government, public institutions of law and state and public communication rights and private property rights in a liberal democracy. Based on this extensive review of the literature, the author offers insightful and original conclusions on the political economy of the mass media.