Levin College of Law
Welcome to UF LAW

Lyrissa Barnett Lidsky

Raymond & Miriam Ehrlich Chair in U.S. Constitutional Law

Expertise

Artificial Intelligence  • Constitutional Law  • Defamation  • First Amendment  • Free Expression  • Freedom of Information Act  • Internet Law  • Media Law  • Privacy Torts  • Professional Responsibility  • Social Media  • Tort Law  • 

About

Lyrissa Lidsky is the Raymond & Miriam Ehrlich Chair in U.S. Constitutional Law at Florida Law. The focus of her research and teaching is the intersection of Tort Law and the First Amendment, with an emphasis on defamation and free speech issues in social media.

Lidsky is co-reporter on the Restatement of Defamation and Privacy, which is now in progress. She recently succeeded Judge Robert Sack as the author of Sack on Defamation. She has authored Media Law and First Amendment casebooks, a reference book on press freedom, and dozens of articles, culminating in a recent article in the Virginia Law Review, co-authored with Professor Christina Koningisor, called First Amendment Disequilibrium. Her works have been cited by a number of state supreme courts, federal courts, and the highest courts of Canada and Hong Kong.

Lidsky was Dean of the University of Missouri School of Law from 2017-2022. Missouri Lawyers Media named Lidsky its 2020 Woman of the Year based on her scholarship, teaching and mentorship of students, and engagement of constituencies supporting the school of law.

Before becoming Mizzou Law’s dean, Lidsky held the Stephen C. O’Connell Chair in Law at UF Law and served in various associate dean positions. During her 25 years at UF, she has received a number of teaching awards, including student-selected awards such as Teacher of the Year and Faculty Graduation Speaker, as well as an award selected by faculty committee.

Before becoming a law professor, Lidsky served as a clerk for the Honorable Joseph T. Sneed of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco, Calif. Lidsky received her law degree from the University of Texas School of Law with high honors. She was initiated into Order of the Coif in recognition of her scholastic achievement and served as articles editor of the Texas Law Review. Before law school, she was a Fulbright Scholar at Cambridge University in England, studying medieval legal history and early development of the Common Law. She received her bachelor’s degree, summa cum laude, in English and political science from Texas A&M University.

Education

J.D., University of Texas (with high honors)
B.A., Texas A&M University (summa cum laude)

Teaching and Scholarship

Torts, Advanced Torts (specializing in Defamation and Invasion of Privacy), Mass Media Law, Internet Speech, Jurisprudence, First Amendment Law and Social Media, Freedom of Speech, Cyberbullying.

Publications

Books

 

  • RESTATEMENT (THIRD) OF TORTS: DEFAMATION (preliminary draft 3) (2023).
  • FIRST AMENDMENT LAW: CASES AND MATERIALS (Aspen) (4th ed. forthcoming 2022) (with Ronald Krotoszynski, Jr, Christina E. Wells & Caroline Corbin).
  • MASS MEDIA LAW: CASES AND MATERIALS, with Teachers’ Manual. (Foundation Press) (9th ed. 2016) (Co-Authors: Marc A. Franklin, David A. Anderson & Amy Gajda)
  • TORTS: THE CIVIL LAW OF REPARATION FOR HARM DONE BY WRONGFUL ACT (Matthew Bender 2009) (Co-authors: Joseph W. Little and Robert Lande)
  • FREEDOM OF THE PRESS, Greenwood Press Series on the Constitution (Co-Author: R. George Wright) (2004)

Book Chapters

  • The Gordian Knot of Defamation Reform, in Media and Society after Technological Disruption (Kyle Langvardt and Gus Hurwitz, eds., forthcoming 2023)
  • Making Defamation Expensive—But Not Too Expensive, in MEDIA AS A GOVERNANCE INSTITUTION (Cambridge University Press forthcoming 2022).
  • Recent Developments in the Law of Social Media, in COMMUNICATIONS LAW IN THE DIGITAL AGE 2014 (PLI November 2014) (with RonNell Andersen Jones).
  • Recent Developments in the Law of Social Media, in COMMUNICATIONS LAW IN THE DIGITAL AGE 2013 (PLI November 2013) (with RonNell Andersen Jones).
  • Recent Developments in the Law of Social Media, in COMMUNICATIONS LAW IN THE DIGITAL AGE 2012(PLI November 2012)(with Ron Nell Andersen Jones).
  • Legal Pitfalls of Social Media Usage, in SOCIAL MEDIA: USAGE & IMPACT (Hana Noor Al-Deen & John Allen Hendricks, eds., 2011) (with Daniel C. Friedel).

Articles

  • First Amendment Disequilibrium, __ Va. L. Rev. __ (forthcoming 2023)
  • Cheap Speech and the Gordian Knot of Defamation Reform, 3 J. Free Speech L. 79 (2023).
  • Aren’t We Special?: Article III’s Institutional Design, JOTWELL (June 27, 2023) (reviewing Merritt E. McAlister, Macro-Judging and Article III Exceptionalism, 76 Vand. L. Rev __ (2023), available at https://conlaw.jotwell.com/arent-we-special-article-iiis-institutional-design/
  • Defamation Law Reform: A Tort Remedy for Ultrahazardous Words?, JOTWELL (June 1, 2022) (reviewing Cristina Carmody Tilley, (Re)Categorizing Defamation, 94 Tul. L. Rev. 435 (2020)), https://conlaw.jotwell.com/defamation-law-reform-a-tort-remedy-for-ultrahazardous-words/.
  • Articles That Matter (Symposium): Post, Robert C., The Social Foundations of Defamation Law: Reputation and the Constitution, 74 Calif. L. Rev. 691), 25 Comm. L & Pol’y 491 (2020). [ Link]
  • Within the Labyrinth of Law, JOTWELL (May 1, 2020) (reviewing Robert C. Post and Jennifer E. Rothman, The First Amendment and the Right(s) of Publicity, 130 Yale L. J. 86 (2020), available at SSRN)).
  • Symposium Foreword: Whither the Fourth Estate? 83 Mo. L. Rev. 907 (2018). [SSRN]
  • #I U: Considering the Context of Online Threats, 106 Cal. L. Rev. 1885 (2018) (with Linda Riedemann Norbut). [SSRN]
  • OnionDNS: A Seizure-Resistant Top-Level Domain  Int. J. Inf. Secur. (2018) 17:645–660 (with Patrick Traynor, Rachael L. Jones et. al.) [SSRN]
  • U.S. Media Law Update, 20 Media & Arts L. Rev. 461 (2015) (Co-Author: Rachael Jones) .[SSRN]
  • Of Reasonable Readers and Unreasonable Speakers: Libel Law in a Networked World, 23 Va. J. of Soc. Pol’y & L. 155 (2016) (with RonNell Jones). [SSRN]
  • Privacy and the New Press, JOTWELL (March 16, 2015) (reviewing Amy Gajda, The First Amendment Bubble: How Privacy and Paparazzi Threaten a Free Press (2015)). [Jotwell]
  • Not a Free Press Court? 2012 BYU L. Rev. 1819 (2012) (symposium.) [SSRN]
  • How Not to Criminalize Cyberbullying, 77 Mo. L. Rev. 693 (2013) (Co-author: Andrea Pinzon) (symposium.) [SSRN]
  • Public Forum 2.1: Public Higher Education Institutions and Social Media, 14 Fla. Coastal L. Rev. 55 (2012) (symposium). [SSRN]
  • U.S. Media Law Update, Media & Arts L. Rev. (2013) (Australia).
  • Incendiary Speech and Social Media, 44 Tex. Tech L. Rec. 147 (2011) (symposium). [SSRN]
  • Public Forum 2.0, 91 B.U. L. Rev. 1975 (2011). [SSRN]
  • Government Sponsored Social Media and Public Forum Doctrine: Perils and Pitfalls, 19 The Public Lawyer 2 (Summer 2011).
  • U.S. Media Law Update, 15 Media & Arts L. Rev.  (Dec. 1, 2010) (Australia).
  • Anonymity in Cyberspace: What Can We Learn from John Doe?, 50 B.C. L. Rev. 1373 (2009). [SSRN]
  • Nobody’s Fools: The Rational Audience as First Amendment Ideal 2010 U. Ill. L. Rev. 799 (2009). [SSRN] Reprinted in FIRST AMENDMENT LAW HANDBOOK, 2010-2011 EDITION (Rodney Smolla, ed.)
  • Where’s the Harm?: Free Speech and the Regulation of Lies, 65 Wash. & Lee L. Rev. 1091 (2008). [SSRN]
  • The Phases and Faces of the Duke Lacrosse Controversy: A Conversation, 19 Seton Hall Sports & Ent. L.J. 181 (2009) (published remarks).
  • U.S. Media Law Update, 13 Media & Arts L. Rev. 383 (2008) (Australia).
  • Medium-Specific Regulation of Attorney Advertising: A Critique, 18 Fla. J. L. & Pub. Pol’y 259 (Fall 2007) (with Tera Peterson). [SSRN]
  • U.S. Media Law Update, 12 Media & Arts L. Rev. 387 (2007) (Australia).
  • Authorship, Audiences and Anonymous Speech, 82 Notre Dame L. Rev. 1537 (2007) (with Thomas F. Cotter). [Link]
  • Brandenburg and the United States War on Incitement Abroad: Defending a Double Standard, 37 Wake Forest L. Rev. 1009 (2002). [SSRN]
  • Cybergossip or Securities Fraud? Some First Amendment Guidance in Drawing the Line, 5 wallstreetlawyer.com 15 (Glasser Legal Works 2001), reprinted at www.ucdavis.bizlawjournal.edu. (with Michael Pike).
  • Silencing John Doe: Defamation and Discourse in Cyberspace, 49 Duke L.J. 855 (2000) [SSRN]
  • Book Review, The Reasonable Woman and the Warrior Code, in Jurist: Books-on-Law  (2000).
  • Prying, Spying and Lying: Media Intrusions and What the Law Should Do About Them, 73 Tul. L. Rev. 173 (1998). [SSRN]
  • Book Review, SLAPPS: Getting Sued for Speaking Out, in FREE SPEECH YEARBOOK (1997) (with Joseph Beatty).
  • Defensor Fidei: Robert Summers’ Post-Realist Formalism, 47 Fla. L. Rev. 815 (1995). [SSRN]
  • Maintaining Order in the Post-Strike Workplace: Employee Expression and the Scope of Section 7, 15 Berkeley J.  Emp. & Lab. L. 87 (1994).
  • Intrusion and the Investigative Reporter, 71 Tex. L. Rev. 433 (1992).

Other Publication Activities

University of Florida Levin College of Law
309 Village Drive
PO Box 117620
Gainesville, FL 32611
(352) 273-0804
Text-Only Version

Tools

Website

Quick Links

The Florida Constitutional Law Endowment in memory of Justice Ben F. Overton was created by Judge Karen Miller in 2013. This fund supports lectures and presentations by Justices of the Florida Supreme Court at the Fredric G. Levin College of Law.

HISTORY

Justice Overton, who earned his B.S. in 1951 and his Juris Doctor in 1952 from the University of Florida, was the first merit appointment to the Florida Supreme Court. Throughout his career he was active in legal education and served as an Adjunct Professor at the Levin College of Law through December 2012, the month of his death. Although he resided at Oak Hammock at the University of Florida, a continuing care retirement community developed in cooperation with UF, he also considered the Florida Supreme Court “home.” Among the high points of his later years was hosting Justices of the Florida Supreme Court in Gainesville and taking his class to Tallahassee to hear oral arguments at the Florida Supreme Court.
Judge Miller, who earned her B.S. cum laude from New York University in 1974 and her Juris Doctor from New York Law School in 1977, served as Chief Administrative Law Judge of the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs, New York City’s business regulatory agency, before she retired to Oak Hammock at the University of Florida. Having accompanied Justice Overton on his excursions to Tallahassee and joined him in welcoming guests to Oak Hammock at the University of Florida, she created the endowment in memory of Justice Overton to ensure that the Levin College of Law continues to have the funding necessary to continue and enhance the interaction between its students and the Florida Supreme Court.

 

Judge Miller remembered the event that motivated the endowment.

 

Prior to a dinner at the home of Dean Robert Jerry and Lisa Jerry shortly after Justice Overton’s death, Justice Barbara Pariente and I were discussing a suitable memorial. Justice Pariente, who had been Justice Overton’s colleague on the Florida Supreme Court and who understood the importance to him of the interaction between his students and the Court, suggested the outline of what has become the Overton lectures. Dean Jerry, who has since retired, as has Dean Emeritus Jon Mills, who assumed responsibility for implementing the Overton lectures, were very supportive from the beginning. Since Dean Mills’ retirement, Professor Timothy McClendon, who assisted both Justice Overton and Dean Mills teaching Florida Constitutional Law and who co-authored the recent Florida Constitutional Law casebook, has continued the Overton lectures with the support of Interim Dean Merritt McAlister and CGR director, Professor Danaya Wright.

Justice Overton was a devoted jurist, educator, and ethical leader of the Florida legal profession. The Overton Lecture Series brings Florida Supreme Court Justices to the University of Florida, Levin College of Law, and serves to introduce students to the inner workings of the Court. CGR and the students of the College of Law extend our deepest gratitude to Judge Karen Miller for making the Overton Lectures possible in perpetuity.

You can watch an interview for the Florida Historical Society by Mary Adkins, professor emeritus of the UF Levin College of Law, with Justice Overton here.

Justice Overton was also interviewed for the Samuel Proctor Oral History Project and a transcript of his interview is available at the Smathers Library, and here.
Justice Overton sat on the Constitution Revision Commission of 1977-78 that proposed a right to privacy in the Florida Constitution. Although it failed as part of the Constitution Revision Commission recommendations, it passed in 1980 when proposed by the legislature. The bill was co-sponsored by our very own Jon Mills. The privacy provision prevailed by greater than 60%. Justice Overton then wrote a concurrence in a critical reproductive rights case in 1989 affirming that the privacy provision of the Florida Constitution included the right to obtain an abortion. That decision was overruled in Planned Parenthood of SW and Central Florida v. Florida. You can read about the role of Justice Overton, Jon Mills – director emeritus of CGR, and the history of the 1989 case here.