Chen and Yeh on How Rights Revolutions Occur: Free Speech and the First Amendment

Daniel L. Chen, University of Toulouse 1, Toulouse School of Economics Institute for Advanced Studies, and Harvard Law School LWP, Harvard Law School, and Susan Yeh, George Mason University School of Law, have published How Do Rights Revolutions Occur? Free Speech and the First Amendment. Here is the abstract.

Does law shape values? We test a model of law and norms using an area of law with emotional salience and controversy. Since 1958, Democratic judges have been 10% more likely than Republicans to favor progressive free speech standards. Using the random assignment of U.S. federal judges setting geographically-local precedent, we estimate that progressive free speech standards liberalized sexual attitudes and behaviors and had secondary effects on sex-related crimes and diseases. To corroborate a causal channel we conduct a field experiment with data entry workers. Exposure to progressive decisions liberalized sexual attitudes and shifted norm perceptions but not self-reported behavior.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.