Sandra Chance (JD 90) has filed two amicus briefs to the United States Supreme Court, serves as the executive director of the Brechner Center for Freedom of Information and was named the Scripps-Howard National Journalism Teacher of the Year in 2005 as well as UF's McClatchy Professor in Freedom of Information.

Sandra Chance (JD 90), whose job is to fight for the right to speak freely, sits silently in her third-floor conference room overlooking Florida Field.

She’s silent for a solid 45 seconds, trying to think of what she’s most proud in her life.

For a woman who has filed two amicus briefs to the United States Supreme Court, serves as the executive director of the Brechner Center for Freedom of Information and was named the Scripps-Howard National Journalism Teacher of the Year in 2005 as well as UF’s McClatchy Professor in Freedom of Information, 45 seconds of silence seems almost too soon for an answer.

She smiles, her cheeks flush up into her eyes, and the silence comes to an end.

It’s her family.

“I’ve made the world a better place,” she said, “through them.”

And if you weren’t one of the 5,000 undergraduate and graduate students Chance estimates to have taught the law of mass communication to during her longstanding tenure as equal parts professor and warrior for free speech, or one of the students who affectionately refers to Chance as “Sandy” in an online evaluation, if you didn’t know this is a lawyer who also bakes dozens of her own chocolate-chip cookies to share with her students on just an ordinary Wednesday, then you might think those were the lifeless words of a media-trained attorney just working the crowds.

“What we do professionally is really important,” she said. “But the people who will remember us the most are our family.”

But Chance said there’s so much her family just doesn’t remember. Like when Chance entered law school with three children (her son Dean was 11, Justin was 3 and Caroline was 2) and put them to bed every night at 9, studied until 1 a.m. and then woke at 6 a.m. every day during her first year. She doesn’t think they remember that.

Or the commute at 5 a.m. every Tuesday from Gainesville to work in Holland & Knight’s media law division in Tampa until Thursday evening for two years after she graduated. She doesn’t think they remember that either.

She and her husband, Michael, whom she’s been married to for 37 years, arranged their schedules so they’d always have the weekends with family.

And this is why Chance says her name might be a bit of a misnomer. Her story has nothing to do with chance. Her story is one of passion (for family, for the First Amendment, for teaching), of hard work and, of course, chocolate-chip cookies.

Chance wanted to go to law school right after completing her undergraduate degree from UF’s College of Journalism and Communications, but moved to Iowa so her husband could finish chiropractor college. There she took a job as an editorial assistant at the Iowa-Illinois Gas & Electric Co., where she edited the monthly employee magazine and the weekly newsletter.

“It wasn’t an easy decision, but it was the right decision,” Chance said of her choice to begin studying law in the late 1980s after returning to Florida.

Right or not, it was a decision that would forever alter her life – and her resume.

Chance would gain experience as assistant general counsel in UF’s Student Legal Services, a position on the board of directors for the First Amendment Foundation, the Sunshine Chair for the Society of Professional Journalists and her current roles as executive director of the Brechner Center for Freedom of Information and a UF professor.

“I wake up every day feeling really, really lucky that I get to do this,” Chance said.

And even though she said a few of her students they think she’s ridiculous for passing up “the big bucks” at Holland & Knight, she knows she’s lucky.

“I can affect and have an impact on so many more students in this position than I could anywhere else,” Chance said. “And I’m very proud of what the Center has done and what we continue to do.”

One of those students is Christina Locke (JD 07).

“She’s a great role model in that she has a great career, raised a great family and is always on the lookout for me,” said Locke, who worked alongside Chance in the Brechner Center during her entire law school career. “She’s been an amazing mentor.”

But to say Chance acted as a mentor to Locke only during those three years would only be a half-truth.

“Even before I applied (to UF Law), I wanted to work at the Brechner Center and help with what they do,” Locke said, adding she used to read the Center’s Brechner Report like other 20-somethings read fashion magazines. Locke would eventually go on to edit the Brechner Report and teach her own class of undergraduate students this past summer.

She figures that she has the responsibility of influencing opinion leaders, legislators and the public about the importance of open record laws, the First Amendment, as she calls it, “the cornerstone of democracy.” Chance is an attorney who also has to decide just how much brown sugar to put in her chocolate-chip cookies.

She’s a watchdog for free speech who has the bigger responsibility of teaching students why the First Amendment is cool.

“To have taught (my students) something meaningful and to have changed some lives along the way,” Chance said, “is extraordinarily gratifying.”

Prof. Lyrissa Lidsky, Prof. Jon Mills and Prof. Sandra Chance discuss the tricky relationship between social media and government. (Photo by Andres Farfan)

During his campaign for the presidency, President Barack Obama captured the attention of Americans through his savvy use of social media in a way no presidential candidate had done before. As a result, many government agencies have jumped on the social media bandwagon, and are using Facebook and other social media websites to communicate with their constituents. Yet, they may be unaware that exercising editorial control over the content on their websites could open them up to potential liability for lawsuits or other legal actions.

Can a government actor, such as a law school administrator, remove or edit “undesirable” comments on a website without becoming the subject of litigation charging a First Amendment violation? According to Stephen C. O’Connell Chair and University of Florida Professor of Law Lyrissa Lidsky, it depends on whether a court labels it government speech or a public forum.

In her presentation entitled “All the President’s Tweets: The First Amendment and the Online Public Forum,” given as part of the UF 2010 Constitution Day program on September 17, Lidsky examined the complex relationship between social media and the government. She suggested that the law governing public forums should be adapted to foster government use of interactive media. Specifically, she suggested that public forum doctrine must grant government actors greater leeway in eliminating abusive speech so to allow them to fulfill their role in configuring communication spaces and maximize public discourse.

The presentation—hosted by the Levin College of Law in the Chesterfield Ceremonial Classroom—included commentary by UF Law Dean Emeritus and Director for the Center for Governmental Responsibility Jon Mills; and Executive Director for the Brechner Center for Freedom of Information and McClatchy Professor in Freedom of Information Sandra Chance. The panel discussion was moderated by UF Law Dean Robert Jerry.

Government actors and citizens have myriad incentives for participating in social media, but the state of the law is very muddled in this area and has not fostered optimal social media policy by the government, Lidsky said.

One such area that poses significant challenges for government agencies involves their obligation to comply with open records laws.

Chance, who researches issues on access to government meetings and records to media organizations, said government agencies are required to maintain records of their use of social media. This requires the organization to print and maintain for public record a daily copy of social media sites, which could be difficult for retention purposes.

“It’s important to remember that the technology can overtake the principles very quickly,” she said.

Mills, expert and author of a book on privacy, “Privacy: The Lost Right,” said that online speech enables individuals to make abusive or threatening comments that they might not have made if they occur in a public place.

“There are things we do in public that are very different when transformed to electronic spaces,” Mills said. “I’m not sure that even the greatest free speech advocate would want this to be a complete public forum.”

As a result, some actors might refrain from taking part in public discourse altogether, which is a detriment to its citizens, Lidsky said.

“The point of social media is interactivity,” she said. “As citizens, we want interactive social media where we can express our views, and we can have an open discourse and open debate with other citizens and with government actors whose actions affect our lives.”

Although the government speech doctrine would most likely protect “all the President’s Tweets,” it is most likely that this type of speech would fall into a gray category, such as the limited public forum category, Lidsky said.

Under a limited public forum, a moderator could presumably limit the speech to certain categories of speakers, such as law students, or to certain categories of topics.

So, what steps can a government actor take to moderate citizen commentary?

A moderator may be able to remove comments that are unrelated to the topic of the forum if she has posted a content filtering policy, Lidsky said. The law also provides that some content, such as profanity, can be removed if it is viewpoint neutral. But that may still be up to the court to decide.

“Government use of social media is something that we ought to pursue and look at, but we ought to look at it carefully,” Mills said.

Constitution Day commemorates the signing of the U.S. Constitution in 1787. Each year, the University of Florida – along with other public funded universities – celebrate the day with special programs and activities.

Click on the link to watch the archived webcast.