{"id":887,"date":"2001-11-05T22:26:18","date_gmt":"2001-11-06T03:26:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/?p=887"},"modified":"2001-11-05T22:26:18","modified_gmt":"2001-11-06T03:26:18","slug":"what_is_free_sp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2001\/11\/05\/what_is_free_sp.html","title":{"rendered":"What is free speech?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Greg Easterbrook in the WSJ <\/i>comments<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When the Bill of Rights was enacted, the First Amendment was construed mainly to shield speakers from imprisonment for antigovernment views. That expression could have other costs–denunciation, ostracism, loss of employment–was assumed. Many of the original patriots took enormous risks in the exercise of speech, Patrick Henry being an obvious example. William Blackstone, the English legal theorist closely read by the Framers, argued that the essence of free speech was forbidding prior restraint: Anyone should be able to say anything, but then must live with the aftermath. A citizen should possess “an undoubted right to lay what sentiments he pleases before the public,” Blackstone wrote in his “Commentaries”–which James Madison consulted often while working on drafts of the First Amendment wording–but “must take the consequences” for any reaction.
\nThe reaction to free speech, Madison thought, would be part of the mechanism by which society sifted out beliefs. Protected by Madison’s amendment, the Ku Klux Klan can spew whatever repugnant drivel its wishes. Society, in turn, shuns KKK members for the repugnant people their free speech exposes them to be. No one expects the KKK to speak without a price; its price is ostracism. Why should repugnant speech on foreign policy or terrorism be any different?<\/p>\n

Free speech means the government can’t stop you from saying things.<\/p>\n

Free speech does not mean that folks cannot get angry at what you say, denounce you for what you say, or ask that you get fired if you are in a public position.<\/p>\n

Indeed, such reactions are, themselves, part of free speech.<\/p>\n

(Via InstaPundit<\/a>)<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Greg Easterbrook in the WSJ comments. When the Bill of Rights was enacted, the First Amendment was construed mainly to shield speakers from imprisonment for antigovernment views. That expression could…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-zt-pc"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10948,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/05\/09\/thats_a_remarkable_first.html","url_meta":{"origin":887,"position":0},"title":"That’s a … remarkable First Amendment argument","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 9-May-07 3:48pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Verizon, fighting a law suit for turning over phone records to the government, is making certainly one of the more audacious legal defenses I've heard of late:\u00a0 it's protected speech,...","rel":"","context":"In "Homeland Security"","block_context":{"text":"Homeland Security","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/homeland-security"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":45075,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/09\/09\/its-a-horrifyingly-radical-change-to-the-way-things-were-before.html","url_meta":{"origin":887,"position":1},"title":"It's a horrifyingly radical change … to the way things were before","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 9-Sep-14 10:16pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The other day I blogged (https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/09\/08\/help-help-im-being-repressed.html) about a silly NRA press release nattering on about the current quixotic effort by Senatorial Dems to pass a constitutional amendment allowing for campaign finance limits, rolling back the clock to before the SCOTUS Citizens United ruling decreed that corporations are people, friend, when\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11089,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/04\/13\/he_really_doesnt_have_to.html","url_meta":{"origin":887,"position":2},"title":"He really doesn’t have to listen, I guess …","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 13-Apr-07 5:49am","format":false,"excerpt":"Law suits by a pair ejected from a Bush speech a couple of years ago have led\u00a0to a fascinating appeals argument asserted by lawyers for some of the people who...","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":128156,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/09\/25\/when-liberty-becomes-libertine.html","url_meta":{"origin":887,"position":3},"title":"When Liberty Becomes Libertine","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 25-Sep-15 4:00pm","format":false,"excerpt":"In recent years we've seen \"religious freedom\" as the basis for court claims about people wanting to, in fact, discriminate and use their religious beliefs to hurt other people. \"If you stop me from doing something that my religion tells me I should do, then you're harshing my religious liberty\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27428,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/04\/17\/one-sided-mercenary-discourse.html","url_meta":{"origin":887,"position":4},"title":""One-sided, mercenary discourse"","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 17-Apr-12 11:28am","format":false,"excerpt":"On Citizens United and where the real problem is: not in corporate personhood or money-as-speech, but in large part with the idea that freedom of speech is not about ensuring that all citizens have voices that can be heard.\"The struggle will likely be long and difficult. But it is worth\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28304,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/06\/15\/mitch-mcconnell-is-a-dolt-expensive-free-speech-edition.html","url_meta":{"origin":887,"position":5},"title":"Mitch McConnell Is a Dolt (Expensive Free Speech Edition)","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 15-Jun-12 11:32pm","format":false,"excerpt":"So let's be clear -- this particular article came up in Newsmax, which is one of the zanier right-wing \"news\" sites out there. \u00a0It's sort of like WorldNetDaily, only less pervasively religious. So here's the headline: \u00a0McConnell to Newsmax: Obama Poses Greatest Threat to Free Speech in \u2018Modern Times\u2019 Wow!\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/corporate-speech.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}