A friend of mine once summed up the purpose of Bill of Rights by analogy; as he put it, "Poison gas is a great weapon until the wind changes." The best reason for refusing to allow government to suppress bad ideas is that tomorrow, government may use that authority to suppress good ones. Our legal and economic systems are based upon our belief in the marketplace–if I make a better widget, it will beat out the competition; if I have a better idea, it will eventually emerge victorious.
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Category Archives: Free Speech
How Free Speech Works
One of my favorite free speech stories concerns a young man who called me back in my ICLU days, to complain that a local fast-food chain wouldn’t hire him because he was tattooed all over. They found it unappetizing, and worried that customers might also. "Don’t I have a First Amendment right to express myself?" he complained. "Sure." I told him…
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Twinkies & Oliver Stone
If I write a mystery novel in which a murder is committed in a particularly gruesome way, and someone reads that novel and commits a similar crime, am I responsible? If I produce a…
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Intellectual Freedom
Not too long ago, I had a conversation with a librarian involved professionally with issues of intellectual freedom. "Sometimes," she said, "I get so tired of it. I wonder why I continue to fight." I’ve thought about that conversation…
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Remember the Bill of rights?
There I was, in a rocking chair at the nursing home, where one of my grandsons had come to visit me. The discussion turned nostalgic, as we discussed those years, long past, when I had taught college students about the Bill of Rights.
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