What Is Freedom Of Speech?

When the Constitution was written over 200 years ago it was impossible to foresee all of the mediums we now have at our fingertips. Any Karen will be happy to invoke her “First Amendment Rights” but few actually know the true purpose and history. The freedom it gives you is not unlimited and does not give you the right to incite violence or spread unfounded facts. This also does not apply to social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook. They are open to the public, but still private corporations and reserve the right to remove any users or content that they deem objectionable. When you sign up for these services you have to agree to their terms of service, even though most people have never read them and just blindly accept. Everything that is posted on these services is subject to these terms and if they are seen as a violation they will be removed. It doesn’t matter if you are just an Average Joe or the leader of a country, even though we should probably hold our leaders to a higher standard. Freedom of speech does not mean freedom from repercussions or consequences. Lets dig a little deeper and see what the First Amendment does protect Americans from.

After fighting and winning our freedom from the British in the Revolutionary War in 1781 a new government was founded. In the years following, the USA was recognized by the British as independent and the Constitution was ratified. Ten years after the end of the war, the Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution. The amendments created many of the laws and freedoms we have today, including freedom of speech. This first amendment of the Bill of Rights provides certain freedoms, but leaves much room for interpretation of what exactly is included as part of these liberties. Needless to say this was a much different era than now. People were much more respectful and actually thought about their actin and the consequences. I’m sure that there was still 18th Century Karens, but they probably would be arrested or worse if they said or did the things people do these days.

The following is the exact verbatim of Amendment I. in the Bill of Rights:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Freedom of speech is often used as an excuse to say anything, any place, at anytime. Which was never its intention. Over the years there have been several court cases that have helped set precedent for freedom of speech. The following is an excerpt from the uscourts.gov web site. Click the articles for each case and you can dig deeper in to what these cases entailed and how they unfolded.

Freedom of speech includes the right:

• Not to speak (specifically, the right not to salute the flag).
  West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943).
• Of students to wear black armbands to school to protest a war (“Students do not shed their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse gate.”).
  Tinker v. Des Moines, 393 U.S. 503 (1969).
• To use certain offensive words and phrases to convey political messages.
  Cohen v. California, 403 U.S. 15 (1971).
• To contribute money (under certain circumstances) to political campaigns.
  Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U.S. 1 (1976).
• To advertise commercial products and professional services (with some restrictions).
  Virginia Board of Pharmacy v. Virginia Consumer Council, 425 U.S. 748 (1976); Bates v. State Bar of Arizona, 433 U.S. 350 (1977).
• To engage in symbolic speech, (e.g., burning the flag in protest).
  Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397 (1989); United States v. Eichman, 496 U.S. 310 (1990).

Freedom of speech does not include the right:

• To incite actions that would harm others (e.g., “[S]hout[ing] ‘fire’ in a crowded theater.”).
  Schenck v. United States, 249 U.S. 47 (1919).
• To make or distribute obscene materials.
  Roth v. United States, 354 U.S. 476 (1957).
• To burn draft cards as an anti-war protest.
  United States v. O’Brien, 391 U.S. 367 (1968).
• To permit students to print articles in a school newspaper over the objections of the school administration. 
  Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier, 484 U.S. 260 (1988).
• Of students to make an obscene speech at a school-sponsored event.
  Bethel School District #43 v. Fraser, 478 U.S. 675 (1986).
• Of students to advocate illegal drug use at a school-sponsored event.
  Morse v. Frederick, __ U.S. __ (2007).

Even with all these examples, its still not super clear what actions are protected and what are not. One thing that is abundantly clear is speech that incites violence is not protected. What is protected is peaceful protesting in front of a government building. However once you illegally enter a federal government building and destroy property, that is now rioting and not protesting. Freedom of speech ends when it becomes violent and destruction of federal property occurs. It also ends when you are inciting and organizing violence. This also extends to services that accommodate these terrorist groups such as Parler, which is a social network geared towards conservatives and being utilized by domestic terrorist groups. Google has removed the app from its Play store and Apple will probably follow suit soon. Some see this as a censorship act, but its merely a move by these big corporations to try and distance themselves from these groups. Its akin to kicking someone out of your house for threatening you or committing a crime, if you don’t kick them out you could be complicit.

Essentially if you don’t own a newspaper, TV channel, social media platform, or blog — you are subject to the terms of the platform you are using and your content can be removed. Also for those Karens out there, freedom of speech does not give you the right to run your mouth. It is after all a free country, and it is my right to tell to respectfully shut up. As always, be kind to each other and love another.