Date: 2024-12-21 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00021727
FREE SPEECH
HISTORY OF FREE SPEECH IN THE UNITED STATES
PDF ... “History of Free Speech in the United States”
HISTORY OF FREE SPEECH IN THE UNITED STATES
PDF ... “History of Free Speech in the United States”
Original PDF: https://speechfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/A-Brief-History-of-Free-Speech-in-America.pdf
Burgess COMMENTARY
Peter Burgess
This “History of Free Speech in the United States” booklet provides an informative timeline of the concept’s establishment and development throughout the nation’s history. It highlights seminal events in American history including court decisions that shaped a culture and gave a voice to generations that would have otherwise been silenced in public discourse, or even erased from history.
Words are powerful – which is why throughout history, kings, tyrants and governments have imprisoned, tortured, and even killed people to maintain control over ideas. Only through the free “clash of ideas” do societies pursue truth that can enable human flourishing.
Even before there was an independent “America” to speak of, our nation built a relationship with free speech. The Zenger case (1735) abolished seditious libel, which restricted the British government from infringing on press freedom. Colonists leveraged these newfound rights to utilize words as a check on authority. These principles set the stage for the U.S. Constitution and, later, the First Amendment in the U.S. Bill of Rights (1791) which enshrined freedom of speech in the forefront of the American consciousness and legal foundations.
Of course, the story doesn’t end there; over the next two centuries or so came challenges to define this freedom: sedition acts, questions on when free speech would (and wouldn’t) be protected, protests, flag burnings, and countless court rulings. These challenges to the First Amendment and what form its protections should take, continue to the modern day.
And while the notion of free speech isn’t always correctly understood or interpreted, when properly exercised and protected, it has an unparalleled ability to effectuate positive change and elevate the nation.