5 limitations to Free Speech
The 1st Amendment to the Constitution
The 1st Amendment to the Constitution guarantees each person the right to free speech. The intent of this pillar of Democracy was to allow open exchange of ideas and civil debate and dialogue about these., but there are now 5 limitations to our free Speech. The 1st amendment states:
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.
Many people think that freedom of speech is an absolute right to say anything, anytime, and anyplace. This is not true. There are several clear limitations and some somewhat hidden ones we’ll list below. But this amendment states that Congress cannot pass a law to limit our right to speak our mind. However, the courts have identified several significant limitations.
Free Speech and the Supreme Court
The Supreme Court has heard cases relating to the 1st Amendment since 1919. The courts were initially unsupportive of wide interpretations of free speech.
Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes and Louis Brandeis argued that free speech was punishable if it presented a clear and present danger to others. For example, yelling fire in a crowded studio is not protected. This was a general theory until we reached the 1950s.
During this era, some argued that advocating overthrowing the government was not a protected right. In 1969 they established a new standard. They can suppress speech that is intended and likely to produce imminent lawless action (Brandenburg v Ohio).
Limits to our freedom of speech
1. You may not use the cover of free speech to issue obscenities, freely talk about sexual conduct, or child pornography.
2. You cannot lie under oath. You cannot run dishonest advertisements, or libel, or slander people.
3. You can’t incite a riot, yell fire in a crowded room, or incite others to take immediate lawless action.
4. You can control speech in your own house the same as an employer can in his private business.
5. Social media companies are private businesses, and they can therefore delete or otherwise limit certain content on their premises.
What do you consider before forwarding social media posts?
This is, of course, the question we must struggle with these days. For me, I can’t forward anything that I can’t verify as truth or fact. We must quit automatically forwarding propaganda.
Here are a few questions to ask yourself. Is it fact or opinion? Can I verify the statement’s truthfulness from another source? Is that source trustworthy? Does the forwarding cause good or harm?
Remember that social media is one of the biggest propaganda machines of all time. Propaganda was central to the rise of Hitler in Germany, the rise of conspiracy theories, and the disbelief in facts. We must be extremely careful in the material we pass along.
“If there is any principle of the Constitution that more imperatively calls for attachment than any other, it is the principle of free thought — not free thought for those who agree with us but freedom for the thought that we hate.”
— Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., U.S. Supreme Court justice
