Freedom of speech and expression

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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.

Bill of Rights

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United States Constitution. Amend. 1.

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The Constitution of the United States. The Constitution of the United States and The Declaration of Independence. Written by Delegates of The Constitutional Convention. Racehorse, 2016, amend. 1.

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If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.

George Orwell

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Orwell, George. "The Freedom of Press." Times Literary Supplement. News UK, 15 Sept. 1972.

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We look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression-everywhere in the world. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way-everywhere in the world. The third is freedom from want... Everywhere in the world. The fourth is freedom from fear... Anywhere in the world.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Read this speech at UVA's Miller Center website

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Roosevelt, Franklin Delano. "The Four Freedoms." State of the Union Message to Congress. 6 Jan. 1941, US Capitol Building, Washington, DC, USA.

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Wherever they burn books they will also, in the end, burn human beings.

Heinrich Heine

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Heine, Heinrich. Almansor. 1821.

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We can never be sure that the opinion we are endeavoring to stifle is a false opinion; and if we were sure, stifling it would be an evil still.

John Stuart Mill

On Liberty

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Original Citation

Mill, John Stuart. On Liberty. London: J.W. Parker and Son, 1859, ch. 2.

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Current Citation

Mill, John Stuart. "On Liberty." On Liberty, Utilitarianism and Other Essays, edited by Mark Philp and Frederick Rosen. Oxford University Press, 2015, ch. 2.

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An opinion that corn-dealers are starvers of the poor, or that private property is robbery, ought to be unmolested when simply circulated through the press, but may justly incur punishment when delivered orally to an excited mob assembled before the house of a corn-dealer.

John Stuart Mill

On Liberty

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Mill, John Stuart. On Liberty. London: J.W. Parker and Son, 1859, ch. 3.

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Mill, John Stuart. "On Liberty." On Liberty, Utilitarianism and Other Essays, edited by Mark Philp and Frederick Rosen. Oxford University Press, 2015, ch. 3.

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An unconditional right to say what one pleases about public affairs is what I consider to be the minimum guarantee of the First Amendment.

Hugo Black

New York Times Co. v. Sullivan

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Black, Hugo. United States, Supreme Court. New York Times Co. v. Sullivan. United States Reports, vol. 376, 9 Mar. 1964, pp. 254-305. Justia, supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/376/254/.

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Whether, to the average person, applying contemporary community standards, the dominant theme of the material, taken as a whole, appeals to prurient interest.

William J. Brennan, Jr.

Establishing the American legal standard for obscenity, which does not receive First Amendment protection.

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Brennan, William J, Jr. United States, Supreme Court. Roth v. United States. United States Reports, vol. 354, 24 June 1957, pp. 476-514. supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/354/476/.

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All ideas having even the slightest redeeming social importance—unorthodox ideas, controversial ideas, even ideas hateful to the prevailing climate of opinion—have the full protection of the guaranties... But implicit in the history of the First Amendment is the rejection of obscenity as utterly without redeeming social importance... We hold that obscenity is not within the area of constitutionally protected speech or press.

William J. Brennan, Jr.

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Brennan, William J, Jr. United States, Supreme Court. Roth v. United States. United States Reports, vol. 354, 24 June 1957, pp. 476-514. supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/354/476/.

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That if all Printers were determin’d not to print any thing till they were sure it would offend no body, there would be very little printed.

Benjamin Franklin

Read An Apology for Printers at the National Archives website

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Original Citation

Franklin, Benjamin. "Apology for Printers," The Pennsylvania Gazette, 10 June 1731.

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Franklin, Benjamin. "Apology for Printers." Benjamin Franklin: Silence Dogood, The Busy-Body and Early Writings, edited by J. A. Leo Lemay. Library of America, 2005.

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If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.

John Stuart Mill

On Liberty

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Original Citation

Mill, John Stuart. On Liberty. London: J.W. Parker and Son, 1859, ch. 2.

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Mill, John Stuart. "On Liberty." On Liberty, Utilitarianism and Other Essays, edited by Mark Philp and Frederick Rosen. Oxford University Press, 2015, ch. 2.

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What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist.

Salman Rushdie

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Rushdie, Salman."In Good Faith." The Guardian, 10 Feb. 1990.

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Censorship of any form punishes curiosity.

Sherman Alexie

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Alexie, Sherman. "Sherman Alexie: The Value of Subverting Authority." Guernica, 5 Oct. 2012.

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You have not converted a man, because you have silenced him.

John Morley

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Morley, John. On Compromise. London: Chapman and Hall, 1874, ch. 5.

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The jaws of power are always opened to devour, and her arm is always stretched out, if possible to destroy, the freedom of thinking, speaking and writing.

John Adams

Read A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law at the National Archives website

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Original Citation

Adams, John. "A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law." Boston Gazette, 30 Sept. 1765.

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Adams, John. "A Disseratation on the Canon and Feudal Law." The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States, edited by Charles Francis Adams. Vol. 3, Cambridge University Press, 2011.

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When people talk of the Freedom of Writing, Speaking or thinking, I cannot choose but laugh. No such thing ever existed. No such thing ever existed. No such thing now exists: but I hope it will exist. But it must be hundreds of years after you and I shall write and speak no more.

John Adams

Letter to Thomas Jefferson, July 15, 1817

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Adams, John. Letter to Thomas Jefferson. 15 July 1817.

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Adams, John. "Adams to Jefferson - Quincy, July 15, 1817." The Adams-Jefferson Letters: The Complete Correspondence Between Thomas Jefferson and Abigail and John Adams, edited by Lester J. Cappon. University of North Carolina Press, 1988.

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Of that freedom one may say that it is the matrix, the indispensable condition, of nearly every other form of freedom.

Benjamin Cardozo

Palko v. Connecticut

On freedom of thought and speech.

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Cardozo, Benjamin Nathan. United States, Supreme Court. Palko v. Connecticut. United States Reports, vol. 302, 6 Dec. 1937, pp. 319-329. Justia, supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/302/319/.

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The constitutional guarantees require, we think, a federal rule that prohibits a public official from recovering damages for a defamatory falsehood relating to his official conduct unless he proves that the statement was made with "actual malice"—that is, with knowledge that it was false or with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not.

William J. Brennan, Jr.

New York Times Co. v. Sullivan

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Brennan, William J, Jr. United States, Supreme Court. New York Times Co. v. Sullivan. United States Reports, vol. 376, 9 Mar. 1964, pp. 254-305. supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/376/254/.

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We hold that obscenity is not within the area of constitutionally protected speech or press.

William J. Brennan, Jr

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Brennan, William J., Jr. United States, Supreme Court. Roth v. United States. United States Reports, vol. 354, 24 June 1957, pp. 476-514. Justia, supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/354/476/.

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And, precisely because it is our flag that is involved, one's response to the flag-burner may exploit the uniquely persuasive power of the flag itself. We can imagine no more appropriate response to burning a flag than waving one's own, no better way to counter a flag burner's message than by saluting the flag that burns, no surer means of preserving the dignity even of the flag that burned than by—as one witness here did—according its remains a respectful burial. We do not consecrate the flag by punishing its desecration, for in doing so we dilute the freedom that this cherished emblem represents.

William J. Brennan, Jr.

Texas v. Johnson

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Brennan, William J, Jr. United States, Supreme Court. Texas v. Johnson. United States Reports, vol. 491, 21 June 1989, pp. 397-439. Justia, supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/491/397/.

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