; and (C) the right of an individual to assemble peaceably and to petition the government. (2) Freedom of speech is an essential element of liberty that restrains tyranny and empowers individuals. (3) Writing in support of a Bill of Rights, Thomas Jefferson stated that [t]here are rights which it is useless to surrender to the government, and which yet, governments have always been fond to invade. These are the rights of thinking and publishing our thoughts by speaking or writing. . (4) The Supreme Court of the United States (referred to in this section as the Court ) has upheld the right to speak free from governmental interference as a fundamental right. (5) The Court, in Palko v. Connecticut, 302 U.S. 319 (1937), wrote that freedom of thought and speech is the matrix, the indispensable condition, of nearly every other form of freedom . (6) In Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. v. Federal Communications Commission, 512 U.S. 622 (1994), the Court stated the following: At the heart of the First Amendment lies the principle that each person should decide for himself or herself the ideas and beliefs deserving of expression, consideration, and adherence. Our political system and cultural life rest upon this ideal. Government action that stifles speech on account of its message, or that requires the utterance of a particular message favored by the Government, contravenes this essential right . . . [and poses] the inherent risk that Government seeks not to advance a legitimate regulatory goal, but to suppress unpopular ideas or manipulate the public debate through coercion rather than persuasion. These restrictions ‘rais[e] the specter that the Government may effectively drive certain ideas or viewpoints from the marketplace.’ For these reasons, the First Amendment, subject only to narrow and well-understood exceptions, does not countenance government control over the content of messages expressed by private individuals. . (7) In R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul, 505 U.S. 377 (1992), the Court explained that the First