Title: Should There Be Limits on Free Speech | Rights | Constitution USA | PBS
Headings: Should There Be Limits on Freedom of Speech?
Should There Be Limits on Freedom of Speech?
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Darwin McDuck • 4 years ago
Darwin McDuck • 4 years ago

Content: The founder of the American Civil Liberties Union, Roger Baldwin, put it well when he said, “In order to defend the people you like, you have to defend the people you hate.” It would be dishonest to deny that permitting grossly offensive speech can exact a high cost. As Georgetown Law School Professor David Cole has written, “free speech is not free.” When, as in the case of Rushdie, that cost includes the death of innocents, it’s understandable that some people question the price. But the alternative – empowering the government to suppress speech because of its potential to provoke violent reactions – is far more dangerous. A society in which provocative speech could be punished would be a society without controversial politics, or art, or ideas. It would be a society in which citizens feared expressing dissident thoughts. In short, it would be a society wholly alien to America’s founders who, after all, had some pretty provocative ideas of their own. - Ben Wizner is director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Speech, Privacy & Technology Project. Disqus Comments
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