Another reason is that freedom of speech is key to individual fulfillment. The self-governance rationale is only one of many reasons why freedom of speech is considered so important.
FIRST AMENDMENT FREEDOM OF SPEECH EDWIN BAKER FREE
Professor Vincent Blasi referred to this as “the checking value” of free speech. Meiklejohn advocated these ideas in his seminal 1948 work, “ Free Speech and Its Relation to Self-Government.” Closely related to this is the idea that freedom of speech serves as a check against abuse by government officials. In other words, freedom of speech is important for the proper functioning of a constitutional democracy. California (1927): “reedom to think as you will and to speak as you think are means indispensable to the discovery and spread of political truth.” Justice Louis Brandeis expressed this sentiment in his concurring opinion in Whitney v. Philosopher Alexander Meiklejohn famously offered that freedom of speech is essential for individuals to freely engage in debate so that they can make informed choices about self-government. Self-governance and a check against governmental abuseįree speech theorists and scholars have advanced a number of reasons why freedom of speech is important. There are numerous reasons why the First Amendment has a preferred position in our pantheon of constitutional values. “The right to think is the beginning of freedom, and speech must be protected from the government because speech is the beginning of thought.” “First Amendment freedoms are most in danger when the government seeks to control thought or to justify its laws for that impermissible end,” warned Justice Anthony Kennedy in Ashcroft v. It remains vitally important, because freedom of speech is inextricably intertwined with freedom of thought.įreedom of speech is closely connected to freedom of thought, an essential tool for democratic self-governance. abridging the freedom of speech.” This freedom represents the essence of personal freedom and individual liberty. The First Amendment of the United States Constitution provides that “Congress shall make no law. Without freedom of speech, individuals could not criticize government officials, test their theories against those of others, counter negative expression with a different viewpoint, or express their individuality and autonomy. Others have called it our blueprint for personal liberty and the cornerstone of a free society. This eminent Justice is far from alone in his assessment of the lofty perch that free speech holds in the United States of America. “The matrix, the indispensable condition, of nearly every other freedom”- that’s how Justice Benjamin Cardozo referred to freedom of speech.
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