Citations:freedom of speech

English citations of freedom of speech

The right of citizens to speak, or otherwise communicate, without fear of harm or prosecution.

1700s

• 1720, John Trenchard, Thomas Gordon, Cato's Letters, page Letter Number 15, Of Freedom of Speech, That the Same is inseparable from Publick Liberty:

  All Ministers ... who were Oppressors, or intended to be Oppressors, have been loud in their Complaints against Freedom of Speech, and the License of the Press; and always restrained, or endeavored to restrain, both.

• 1791 December 15, United States Congress, “First Amendment to the United States Constitution”, in United States Bill of Rights, United States Constitution:

  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.

1800s

• 1843, Soren Kierkegaard, Either/Or Part I, Swenson, page 19:

  How absurd men are! They never use the liberties they have, they demand those they do not have. They have freedom of thought, they demand freedom of speech.

1900s

• 1920, Zechariah Chafee, Freedom of Speech, Harcourt, Brace and Howe, page 366:

  After all, if freedom of speech means anything, it means a willingness to stand and let people say things with which we disagree, and which do weary us considerably.

• 1940 April 22, Justice Frank Murphy, “Thornhill v. Alabama”, in United States Reports, volume 310, Washington, D.C.: Supreme Court of the United States, page 95:

  The freedom of speech and of the press, which are secured by the First Amendment against abridgment by the United States, are among the fundamental personal rights and liberties which are secured to all persons by the Fourteenth Amendment against abridgment by a state. The safeguarding of these rights to the ends that men may speak as they think on matters vital to them and that falsehoods may be exposed through the processes of education and discussion is essential to free government. Those who won our independence had confidence in the power of free and fearless reasoning and communication of ideas to discover and spread political and economic truth.

• 1957, William O. Douglas, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Roth v. United States:

  If the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of speech and press is to mean anything, it must allow protests even against the moral code that the standard of the day sets for the community.

• 1969 February 24, Justice Abe Fortas, “Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District”, in United States Reports, volume 393, Washington, D.C.: Supreme Court of the United States, page 506:

  First Amendment rights, applied in light of the special characteristics of the school environment, are available to teachers and students. It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.

• 1997, Wendy Grossman, Net.wars, New York University Press, →ISBN, page 90:

  One question that remains is at what point an individual Net poster has the right to assume prerogatives that have traditionally been only the province of journalists and news-gathering organizations. When the Pentagon Papers landed on the doorstep of The New York Times, the newspaper was able to publish under the First Amendment's guarantees of freedom of speech, and to make a strong argument in court that publication was in the public interest. ... the amplification inherent in the combination of the Net's high-speed communications and the size of the available population has greatly changed the balance of power.

• 1997 November 7, Sam Farr, “Freedom of Speech, Freedom of the Press”, in Congressional Record:

  Freedom of speech is central to most every other right that we hold dear in the United States and serves to strengthen the democracy of our great country. It is unfortunate, then, when actions occur that might be interpreted as contrary to this honored tenet.

2000s

• 2003, Mike Godwin, Cyber Rights, The MIT Press, →ISBN, page 2:

  The term free speech, which appears in this book's subtitle as well as in its text, is used more or less interchangeably with freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and freedom of expression to refer to all of the expressive rights guaranteed by the forty-five words of the First Amendment, as interpreted by the U.S. courts.

• 2003, Mike Godwin, Cyber Rights: Defending Free Speech in the Digital Age, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, →ISBN, page 17:

  In short, individual freedom of speech leads to a stronger society. But knowing that principle is not enough. You have to know how to put it to use on the Net.

• 2003, Mike Godwin, Cyber Rights: Defending Free Speech in the Digital Age, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, →ISBN, page 19:

  Exploring and understanding the Net is an ongoing process. Cyberspace never sits still; it evolves as fast as society itself. Only if we fight to preserve our freedom of speech on the Net will we ensure our ability to keep up with both the Net and society.

• 2004 March 10, Ron Paul, “An Indecent Attack on the First Amendment”, in Congressional Record:

  Proponents of using government authority to censor certain undesirable images and comments on the airwaves resort to the claim that the airways belong to all the people, and therefore it's the government's responsibility to protect them. The mistake of never having privatized the radio and TV airwaves does not justify ignoring the first amendment mandate that "Congress shall make no law abridging freedom of speech." When everyone owns something, in reality nobody owns it. Control then occurs merely by the whims of the politicians in power. From the very start, licensing of radio and TV frequencies invited government censorship that is no less threatening than that found in totalitarian societies.

• 2007, David L. Green, IQuote: Brilliance and Banter from the Internet Age, Globe Pequot, →ISBN, page 113:

  Mike Godwin (1994): Cyberspace may give freedom of speech more muscle than the First Amendment does. It may already have become literally impossible for a government to shut people up.

• 2008, Alan Dershowitz, Finding, Framing, and Hanging Jefferson: A Lost Letter, a Remarkable Discovery, and Freedom of Speech in an Age of Terrorism, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 37:

  I care deeply about freedom of speech, but I am also a realist about terrorism and the threat it poses. I worry that among the first victims of another mass terrorist attack will be civil liberties, including freedom of speech. The right of every citizen to express dissident and controversial views remains a powerful force in my life. I not only believe in it, I practice it.

As a vice

• 1625, Francis Bacon, “Of Simulation and Dissimulation”, in The essays, or Counsels, civil & moral, with a table of the colours of good and evil. Whereunto is added The wisdome of the ancients, enlarged by the author, published 1680, page 20:

  For to him that opens himself, Men will hardly shew themselves averse, but will (fair) let him go on, and turn their freedom of speech to freedom of thought. And therefore it is a good shrewd Proverb of the Spaniard, Tell a lye, and find a Troth; as if there were no way of discovery, but by Simulation.