RIGHTS OF MAN
FREE EXPRESSION
Free thought, necessarily involving freedom of speech & press, I may tersely define thus: no opinion a law -- no opinion a crime.
Without free speech no search for truth is possible... no discovery of truth is useful.... Better a thousandfold abuse of free speech than denial of free speech. The abuse dies in a day, but the denial slays the life of the people, and entombs the hope of the race.
BRADLAUGH, CHARLES, Speeches, 1890
Fear of serious injury cannot alone justify suppression of free speech and assembly. Men feared witches and burned women. It is the function of speech to free men from the bondage of irrational fears.
BRANDEIS, U.S. SUPREME COURT JUSTICE LOUIS D., Whitney v. California, 274 US 357, 376 (1927)
The liberty of the press, in principle, resembles the liberty to bear arms. In the one case, the constitution guaranties a right to publish; in the other, a right to keep a musket; but he who injures his neighbor with his publications may be punished, as he who injures his neighbor with his musket may be punished.
COOPER, JAMES FENIMORE, The American Democrat (1838)
Every subject in England has not only a right to present petitions to the King, or the Houses of Parliament; but he has a right also to lay his complaints and observations before the Public, by the means of an open press. A formidable right this, to those who rule Mankind; and which, continually dispelling the cloud of majesty by which they are surrounded, brings them to a level with the rest of Mankind, and strikes at the very being of their authority.
DE LOLME, J.L., The Constitution of England, Book II, Chapter XII, 1771
[I]t is with respect to this right of a final resistance, that the advantage of a free press appears in a most conspicuous light...so this right of resisting, itself, is but vain, when there exists no means of general concert between the different parts of the People.
DE LOLME, J.L., The Constitution of England, Book II, Chapter XIV, 1771
[T]he major political importance of civil liberties is their usefulness in enabling people to obtain new politically relevant information.
DIZERGA, GUS, Persuasion, Power and Polity, A Theory of Democratic Self-Organization, Chapter Four
Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us.
DOUGLAS, U.S. SUPREME COURT JUSTICE WILLIAM O.
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought.
[T]he central role of a free press in a free society is to serve as a watchdog on government.
FARRAH, JOSEPH, The Free Press in a Free Society, Whistleblower Magazine, May 2002
[H]atred remains too complex, ambiguous, and primal an emotion to be unique to oppressor groups, or to be neatly categorized as either good or bad. Hatred...would likely be stronger among victims than oppressors because the victims frequently experience the injustice of the oppressor group. How then can hatred be unequivocally excoriated? Must we embrace the preposterous notion that some should hate and others should not? ‘Violence,’ Sullivan wrote, ‘can and should be stopped by the government. In a free society, hate can’t and shouldn’t be.’
FOSTER, STEPHEN PAUL, The Politics of Hatred, Liberty, February 2006, quoting SULLIVAN, ANDREW
[H]ate-crime legislation...confers differential status and special treatment based on group identity, and it criminalizes thought and emotion.
FOSTER, STEPHEN PAUL, The Politics of Hatred, Liberty, February 2006, quoting SULLIVAN, ANDREW
Abuses of the freedom of speech ought to be repressed; but to whom are we to commit the power of doing it?
A managed democracy is a wonderful thing, mainly, for the managers...and its greatest strength is a ‘free press’ when ‘free’ is defined as ‘responsible’ and the managers define what is ‘irresponsible.’
HEINLEIN, ROBERT, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Limited the freedom of news ‘just a little bit’ is in the same category with the classic example ‘a little bit pregnant.’
HEINLEIN, ROBERT, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
We are not yet free nor will we be as long as anyone - even our ally Mike - controls our news.
HEINLEIN, ROBERT, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
[W]here is to be found the all-wise and all-knowing official to whom the business of saying what shall, and what shall not, be printed may safely be trusted.
HIRST, FRANCIS W., Liberty and Tyranny
[C]riticism driven underground becomes violent and revolutionary; one terror is likely to succeed another.
HIRST, FRANCIS W., Liberty and Tyranny
[I]f there is any principle of the Constitution that more imperatively calls for attachment than any other it is the principle of free thought - not free thought for those who agree with us but freedom for the thought that we hate.
HOLMES, JR., U.S. SUPREME COURT JUSTICE OLIVER WENDELL, dissenting opinion, U.S. v. Schwimmer, 279 U.S., 644, 655 (1929)
To silence criticism is to silence freedom.
HOOK, SIDNEY, New York Times Magazine (September 30, 1951)
Truth resides in every human heart, and one has to search for it there, and to be guided by truth as one sees it. But no one has a right to coerce others to act according to his own view of truth.
The constitutional right of free expression is powerful medicine in a society as diverse and populous as ours. It is designed and intended to remove governmental restraints from the arena of public discussion, putting the decision as to what views shall be voiced largely into the hands of each of us, in the hope that use of such freedom will ultimately produce a more capable citizenry and more perfect polity and in the belief that no other approach would comport with the premise of individual dignity and choice upon which our political system rests.
HARLAN, J., Cohen v. California, 403 U.S.15, 24 (1971)
Subject opinion to coercion: whom will you make your inquisitors? Fallible men; men governed by bad passions, by private as well as public reasons. And why subject it to coercion? To produce uniformity. But is uniformity of opinion desirable? No more than of face and stature.
JEFFERSON, THOMAS, Notes on Virginia, Query 17
It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.
JEFFERSON, THOMAS, Notes on Virginia, Query 17
I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.
JEFFERSON, THOMAS, Letter to Dr. Rush, 1800
[T]he abuses of the freedom of the press here have been carried to a length never before known or borne by any civilized nation. But it is so difficult to draw a clear line of separation between the abuse and the wholesome use of the press, that as yet we have found it better to trust the public judgment, rather than the magistrate, with the discrimination between truth and falsehood.
JEFFERSON, THOMAS, Letter to Pictet, 1803
[T]he freedom of the press...it is...the first shut up by those who fear the investigation of their actions.
JEFFERSON, THOMAS, Letter to Judge Tyler, 1804
[T]o the press alone, chequered as it is with abuses, the world is indebted for all the triumphs which have been gained by reason and humanity, over error and oppression.
JEFFERSON, THOMAS/MADISON, JAMES, Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions, 1799
Where the press is free, and every man able to read, all is safe.
JEFFERSON, THOMAS, Letter to Colonel Yancy, 1816
No government ought to be without censors; and where the press is free, no one ever will. If virtuous, it need not fear the fair operation of attack and defense. Nature has given to man no other means of sifting out the truth, either in religion, law or politics.
JEFFERSON, THOMAS, Letter to Washington, 1792
Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.
JEFFERSON, THOMAS, Letter to Col. Edward Carrington, January 16, 1787
Democracies die behind closed doors.
KEITH, JUDGE DAMON J. , Detroit Free Press v. John Ashcroft, 2002 U.S. App. LEXIS 17646; 2002 FED App. 0291P (6th Cir.), August 26, 2002
The 1st Amendment, through a free press, protects the people's right to know that their government acts fairly, lawfully and accurately in deportation proceedings. When the government begins closing doors, it selectively controls information rightfully belonging to the people. Selective information is misinformation.
KEITH, JUDGE DAMON J. , Detroit Free Press v. John Ashcroft, 2002 U.S. App. LEXIS 17646; 2002 FED App. 0291P (6th Cir.), August 26, 2002
All governments hostile to liberty are hostile to publicity, and parliamentary eloquence is odious to them, because it is a great power which the executive can neither create nor control.
LIEBER, FRANCIS, On Civil Liberty and Self-Government (1853), Chapter XIII
Publicity is a condition without which liberty cannot live.
LIEBER, FRANCIS, On Civil Liberty and Self-Government (1853), Chapter XXIII
The media is the true winner in campaign finance reform. [arguing that the media will have more power since candidates will have less money to advertise themselves]
LIMBAUGH, RUSH, Radio Broadcast, March 2, 2001
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.
[T]he peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of trust, produced by its collision with error.
MILL, JOHN STUART, On Liberty, Chapter 2
The fatal tendency of mankind to leave off thinking about a thing when it is no longer doubtful, is the cause of half their errors...' the deep slumber of a decided opinion.'
MILL, JOHN STUART, On Liberty, Chapter2
If government has the power over discussion, the search for truth ends.
ONELLION, WILLIAM, Cracking the Speech Code, Reason, July 1999
It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from enquiry.
PAINE, THOMAS, Letter Addressed to the Addressers, on the Proclamation
Speech is, in the first place, one of the natural rights of man always retained.
PAINE, THOMAS, The Rights of Man, Volume I
It is a dangerous attempt in any government to say to a nation, “thou shalt not read.”
PAINE, THOMAS, Letter Addressed to the Addressers, on the Proclamation
[T]he principles and conduct of any Government must be bad, when that Government dreads and startles at discussion, and seeks security by a prevention of knowledge.
PAINE, THOMAS, Letter Addressed to the Addressers, on the Proclamation
An hour's perusal of our national charter makes it hard to understand what the argle-bargle is about. The First Amendment forbids any law "abridging the freedom of speech." It doesn't say, "except for commercials on children's television" or "unless somebody says 'cunt' in a rap song or 'chick' on a college campus.
O’ROURKE, P.J., Parliament of Whores
[W]e live in a bd age for the free speech argument. Many of us have internalized the censorship argument, which is that it is better to shut people up than to let them say things we don’t like. This is a dangerous slippery slope, because people of good intentions and high principles can see censorship as a way of advancing their cause and not as a terrible mistake. Yet bad ideas don’t cease to exist by not being expressed. They fester and become more powerful.
RUSHDIE, SALMAN, The Iconoclast, Reason, Aug/Sept. 2005
[I]n liberty, being politically incorrect is the right thing to do.
SHADE, GARY, E-mail Systems, published by Online Communications Inc., Bangor Maine, 1994
In a free society, standards of public morality can be measured only by whether physical coercion - violence against persons or property - occurs. There is no right not to be offended by words, actions or symbols.
My definition of a free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular.
STEVENSON, ADLAI, speech, Detroit, Michigan, October 7, 1952
I do not entertain that firm and complete attachment to the liberty of the press, which things that are supremely good in their very nature are wont to excite in the mind; and I approve of it more from a recollection of the evils it prevents, than from a consideration of the advantages it ensures.
TOCQUEVILLE, ALEXIS DE, Democracy in America, Chapter XI
If any one can point out an intermediate, and yet a tenable position, between the complete independence and the entire subjection of the public expression of opinion, I should perhaps be inclined to adopt it; but the difficulty is to discover this position.
TOCQUEVILLE, ALEXIS DE, Democracy in America, Chapter XI
I do not entertain that firm and complete attachment to the liberty of the press, which things that are supremely good in their very nature are wont to excite in the mind; and I approve of it more from a recollection of the evils it prevents, than from a consideration of the advantages it ensures.
TOCQUEVILLE, ALEXIS DE, Democracy in America, Chapter XI
If any one can point out an intermediate, and yet a tenable position, between the complete independence and the entire subjection of the public expression of opinion, I should perhaps be inclined to adopt it; but the difficulty is to discover this position.
TOCQUEVILLE, ALEXIS DE, Democracy in America, Chapter XI
[T]here is no medium between servitude and extreme license; in order to enjoy the inestimable benefits which the liberty of the press ensures, it is necessary to submit to the inevitable evils which it engenders.
TOCQUEVILLE, ALEXIS DE, Democracy in America, Chapter XI
When even one American-- who has done nothing wrong--is forced by fear to shut his mind and close his mouth, then all Americans are in peril.
No nation ancient or modern ever lost the liberty of freely speaking, writing, or publishing their sentiments, but forthwith lost their liberty in general and became slaves.