Apparently, some people do need to be reminded. So here goes:
“Amendment I. 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.”
From U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black:
• “The First Amendment’s language leaves no room for inference that abridgments of speech and press can be made just because they are slight. That Amendment provides, in simple words, that ‘Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.’ I read ‘no law … abridging’ to mean no law abridging.”
• “Freedom of speech means that you shall not do something to people either for the views they have, or the views they express, or the words they speak or write.”
• “Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government.”
• “The Press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of the government and inform the people. Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government. And paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people.”
• “The Framers of the Constitution knew that free speech is the friend of change and revolution. But they also knew that it is always the deadliest enemy of tyranny.”
• “The press was to serve the governed, not the governors.”
• “Criticism of government finds sanctuary in several portions of the 1st Amendment. It is part of the right of free speech. It embraces freedom of the press.”
• “In my view, far from deserving condemnation for their courageous reporting, the New York Times, the Washington Post and other newspapers should be commended for serving the purpose that the Founding Fathers saw so clearly.”
• “The First Amendment provides the only kind of security system that can preserve a free government — one that leaves the way wide open for people to favor, discuss, advocate, or incite causes and doctrines however obnoxious and antagonistic such views may be to the rest of us.”
And others:
• “First Amendment freedoms are most in danger when the government seeks to control thought or to justify its laws for that impermissible end. The right to think is the beginning of freedom, and speech must be protected from the government because speech is the beginning of thought.” — Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy
• “Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.” — President Harry Truman
• “If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence.” — U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis
• “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.” — Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas
• “If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all.” — Chomsky
• “Censorship reflects a society’s lack of confidence in itself. It is a hallmark of an authoritarian regime …” — Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart
• “Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.” — Benjamin Franklin
And then there’s this from a noted constitutional scholar:
“It is not ‘freedom of the press’ when newspapers and others are allowed to say and write whatever they want even if it is completely false!” — Donald Trump
Actually, freedom of the press is exactly what that is.
And you wonder why so many of us are worried?
