Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
The “constitutional right” most frequently cited as the apotheosis of American freedoms — the opportunity to speak our minds, guaranteed in the very 1st Amendment — is also the most overestimated. The scope of this protection has been relentlessly narrowed to the point where it can barely be discerned on the distant horizon.
More on constitutional law:
- Term limits redux
- The court of public policy
- Selling us a sales tax bill of goods (add 6%)
- In memoriam: The Bill of Rights
- Keep your government even closer
- No census con
- Drunk with power
- Down the sewer
- Highway robbery in the dead of night
- Term limits — A baby step in the right direction
- Honoring Headlee
- Prohibition — No nobler the second time around
Tags: 1st Amendment, commercial, constitution, contract, Holmes, IRS, political, reparations, slander, taxation, tort
