Freedom of Speech Joseph Peterson

What is the Freedom of Speech? Freedom of speech is a right that has been regulated for the American public by the Bill of Rights in the very first amendment. It states that “Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech.”

What does this mean? This amendment regulates that citizens, and even non-citizens in america have the right to their opinions and may express themselves as they see fit.

Restrictions The freedom of speech doesn’t mean that someone can be heard anywhere at any time. All it really means is that the government has to stay out of censorship and regulation of what information is shared with the public.

Therefore someone cannot demand an article in the newspaper, or something such as that because the publisher is the one who decides what gets published not the government.

Freedom of Expression The first amendment doesn’t only permit freedom of speech, it also permits freedom of expression. This means people have as much of a right to expressing their opinions in other ways such as art rather than solely speech.

How Does it Had an Influence on People Since America Was Created? Because of the freedom of speech, people that would have been censored in other countries would have been suppressed and our country would not be the place it is today.

For example, if Martin Luther King Jr. did not have the right to speech, he would not have been able to express the feelings of African American citizens which led to the end of their segregation. This is what makes America the place it is today, and what separates us from other countries

Are We Losing Our Freedoms as Americans? Probably not. Many American citizens believe that their rights such as free speech are being restricted. However, it is my opinion that America has never before had such rampant freedom of expression. Many of the songs, movies or television shows we see today would never have been permitted a few years ago.

Examples Some examples of our freedom are things such as the fact that we have no forbidden words or phrases, we can express even the most radical ideas, and we can show movies about anything.

Wrong Ways of Expression On private property, such as a movie theatre we cannot say whatever we want. Because we are on someone’s property we must follow the rules set by that owner. For instance, a person cannot yell “Fire!” in a theatre since it is a breach of the rules set by that facility. The same goes for schools

Feiner v. New York Another good example is the Feiner case. In this situation a man was making a speech that was on the brink of causing a riot. Therefore he had to be arrested. Not because of what he was saying, but because of the fact that he was disturbing the peace.

Joseph Brustyn, Inc. v. Wilson This is another court case, that has to do with film.In this case, a company showed a film that was sacrilegious. This company was sued because of the act. However, since films are also a way of expressing oneself it was decided that according to the first amendment a film has the right to express anything including sacrilege.

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