1st Amendment
Oath vs Censorship: Jefferson on the Duty to Stop Unconstitutional Laws
An act against the Constitution is no law at all – it’s void. This principle, rooted in the American Revolution and the debates over the Constitution’s ratification, was central to President Thomas Jefferson’s response to the Sedition Act of 1798. In this...
Censorship Is the First Step Toward Tyranny
If you want to subject people to tyranny, the first step is to eliminate the freeness of speech. If you can’t have an open discussion about what people in power are doing, you can’t be surprised when those people abuse their power. This was widely understood in the...
5 Founders on Free Speech and Press – Vol 2
As many founders told us – there is nothing so terrible to tyrants and their tools – as free speech and a free press. Learn more about these essential natural rights from Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Adams, George Washington, James Madison and Thomas...
Originalism and Citizens United (Again)
Dean Erwin Chemerinsky (Berkeley) has an op-ed in the L.A. Times calling the Supreme Court Justices “partisan hacks.” At Volokh Conspiracy, Josh Blackman and Jonathan Adler have some sharp responses. I want to focus on a relatively small part of the...