First Amendment in Danger

The First Amendment is in danger. Stunningly, in a mirror image of former Justice Paul Stevens calling to end the 2^nd Amendment, former Democrat presidential candidate John Kerry is calling the 1^st Amendment a “major block” to – his version of –  truth. As with other Biden-Harris actions, Democrats hate constitutional limits on government. There is no better time to review the law.

The First Amendment is clear about the power of individuals to speak freely – and take the government to task. It protects our freedom of speech and right to freely exercise the love of God through religion, as well as to protest or “petition” the government to stop doing what oppresses us.

The First Amendment reads: “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.”

Over two centuries, our Supreme Court has –narrowly – limited these rights, essential for containing government, with “time, place and manner limits.” These limits are, in effect, public safety bumpers on the pool table, aimed at stopping specific promotion of violence, and lawlessness.

The limits are minimal, which is why – for example – the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is not allowed to correct errors in network news or critique why some news stories are conspicuously left uncovered by some networks, yet carried in full by others.

The key idea: If we slip down the slope of censorship, we will find ourselves skidding to the bottom, in an unholy pit of suppressed speech, which invariably leads to wider physical abuses.

To say leaders of the modern Democratic Party – and their surrogates in the media and judiciary – are “way off base” to be pushing gag orders on a presidential candidate, regulating political speech, forming bureaus of misinformation, and canceling speech, is a gross understatement.

Such behaviors betray the Republic and ignore or misconceive how free speech works. That takes us back to Supreme Court cases which say more speech is better, enforced silence bad.

The reality no Democrat will acknowledge is that false statements occur all the time, some as opinions, others dressed as factual statements – many in politics, on “matters of public concern.”

Human error, emotion, frailty, folly, and the tendency to think one is right, are predictable, common in human history, and sure to be in our future. The antidote is not forced silence, but more speech.

If this sounds novel, it should not; if it sounds familiar, it should. This is the unofficial doctrine of our Founders, practiced in the public square and framing our Constitution, on which they all mightily disagreed until, at last, they approached consensus through free and uninhibited speech.

In 1927, the doctrine of “counter-speech” was introduced by the Supreme Court, and more speech was invited to correct false, misleading, prejudiced, poorly reasoned, or just wrongheaded speech.

To be more specific, Justice Louis Brandeis reasoned in Whitney v. California, “If there be time to expose through discussion, the falsehoods and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence.”

Reduced to common sense, today’s Democrat Party – Harris, Biden, Obama, Kerry, Walz, Schumer, Pelosi, and others – should be urging more speech and less violence, not the reverse. The whole Republic depends on that core idea.

Instead of trying to “reform” the Supreme Court – translated “pack it” with political actors, limit conservatives’ terms, undermine independence, and collapse separation of powers for one party control – an act of citizen suppression – Democrats should be advancing ideas, debatable plans.

That we live in a time when the biggest debate seems whether to permit debates at all is a sad statement on how we – as a Nation – have fallen away from the compass set by our Founders.

Free speech – like the freedom to freely worship, protect yourself and your family as you see fit, and never be harassed, prosecuted, or imprisoned by a politically abusive government – matters.

The election underway – please go vote – is about lots of things, but among the most important is our right to speak without being punished for our views. It is being chipped away and chopped back. 

Please stop, think, and then vote. Why should you this time? Our First Amendment is in danger.  

Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, attorney, and naval intelligence officer (USNR). He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (2018), and is National Spokesman for AMAC. Robert Charles has also just released an uplifting new book, “Cherish America: Stories of Courage, Character, and Kindness” (Tower Publishing, 2024).