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The roots of free speech

The roots of free speech. A whirlwind, 216-year tour from Queen Elizabeth to Thomas Jefferson. Two great principles. No prior restraint. Two great principles. No prior restraint No penalty for reporting the truth. Two great principles. No prior restraint No penalty for reporting the truth

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The roots of free speech

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  1. The roots of free speech A whirlwind, 216-year tour fromQueen Elizabeth to Thomas Jefferson

  2. Two great principles • No prior restraint

  3. Two great principles • No prior restraint • No penalty for reporting the truth

  4. Two great principles • No prior restraint • No penalty for reporting the truth • But how did we get from there to here?

  5. Queen Elizabeth I • Censorship is rampant • Truth is never a defense • Catholicism is considered a threat to the state

  6. William Carter’s fate

  7. John Milton • Poet, Puritan, politician • Opposed prior restraint • His own work on divorce had been censored

  8. The Areopagitica • Licensing and censorship should be abolished

  9. The Areopagitica • Licensing and censorship should be abolished • The truth will win out in a free exchange of ideas

  10. The Areopagitica • Licensing and censorship should be abolished • The truth will win out in a free exchange of ideas • Punishment could still be meted out after publication

  11. Holmes and Milton • “[T]he best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market” — Holmes • “Let [Truth] and Falsehood grapple; who ever knew Truth put to the worse in a free and open encounter?” — Milton

  12. The case of John Peter Zenger • Royal Governor William Cosby sparked political opposition • Zenger, a printer, approached to start an anti-Cosby newspaper

  13. New-York Weekly Journal • Attacked Cosby relentlessly • Real force behind it was James Alexander • Argued that truth should be a defense

  14. From Cato’s Letters “The exposing therefore of public wickedness, as it is a duty which every man owes to truth and his country, can never be a libel in the nature of things.”

  15. The burning of the Journal • Zenger arrested in November 1734 • Charged with seditious libel • Tried in August 1735

  16. Andrew Hamilton • The original Philadelphia lawyer • Argued that truth should be a defense in libel • Told jury it could decide the law as well as the facts

  17. Paul Starr “[T]he Zenger verdict vindicated the idea that the press could serve as a guardian of popular liberty by scrutinizing government.”

  18. Isaiah Thomas • Threatened with seditious libel prosecution in 1771 • Invoked Zenger precedent • Government dropped case

  19. John Adams • Sedition Act of 1798 a threat to free speech • Recognized truth as a defense • Overturned in 1964

  20. James Madison • Principal author of the First Amendment • His Virginia Resolution was a ringing denunciation of seditious libel

  21. Thomas Jefferson • Preferred “newspapers without a government” to “a government without newspapers”

  22. Thomas Jefferson • Preferred “newspapers without a government” to “a government without newspapers” • “I deplore ... the putrid state into which our newspapers have passed”

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