I recently saw “1776,” a pretty good movie about the founding of America. The Founding Fathers were uniform neither in fact nor in theory. One dividing issue was slavery. How could these men reconcile it with the official value of the equality of all men? They, sort of, ignored it, leaving the problem to be solved by future generations… by brute force. Slavery remained a real problem, and the most serious one. Maybe this is one reason why few people notice another one. It is serious in principle but trivial in application.
I admit that I had not noticed the topic of this effort until recently, when some intellectual mentioned it in a speech. I also admit that I am making a reasonable assumption: namely, that Federal and state laws are essentially the same in most procedural matters. This is especially so with regard to the Bill of Rights.
The First Amendment forbids laws restricting freedom of speech. This is to say that it APPEARS to validate freedom of speech as part of the American system. It is right there, in fancy black and white… right?
Yet the various levels of governments have severe speech restrictions. For example, during a trial the judge may be called upon to sustain an objection. An objection is an official request to invalidate freedom of speech. If it is accepted then the lawyer is, officially and legally, prohibited from speaking. And the only reason why the lawyer spoke the forbidden words is that they might help him in his case. In other words, justice and freedom of speech are totally dependent upon the perhaps arbitrary whim of a single judge. He has the power of a king! Just read the Bill of Rights! Simply do not take it seriously.
There are, literally, hundreds of other cases of similar anti-freedom rules. In some legal matters spouse is not free to testify against spouse.
Most Americans are strongly inclined to declare their nation to be the best ever. Maybe this is why so many do not notice the many restrictions which make “free speech” into something so conditional. Most prohibitions are reasonable or even necessary. Maybe, like the Founding Fathers in the movie, we all simply ignore what we can not resolve, or what we refuse to accept as it is. It did not bother them much, and we really do not care.
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