4 ms·
Freedom of speech -- the nature of your speech is unrestricted. That doesn't mean you can go anywhere at any time just because you're speaking.
by LanceH 4y ago
Freedom of speech -- the nature of your speech is unrestricted. That doesn't mean you can go anywhere at any time just because you're speaking.
- taylodl 4y agoExactly. Freedom of speech - the government will not prosecute for speech that's critical of the government, government personnel, or government actions. You may make this speech in public places on government-owned property. Free speech has never meant you can say whatever you want, wherever you want, to whomever you want. You can't spread lies about people (slander), you can't threaten to injure someone (assault), you can't incite a panic (yelling Fire! in a public area when there is no fire), you can't say lies in a court of law (perjury), and if it's a privately owned area then the property owner has the right to remove you from their premises. Online properties have the right to boot you off their forums. I don't know where Americans have recently gotten this idea that they have a constitutional right to say whatever they want wherever they want. That's never been the case.
- ameister14 4y agoWell, no, that isn't freedom of speech. That's the 1st Amendment, acknowledging the existence and inalienable nature of freedom of speech.
- CaptainNegative 4y agoSuppose Martin Shkreli wanted to go on a diatribe in Hillary Clinton's bedroom. Would her excluding him from her domicile be a violaton of his first amendment right? Obviously not. Now suppose he were already invited to her domicile, but she and Bill found him annoying so they told him to either stuff it or leave. Would that violate his first amendment right? Also no. Now replace the Clintons and Shkreli with Stanford and the protesters, respectively.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- ameister14 4y agoI think you may be misunderstanding me - I was saying that the comment I replied to was describing the limits of the 1st amendment, not freedom of speech. Free speech is a principle, not a right granted by the constitution.
- taylodl 4y agoPeople all too often conflate the two. What people commonly think of as "free speech" when referring to their 1st amendment right goes way beyond your actual legal rights to speech as delineated by that 1st amendment and centuries' worth of case law.