On top of all these problems: "Yelling fire in a crowded theater" was originally a metaphor for why we should jail anti-war protestors for handing out anti-dra

On top of all these problems: "Yelling fire in a crowded theater" was originally a metaphor for why we should jail anti-war protestors for handing out anti-draft pamphlets as spies under the Espionage Act; The standard established in Schenck was later overruled in Brandenberg, narrowed severely to describe 'Speech likely to incite imminent lawless action', with implication that this only applies to a riot. Up until the Patriot Act, we were fairly strongly against prescriptive prohibitions on speech, like gag orders; The optimist in me says ten years down the line we probably will be again. The pessimist in me is too busy weeping in a corner for his rights and having repetitive panic attacks to provide constructive criticism. The fact that the phrase persists is one of the odder facts of Constitutional history, and the original ruling one of the more obviously loathsome of the set. Say what you like about the necessity of getting entangled in WW1, but the Founders would certainly speak strongly on the topic: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington's_Farewell_Address#Alliances_with_Foreign_Nations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington's_Farewell_A... , and choosing to suspend blatantly obvious First Amendment protections over that, as opposed to some more controversial position, always struck me as an unlikely outcome. PS: The inner pessimist just perked up to ask what the hell I'm blathering about "speech" this and "speech" that, since we suspended due process entirely when we chose to empower highwaymen with civil asset forfeiture, and what's the point of debating more nuanced problems when that's standing law, when the people in charge think that's Constitutionally valid? Dude's depressing.