Freedom of Expression/Fundamental and protected
Is there general and widespread belief that this right is a fundamental right that should generally be protected (and that exceptions should be rare)?
Even though freedom of expression is not written into the US Constitution, as are many fundamental rights in the USA, most people would agree that this right is fundamental and should generally be protected, however the level to which it should be protected may differ from person to person.
Most people would think that freedom of expression is fundamental because it allows for conversations in two different areas of life: legal discourse and everyday life. Most Americans believe that freedom of expression is a fundamental right that should be protected. People should be allowed to express their opinions without fear of being “cancelled” or that they will be harmed for voicing their opinion. The Knight Foundation produced a survey on Americans’ views on free speech and found that 91% of them think that protecting it is crucial to protecting American Democracy (Knight Foundation, 2022). This necessity for freedom of speech becomes especially true when two people have an opposing viewpoint on something because they should be able to disagree freely, without fear of punishment. However, in a New York Times Article, most Americans have begun to bite their tongue because they’re afraid of “cancel culture,” a phenomenon that occurs when a politician, celebrity, or another influential person speaks in a certain way that causes a withdrawal of support. Some people may feel like others don’t need to express everything they’re thinking. In this article, “America has a Free Speech Problem,” the authors say that a poll created by Times Opinion and Siena College found that “84 percent of adults said it is a ‘very serious’ or ‘somewhat serious’ problem that some Americans do not speak freely in everyday situations because of fear of retaliation or harsh criticism” (America Has a Free Speech Problem, 2022).
In an interview between Sean Illing and Brian Leiter for Vox, Leiter explains that “we have massive amounts of worthless, dangerous speech in the public sphere right now” (Illing, 2019). It seems as if Leiter isn’t saying that freedom of speech is a “bad” thing, so much as that some people may be abusing this freedom. If speech were more regulated, and people weren’t allowed to post whatever they wanted without being fact-checked, then the speech could be less damaging—there could be less fake news, for instance. Limitations on freedom of expression could under such circumstances prevent unnecessary harm. Justice Murphy, in Chaplinsky v New Hampshire, argued that there are “certain categorical exceptions to First Amendment protections, including obscenities, certain profane and slanderous speech, and ‘fighting words’ (Chaplinsky v New Hampshire). This case is still upheld today, so anyone engages in such speech may be punished by the law.
While freedom of expression protects most people’s actions, it does not allow people to express themselves however they want. Some exceptions have been asserted over the years in American law. In Bethel School District No. 403 v. Fraser, a student was reprimanded by school officials for making a “lewd and vulgar speech” at an assembly. This is similar to Schenck v. United States, which ruled that yelling “fire” in a crowded theatre is not protected by the first amendment. So, the constitution has allowed for “freedom of speech,” there are exceptions when it seems it’s not appropriate for the setting. In this article, she mentions that “people can’t go around saying what they think all the time when that speech infringes on other’s rights. There needs to be a limit for what people do say, where people say it, when people say it” (Hanna, 2022). While they may not be rare, exceptions to the protection of freedom of expression should be made when our words negatively impact someone else.
It seems as if freedom of expression in the United States is less censored than in other parts of the world. In nations such as North Korea, Turkmenistan, Libya, Syria, and Belarus “the media is either state-controlled or silenced, the internet is filtered, and highly censored and restrictive laws are used—often in tandem with fear and intimidation—to prevent the spread of ideas and information” (Countries with Freedom of Speech 2024). While freedom of expression seems to be a priority in the United States, other countries do not protect people’s rights to express themselves freely. Freedom of expression is protected when it does not cause unnecessary harm or potentially put someone at risk. And on the off chance that it does negatively affect someone, or causes them harm, then there should be exceptions to their ability to freely express themselves.
References:
Knight Foundation. 2022. “Free Speech for All? Poll Reveals Americans’ Views on Free Expression Post-2020.” Knight Foundation. January 6, 2022. https://knightfoundation.org/press/releases/free-speech-for-all-poll-reveals-americans-views-on-free-expression-post-2020/.
The Editorial Board. 2022. “America Has a Free Speech Problem.” New York Times, March 18, 2022. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/18/opinion/cancel-culture-free-speech-poll.html.
Illing, Sean. 2019. “Free Speech: Is It Actually a Good Thing?” Vox. Vox. March 4, 2019. https://www.vox.com/2019/3/4/18197209/free-speech-philosophy-politics-brian-leiter.
“Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire.” 2019. Oyez. 2019. https://www.oyez.org/cases/1940-1955/315us568.
Hanna, Verina. 2022. “Limitations Are Necessary for Freedom of Speech.” THE ALGONQUIN HARBINGER. March 17, 2022. https://arhsharbinger.com/29742/opinion/limitations-are-necessary-for-the-freedom-of-speech/#:~:text=The%20limitations%20of%20the%20freedom.
World Population Review. 2022. “Countries with Freedom of Speech 2020.” Worldpopulationreview.com. 2022. https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/countries-with-freedom-of-speech.