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FREE SPEECH AND OFFENSIVE EXPRESSION

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 June 2004

Judith Wagner DeCew
Affiliation:
Philosophy, Clark University

Extract

Free speech has historically been viewed as a special and preferred democratic value in the United States, by the public as well as by the legislatures and courts. In 1937, Justice Benjamin Cardozo wrote in Palko v. Connecticut that protection of speech is a “fundamental” liberty due to America's history, political and legal, and he recognized its importance, saying, “[F]reedom of thought and speech” is “the matrix, the indispensable condition, of nearly every other form of freedom.” It is likely notable that in the Bill of Rights free speech is protected in the First Amendment rather than later.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 2004 Social Philosophy and Policy Foundation

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