But altering free-speech protections out of concern for Obama could have devastating implications for our collective right to criticize political authority. Think back to 2004: even though the nation was engaged in multiple wars and guarding against another 9/11 — and even though President George W. Bush was genuinely despised by a healthy segment of the populace — author Nicholson Baker was still free to write and publish Checkpoint, a novel in which two men debate taking Bush's life. And two years later, the British mockumentary Death of a President— in which Bush's (simulated) assassination is followed by a third Patriot Act and a massive crackdown on civil liberties — was allowed to open in the United States, despite public condemnation and the unwillingness of some theater chains to screen it.
The ancillary effects of such a hypothetical expansion also need to be considered. New restrictions on anti-Obama speech could legitimize paranoid conservative fears that Obama plans to silence his opponents, for example — thereby exacerbating anti-Obama animus. Consider, too, that by making hateful attitudes known, the First Amendment allows society to respond in kind. "The theory of the First Amendment actually makes a lot of social sense," notes Silverglate. "It's very useful to know who wants to hang the Jews and the blacks." Penalize the ugliest anti-Obama speech, and this benefit vanishes.
If you're an Obama booster who thinks concern for his safety might justify even an incremental erosion of free speech, ask yourself: did Checkpoint and Death of a President bother you at the time? Do they bother you now? (Be honest.) And how would you feel if — four or eight years from now — expanded limits on speech that originated during an Obama administration led to the censorship of texts deemed too threatening to, say, President Sarah Palin?
"We need to have historical humility," says Nadine Strossen, the former president of the American Civil Liberties Union and a professor at New York Law School. "Each era tends to have historical hubris — 'This is the greatest danger ever posed to the values we hold most dear.' We tend always to exaggerate the danger — and to unnecessarily cut off civil liberties."
Related:
Fighting back, Free speech for me, but not for thee, Impeach John Roberts, More
- Fighting back
Thanks to a federal law that codifies discrimination against same-sex couples, more than 15,000 legally married couples (and an untold number of children) are being denied basic benefits, such as the right to file their taxes jointly, or Social Security payments and health-insurance subsidies.
- Free speech for me, but not for thee
Last Thursday's Supreme Court opinion striking down corporate campaign advertising restrictions might as well have been divorce papers in the rocky marriage between the political left and the First Amendment.
- Impeach John Roberts
It is time for an enterprising and courageous member of the US House of Representatives to file articles of impeachment against the chief justice of the United States Supreme Court, John Roberts. The charge: lying under oath.
- A conversation with Joe Citizen and Bob Corporation
"No, it ain't, Joe."
- Policy matters
Identifying and living as a transgender person has intense emotional implications that we touch on in this week's story. But here, as with most social issues, the personal is also political.
- Judicial ups and downs
It was about time that Rogeriee Thompson was finally confirmed (unanimously, we might add) by the United States Senate for what amounts to an historic spot on the Federal Court of Appeals.
- Marriage activists get closure, look forward
Congresswoman Chellie Pingree expressed what many in the room were feeling at Equality Maine’s annual dinner celebration on Saturday night: the function room at the Holiday Inn by the Bay on Spring Street elicits “a little bit of PTSD” for Maine’s gay-rights supporters.
- Corporate love
Here’s a modest proposal for resolving the problems associated with marriage: Abolish it.
- A ‘moral victory’ against supermax torture
At times the legislative debate on LD 1611, the bill to limit solitary confinement of the state’s prisoners, became surreal.
- Considering Kagan
Elena Kagan, onetime dean of Harvard Law School and current US solicitor general, is a less than perfect candidate to sit on the Supreme Court.
- Fight for your right to party
Rhode Island's tragic collision with teen drinking in recent years has heightened concern about substance abuse in the state's school districts.
- Less
Topics:
Media -- Dont Quote Me
, Barack Obama, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, civil liberties, More
, Barack Obama, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, civil liberties, Supreme Court, Sarah Palin, ACLU, Jews, Anthony Lewis, Anthony Lewis, free-speechings, Less