Free Speech Tradition Research Articles

Free Speech, "The People's Darling Privilege": Struggles for Freedom of Expression in American History

Introduction The English and colonial background The debate over the Sedition Act of 1798 Sedition in the courts - enforcement and the free speech tradition Sedition: Reflections and transitions The Declaration, the Constitution, Slavery and Abolition Shall Abolitionists be silenced? Congress confronts the Abolitionists: The Post Office and petitions The demand for Northern legal action against Abolitionists Legal theories of suppression and the defence of free speech Elijah Lovejoy: Mobs, free speech and the privileges of American citizens After Lovejoy: Transformations The free speech battle over Helper's Impending crisis Daniel worth: The struggle for free speech in North Carolina on the eve of the Civil War Lincoln, Vallandigham and suppression: Free speech in the Civil War The free speech tradition confronts the war power A new birth of freedom? The Fourteenth Amendment and the First Amendment Where are they now? Suppression theories in the twentieth century Conclusion

Hate Speech: The History of an American Controversy

An original contribution to the literature not just of hate speech but of modern First Amendment issues generally...This is a fine piece of work; it deserves wide attention.--Kermit L. Hall, editor of The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States. The First Amendment protects even the most offensive forms of expression: racial slurs, hateful religious propaganda, and cross-burning. No other county in the world offers the same kind of protection to offensive speech. How did this free speech tradition develop? Hate Speech provides the first comprehensive account of the history of the hate speech controversy in the United States. Samuel Walker examines the issue, from the conflicts over the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s and American Nazi groups in the 1930s, tot he famous Skokie episode in 1977-78, and the campus culture wars of the 1990s. The author argues that the civil rights movement played a central role in developing this country's strong free speech tradition. The courts were very concerned about protecting the provocative and even offensive forms of expression by civil rights forces. Civil rights groups, therefore, preferred to protect rather than restrict offensive speech--even if it meant protecting racist speech. Samuel Walker is Kiewit Professor of Criminal Justice at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. His previous publications include In Defense of American Liberties: A History of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Transforming Free Speech: The Ambiguous Legacy of Civil Libertarianism

Contemporary civil libertarians claim that their works preserve a worthy American tradition of defending free-speech rights dating back to the framing of the First Amendment. Transforming Free Speech challenges the worthiness, and indeed the very existence of one uninterrupted libertarian tradition. Mark A. Graber asserts that in the past, broader political visions inspired libertarian interpretations of the First Amendment. In reexamining the philosophical and jurisprudential foundations of the defense of expression rights from the Civil War to the present, he exposes the monolithic free-speech tradition as a myth. Instead of one conception of the system of free expression, two emerge: the conservative libertarian tradition that dominated discourse from the Civil War until World War I, and the civil libertarian tradition that dominates later twentieth-century argument. The essence of the current perception of the American free-speech tradition derives from the writings of Zechariah Chafee, Jr. (1885-1957), the progressive jurist most responsible for the modern interpretation of the First Amendment. His interpretation, however, deliberately obscured earlier libertarian arguments linking liberty of speech with liberty of property. Moreover, Chafee stunted the development of a more radical interpretation of expression rights that would give citizens the resources and independence necessary for the effective exercise of free speech. Instead, Chafee maintained that the right to political and social commentary could be protected independent of material inequalities that might restrict access to the marketplace of ideas. His influence enfeebled expression rights in a world where their exercise depends increasingly on economic power. Untangling the libertarian legacy, Graber points out the disjunction in the libertarian tradition to show that free-speech rights, having once been transformed, can be transformed again. Well-conceived and original in perspective, Transforming Free Speech will interest political theorists, students of government, and anyone interested in the origins of the free-speech tradition in the United States.

The Decline of Human Rights in Lesotho: An Evaluation of Domestic and External Determinants

When Lesotho approached independence in 1966, most Basotho intellectuals were confident that their country would not fall prey to the trend toward authoritarianism and the disregard for civil liberties evident in other parts of Africa. Such optimism was based on several unique dimensions of their national experience. Unlike most African states, Lesotho comprised a single people who shared common language, culture, and political identity. A long tradition of free speech and participatory government was reinforeced by considerable experience with competitive political parties and the Westminster parliamentary system. Broad political awareness, spurred by the highest literacy rate in Black Africa, enhanced Basotho determination to provide a model of stable, democratic institutions, in contrast to the repressive apartheid structure of the omnipresent Republic of South Africa.

The Decline of Human Rights in Lesotho: An Evaluation of Domestic and External Determinants

When Lesotho approached independence in 1966, most Basotho intellectuals were confident that their country would not fall prey to the trend toward authoritarianism and the disregard for civil liberties evident in other parts of Africa. Such optimism was based on several unique dimensions of their national experience. Unlike most African states, Lesotho comprised a single people who shared common language, culture, and political identity. A long tradition of free speech and participatory government was reinforeced by considerable experience with competitive political parties and the Westminster parliamentary system. Broad political awareness, spurred by the highest literacy rate in Black Africa, enhanced Basotho determination to provide a model of stable, democratic institutions, in contrast to the repressive apartheid structure of the omnipresent Republic of South Africa.