Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
I watched/listened to a little more of the confirmation hearing for Judge Amy Coney Barrett today. There were more questions/speeches around issues of religious freedom and free speech.
Later in the day, one of the significant news stories has been how Twitter (and now, I believe Facebook) have chosen to handle a New York Post story about Hunter Biden. As I write this, it appears that Twitter’s CEO, Jack Dorsey, is on record saying that Twitter’s actions to restrict the dissemination of the story were unacceptable.
In 1937, in an opinion for the case Palko v. State of Connecticut, Justice Benjamin Cardozo wrote the following:
“…freedom of thought and speech. Of that freedom one may say that it is the matrix, the indispensable condition, of nearly every other form of freedom.”
Many others have suggested that the first amendment is the foundation to all other freedoms that we enjoy.
I understand that Twitter is not the government and thus how they choose to control content is not necessarily a “first amendment” issue per se. However, this story does raise questions about how information is disseminated and potentially controlled and/or censored in the age of the internet.
I think well-meaning people across the political and ideological spectrum should be concerned about infringements on our rights and freedoms.
This conversation is definitely “to be continued…”