Is Censorship unconstitutional?

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Recommended: Essays over the relevance fahrenheit 451 today

Is Censorship Unconstitutional? Censoring knowledge is unconstitutional. Censorship had been going on since the beginning of the written word. This means that is not hard to say that it has been used as a manipulation tactic since the first man, or woman, placed their coal to a piece of dried goat skin. So does this make it wrong? To understand censorship, you have to start at the beginning. Censorship, no matter the definition, is when people who have power, wish to limit the knowledge of what we are receiving, or what we are expressing. We have not always had the rights we had now. Benjamin Franklins brother and employer, was actually arrested and lost his printing license for expressing criticism in his newspaper about politics. Censorship was going strong in the Revolutionary era, when British Loyalists tarred and feathered people who spoke against Britain. Even back then, we lived in a country where our own opinions, if deemed wrong by the powerful, were quickly put to an end. But in 1791, the First Amendment was ratified. The First Amendment was made to counteract censorship. Though, it is often believed that it was actually made to allow States to punish rather than to guarantee freedom of expression. To counteract this, the Alien and Sedition Acts were passed in 1798. These acts made it illegal to print “False, Scandalous and Malicious writing (“Censorship, Press and Artistic”). “ Fight to end censorship treaded on steadily, until 1971, when it was found out that even the government couldn’t be fully trusted. In 1971, the Pentagon Affair arose. It revealed many abuses in security during the Vietnam War. It thus fell upon them to prove that classified information is essential military, domestic... ... middle of paper ... ...t from the weapon. Breach man’s mind." ( "Fahrenheit 451" Pg. 58.) "Banned Books." Gale Student Resources in Context. Detroit: Gale, 2013. Student Resources in Context. Web. 25 Mar. 2014. “Census.gov.” N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Apr. 2014. Bradbury, Ray. “Fahrenheit 451.” 40th Anniversary ed. N.p.: Simon & Schuster, 1993. Print. "Freedom of Speech." ACLU. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Apr. 2014. "Our Work." Project Censored. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Apr. 2014. Rasmus, Ronald S. "Censorship, Press and Artistic." Dictionary of American History. Ed. Stanley I. Kutler. 3rd ed. Vol. 2. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2003. 83-86. Student Resources in Context. Web. 26 Mar. 2014. "Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA)." Gale Student Resources in Context. Detroit: Gale, 2013. Student Resources in Context. Web. 25 Mar. 2014.

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