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free speech in america essay
freedom of speech in america essay
the first amendment freedom of speech
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No, all speech and expressions are not free in the United States of America even though government tries to claim that it is. If all speech were free in America, there is no way that a coach of a football team should be allowed to tell his football players to delete their twitter accounts. In the article “Towson Twitter ban comes as legislators move to protect student freedom”, the Towson football coach says he is trying to protect his football team which is why he is making them delete their Twitter, but the football players are not kids. The coach could have easily told them not to tweet such things but making them delete it all together is extreme and uncalled for. With things like that happening, it is clear that all speech is not free in America. (Towson Twitter Ban Article). In the film, “Shouting Fire: Stories from the Edge of Free Speech”, the filmmaker tells us about a teacher who lost her job as a principal of a high school because of comments she made about September 11th. If speech is supposed to be equally free, why are human beings suffering because of words coming out of their mouth. All expression is not equally free in the United States either. In the “Airlines can say: You can’t wear that” article, a man is escorted off the plane because he is sagging his pants. People have worn worse on airplanes and nothing was said to them. I understand that airlines are private companies so they are allowed to do that but if expression is supposed to be equally free in America and he has paid for his ticket, there is no reason why you should be told how to dress. (Airlines can say: You can’t wear that) There is definitely not a marketplace of ideas in America because many individuals here have actually been punished for... ... middle of paper ... ...that the truth is being exposed they do not want people to know, they drag the person to court. This is a waste of time and also an embarrassment. When the community like schools attempt to censor speech and teachers talk about things that educate their students and the school does not want them to hear it, they have them fired. Teachers have worked so hard for jobs that are not easy to get and end up getting fired for something so simple and this is ruining a life. Speech is not free in America, it needs to be removed from the First Amendment because people are punished everyday for their freedom of speech even if it is not affecting anyone or doing anyone harm. Supposedly, the community and government tell people not to say things because people are offended. People are going to be offended by anything so if that is the case, nothing should be said at all.
The First Amendment states that "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 to peaceably assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances" (First Amendment Oct. 20, 2013). But "the First Amendment does not protect all speech from government censorship, and it does not prevent private non-government entities from censoring. Years of US Supreme Court decisions have identified exceptions to the general rule that the governments in the United States cannot censor" (Censorship Copyright © 2002). American citizen's right of freedom of speech should be held in the highest integrity and any kind of censorship of free speech should not be allowed because it take away those rights. However, censorship has been going on for centuries.
Freedom of speech and expression is a right given to all Americans in the First
The United States of America is often known for having more freedom than anywhere else. As Gandhi said, “A ‘no’ uttered from the deepest conviction is better and greater than a ‘yes’ uttered to please, or what is worse, to avoid trouble.” Freedom of speech is a big part of the American culture and citizens are encouraged to speak their minds and opinions openly. It is such an important aspect of each American individual that it is
Freedom of speech is the right of civilians to openly express their opinions without constant interference by the government. For the last few years, the limitations and regulations on freedom of speech have constantly increased. This right is limited by use of expression to provoke violence or illegal activities, libel and slander, obscene material, and proper setting. These limitations may appear to be justified, however who decides what is obscene and inappropriate or when it is the wrong time or place? To have so many limits and regulations on freedom of speech is somewhat unnecessary. It is understood that some things are not meant to be said in public due to terrorist attacks and other violent acts against our government, but everything should not be seen as a threat. Some people prefer to express themselves angrily or profanely, and as long as it causes no har...
Since this country was founded, we have had a set of unalienable rights that our constitution guarantees us to as Americans. One of the most important rights that is mentioned in our constitution is the right to free speech. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the
Freedom of speech has been a controversial issue throughout the world. Our ability to say whatever we want is very important to us as individuals and communities. Although freedom of speech and expression may sometimes be offensive to other people, it is still everyone’s right to express his/her opinion under the American constitution which states that “congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or the press”. Although this amendment gave people the right express thier opinions, it still rests in one’s own hands as how far they will go to exercise that right of freedom of speech.
When the individual gets attacked verbally because of their controversial statements, they claim that they had the right to speak their mind no matter how disturbing their words were. They use the First Amendment as a cover for their wrong-doings, and that is never okay. They need to be educated on what they can and cannot say. Just because the First Amendment guarantees a person the freedom of speech, does not mean that they are entitled to say whatever they please. The article “Freedom of Speech” explains if an individual were to use “fighting words” then they are automatically not covered under their First Amendment. The Supreme Court decided in the case Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire that “fighting words” were not constitutional, so they would not be protected under the First Amendment (2). Many people misunderstand that much of their opinions that they speak consists of words that are unclear. More than half of the time the words they use in their statements are considered to be fighting words, for they are rude and ignorant. There is no need for the obscene words that they use to be protected under the First Amendment. They must become aware of their lack of knowledge for what “fighting words” are; furthermore, they
The first amendment is the one that defends the liberty of speech. “Because democracy depends on an open political process and politics is basically talk, freedom of speech and freedom of the press are considered critical,” (pg. 119). It is defended, but freedom of all speech is not guaranteed. The United States Supreme Court has identified many categories of speech that are eliminated from the freedom. It has also acknowledged that government may implement limits of speech. Examples of prohibited speech are to make or allocate material that is indecent, to encourage potentially harmful action, to allow students to print out articles that would dissent the administration in a school newspaper, and for students to promote the illegal use of
The United States of America is arguably one of the best nations in the democratic free world. Citizens of U.S. have freedoms granted by the federal government, which allows freedoms like freedom of religion and freedom of expression. In the constitution for the United States government, the federal government is prohibited to take away certain freedoms like free speech. On the other hand, think it is a good idea to limit free speech in order not to cause emotional harm in different environments. In consequence free speech has started to be limited throughout different entities such as the private sector and places of high education due to political correctness. freedom of speech should not be limited because it contradicts the very purpose
No other democratic society in the world permits personal freedoms to the degree of the United States of America. Within the last sixty years, American courts, especially the Supreme Court, have developed a set of legal doctrines that thoroughly protect all forms of the freedom of expression. When it comes to evaluating the degree to which we take advantage of the opportunity to express our opinions, some members of society may be guilty of violating the bounds of the First Amendment by publicly offending others through obscenity or racism. Americans have developed a distinct disposition toward the freedom of expression throughout history.
Free speech is also restricted if your message presents "clear and present danger." This means that one may not walk into an airport and announce they have a bomb simply for kicks.
Freedom of Speech means that everyone is entitled to having an opinion , and they are able to share this opinion in any way that they would like to - online on Facebook, in public on a street corner, or even just in a face-to-face conversation with someone else. There are many different kinds of people, all with their own opinions, beliefs, and ideas and in the United states, citizens are fortunate enough to be able to share these thoughts with anybody they want to, without fear of major repercussions.
Today this is almost a universal right, however, many countries or groups of people still have this right restricted, examples being North Korea and their press, or Women in the middle east. America is privileged in the sense of free speech for many reasons, the first it being recognized. It is forever imprinted in the minds of the men and women whom govern the populous. There can never be an exusce for the people not to speak their mind since it is a guarantee. The country with the second largest economy and GDP, China, still has issues with protests and how they deal with protestors, censorship is still very widely used, and how much freedom we are granted is truly a privilege compared to other countries. Even if we look at a country very similar to the United States, the Constitution of the United Kingdom never explicitly says that the their people have the right to freedom of speech it is merely implied now and was mainly only allowed for members of a certain legislature, only until 1998 did the United Kingdom truly write down a vague description of freedom of expression that is heavily revised to add certain
Based on the First Amendment, the government may not exercise any activities that interference freedom of speech of an individual. For Americans, freedom of speech is clearly become the most basic freedom. Everyone has always thinks freedom of speech is a basic right that everyone automatically has when they were born; on the other hand, freedom of speech is experiencing serious growing pains.
One instance of free speech controversy was when a fraternity member of the University Of Maryland had an email leaked of which he said very derogatory and racist remarks about women and shaming them on their appearance. When this email was leaked it created a widespread of controversy and anger among the country. The difficult part in this was that by popular opinion many would want to expel the student who wrote that email but lawyers suggest that by doing so would violate the student 's constitutional rights to freedom of expression. The problem with labeling this kind of behavior as hate speech and trying to suppress vulgar language is no matter how vile the language is it is protected under the first amendment of the constitution. Universities have come together in trying to diffuse this kind of behavior by adding codes of conduct that prohibit certain forms of speech from being permitted on campus. These initiatives have been challenged by civil liberty groups who feel that by prohibiting certain forms of speech the universities are restricting students on their first amendment rights and has to be cautious on what they say as one minor joke could be taken the wrong