Who Really Benefits From the First Amendment?
Tablet | Nadine Strossen
Former ACLU president Nadine Strossen argues “the purpose of free speech is to give the marginalized an escape hatch from the status quo, not to entrench political power.”
Strossen adheres to the “viewpoint neutrality principle,” or to Evelyn Beatrice Hall’s interpretation of Voltaire’s view, “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it,” but argues that “this core tenet has come under heavy fire from left-leaning individuals and groups” who suppress “disfavored ideas by invoking the false and dangerous equation between free expression and physical violence.”
Strossen writes of ubiquitous self-censorship on college campuses, “where free speech is especially important, given the special truth-seeking and educational missions of universities,” citing alarming statistics from FIRE, including that between 2015 and 2021, “30 tenured professors were fired for constitutionally protected speech.”
Strossen’s concluding point, and warning, is that “powerful people and popular ideas don’t need First Amendment protections; marginalized people and unpopular ideas do.”
