Free Speech, The People's Darling Privilege: Struggles for Freedom of Expression in American HistoryDuke University Press, 2000 M11 17 - 520 pages Modern ideas about the protection of free speech in the United States did not originate in twentieth-century Supreme Court cases, as many have thought. Free Speech, “The People’s Darling Privilege” refutes this misconception by examining popular struggles for free speech that stretch back through American history. Michael Kent Curtis focuses on struggles in which ordinary and extraordinary people, men and women, black and white, demanded and fought for freedom of speech during the period from 1791—when the Bill of Rights and its First Amendment bound only the federal government to protect free expression—to 1868, when the Fourteenth Amendment sought to extend this mandate to the states. A review chapter is also included to bring the story up to date. Curtis analyzes three crucial political struggles: the controversy that surrounded the 1798 Sedition Act, which raised the question of whether criticism of elected officials would be protected speech; the battle against slavery, which raised the question of whether Americans would be free to criticize a great moral, social, and political evil; and the controversy over anti-war speech during the Civil War. Many speech issues raised by these controversies were ultimately decided outside the judicial arena—in Congress, in state legislatures, and, perhaps most importantly, in public discussion and debate. Curtis maintains that modern proposals for changing free speech doctrine can usefully be examined in the light of this often ignored history. This broader history shows the crucial effect that politicians, activists, ordinary citizens—and later the courts—have had on the American understanding of free speech. Filling a gap in legal history, this enlightening, richly researched historical investigation will be valuable for students and scholars of law, U.S. history, and political science, as well as for general readers interested in civil liberties and free speech. |
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Page 29
... prior restraint . The claim that " no prior restraint " is the full definition of free press will make a number of appearances in the free speech stories that follow , as will the claim for a broader role for the jury in free speech ...
... prior restraint . The claim that " no prior restraint " is the full definition of free press will make a number of appearances in the free speech stories that follow , as will the claim for a broader role for the jury in free speech ...
Page 71
... prior restraint . The idea that Congress could impose a prior restraint , Gallatin said , had never been hinted even by the most violent opponents of the adoption of the Constitution . The First Amendment , he implied , would not have ...
... prior restraint . The idea that Congress could impose a prior restraint , Gallatin said , had never been hinted even by the most violent opponents of the adoption of the Constitution . The First Amendment , he implied , would not have ...
Page 95
... prior restraint . By this view , publications with bad ten- dencies could be punished . Madison denied that this could be the Amer- ican idea of freedom of the press . He took a functional instead of a for- malistic approach , noting ...
... prior restraint . By this view , publications with bad ten- dencies could be punished . Madison denied that this could be the Amer- ican idea of freedom of the press . He took a functional instead of a for- malistic approach , noting ...
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
The English and Colonial Background | 23 |
2 | 32 |
Copyright | |
15 other sections not shown
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1st Sess 39th Cong abolition abolitionists Abraham Lincoln Abridge Adams advocated American antislavery speech arrest bad tendency Bill of Rights Boston Calhoun Chicago Cincinnati Commercial citizens Civil clause Congress Constitution criminal criticism Curtis debate defended democracy Democrats Detroit Free Press discussion dissent doctrine Emancipator expression federal Federalists Fourteenth Amendment free speech tradition freedom of speech Globe guarantees Helper's book hereafter History ideas immunities incendiary insisted issue James John John Bingham jury Justice Kent legislature liberty limited Lincoln Lovejoy Lovejoy's Massachusetts meeting ment North Carolina Northern Ohio opinion paper party petition political Post President prior restraint privileges prosecutions protection punish Republicans resolutions right of free Sedition Act seditious libel Senator slave slaveholders slavery South Southern speech and press statute suggested suppression supra note supra note 14 Supreme Court tion treason trial United Vallandigham violation Virginia William William Lloyd Garrison York