Show Notes
The First Amendment is only 45 words long. But more than 200 years and thousands of court decisions later, we're still arguing over a basic question: what do those words mean — and what did they mean to the early Americans who adopted them?
To look through history and debate what originalism can — and can't — tell us about the First Amendment's free speech clause, we are joined by:
-
Jud Campbell, Stanford Law School professor and the author of Natural Rights and the First Amendment and Determining Rights
-
Stephen Solomon, Marjorie Deane Professor of Journalism at New York University, the founding editor of First Amendment Watch, and the author of Revolutionary Dissent: How the Founding Generation Created the Freedom of Speech
Timestamps:
Intro
Original meaning and modern First Amendment doctrine
Would the founders recognize our Constitution today?
The Alien and Sedition Acts
How the founding generation practiced free speech
Can we define "originalism"?
Representative government and the promise of liberty
The First Amendment's absolute language
New York Times v. Sullivan
Amending the First Amendment
Outro
Enjoy listening to the podcast? Donate to FIRE today and get exclusive content like member webinars, special episodes, and more.
If you became a FIRE Member through a donation to FIRE at fire.org and would like access to Substack's paid subscriber podcast feed, please email sotospeak@fire.org.