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Chapter 8 - Will Free Speech Survive?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 January 2023

Dennis Baron
Affiliation:
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
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Summary

The First Amendment protects speech, and it protects speakers from compelled speech. Generally, you can't be forced to say or sign anything – a prayer, the Pledge of Allegiance, a loyalty oath, that goes against your deeply held beliefs. But all speech protections are contingent: just as some speech has no constitutional protection, governments and in some cases, employers, may compel certain types of speech. Laws may dictate the content of product labels or other aspects of advertising; employers may require workers to follow scripts or repeat certain formulas; some loyalty oaths may be required; and federal law requires English as the language of air traffic control. We look at three examples of compelled speech in this chapter: the presidential oath of office, prescribed in the US Constitution; the Miranda warning, the caution that police must give to anyone under arrest before they may question them. And statutes that define their own words. Such definitions require us to accept a particular meaning and reject alternatives, and as such, they constitute compelled speech. We see the problems that ensued when the US government enacted a law defining "marriage" as the "union of one man and one woman," a law that was ultimately ruled unconstitution by the US Supreme Court in Windsor v. US.

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Information
You Can't Always Say What You Want
The Paradox of Free Speech
, pp. 210 - 228
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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  • Will Free Speech Survive?
  • Dennis Baron, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
  • Book: You Can't Always Say What You Want
  • Online publication: 12 January 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009198882.009
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  • Will Free Speech Survive?
  • Dennis Baron, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
  • Book: You Can't Always Say What You Want
  • Online publication: 12 January 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009198882.009
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Will Free Speech Survive?
  • Dennis Baron, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
  • Book: You Can't Always Say What You Want
  • Online publication: 12 January 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009198882.009
Available formats
×