The United States of America recently turned 250 years old. What a spectacle! The fireworks were spectacular, and millions of proud people celebrated across the country – and even around the world. France lit up the Eiffel Tower; Japan had fireworks. French fighter jets flew over New York City with red, white, and blue stripes – our first major partner to paint our shared colors on the sky. Meanwhile, disgraced white nationalists marched into our nation’s capital. It has always been a world of puzzles.
Our 250th birthday dates back to the Declaration of Independence in 1776. This declaration was a powerful and wonderful document that still serves as the soul of America. But the beating heart of the nation would not come until more than a decade later, when the Constitution was adopted. That document is why I can write this to you today. And we need you to help protect it.
The First Amendment to the Constitution is so powerful that people around the world who live in areas untouched by US law often seem to think they have the same rights it establishes. The First Amendment is our one-day vision of what makes a free society. The initial treatment by the project planners who knew it would be incomplete and incomplete – it could only be remedied in the form of the right to free speech.
The Verge it exists today because of this great work. We believe in it deeply. The First Amendment gives us the knowledge that we are almost certainly not free from arrest in expressing our freedom of speech. But journalism and speech are always under attack. It is one of the reasons why we will always need lawyers despite having a strong ethics policy in the industry.
Here is what the first amendment says:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or to cut off freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people to assemble peacefully, and to ask the Government to redress grievances.
This is a compelling and beautiful idea. But we had to fight to keep it alive from the beginning..
John Adams, one of the most brutal rebels who rebelled against British rule and helped win independence, ignored the First Amendment when he became the second president of the US. Adams’ series of the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 looks good to Trump in retrospect, insulting immigrants, increasing the president’s power to arrest, detain, or deport people, and perhaps more subtly, making it a crime for American citizens to print “shameful and cruel” documents against the government. Adams truly loved the country he created, and yet he shrunk before the greatness of its freedom.
Fast forward to World War I, when the First Amendment is again under attack, this time by the Supreme Court. The court’s chilling message about freedom of speech remains with us. You’ve probably heard the phrase “you can’t shout ‘fire’ in a crowded theater” — it’s actually not true. The misquotation and misinterpretation here is quite amusing: Trevor Timm, in The Atlantic. It almost sounds right out of the modern headlines. (Nearly a century later, the Espionage Act would be used again to target, this time, a New York Times reporter.)
Misunderstandings about the First Amendment still abound. In the first line we can easily see it in police confrontations where armed agents of the state perform their constitutional duties with disastrous results.
The police are so ill-advised to understand basic American law that there is now a small industry of broadcasters and lobbyists who act as “First Amendment auditors” – people who deliberately twist their right to record in public to avoid dummies to curtail their freedom of speech. It’s easy to go down TikTok rabbit holes where you’ll find someone filming an illegal traffic stop from inside their car, or a broadcaster fully recording roadside harassment. When the police inevitably show up abusing someone for exercising their rights, the stakes are quickly raised.
In the best case scenario, a high-ranking police officer arrives to excommunicate the unconstitutional behavior of his colleagues. In some cases, someone ends up incarcerated or imprisoned for completely protected conduct.
It’s worse than usual in 2026, because we now live under city-dwelling bureaucrats with poorly trained people who see constitutionally protected behavior as a threat. This has resulted in deaths, attacks on journalists, and a wide range of untold costs for ordinary people who have to endure the enormous burden of dealing with the justice system just for doing things they have a basic right to do. The right to speak and meet especially if it is against the government. That’s the whole point of this thing! And yet.
Recent attacks on the First Amendment have fueled people all the way down the chain of command. We are being betrayed by the officials who are supposed to protect us, the people sworn to the Constitution who should know better. The FCC is not supposed to regulate speech and yet it has become a nightmare of incompetence and oppression of human rights. You miss Stephen Colbert The Late Show? Thanks to the Trump administration, which is now using a mob-like patronage system that has alarmed the billionaire executives who own America’s broadcast networks. Or ask Jimmy Kimmel, who took to the airwaves after conservatives lashed out at his soft-spoken comments about Charlie Kirk, a man who has spent his time poisoning our national discourse without the grace or intelligence used by national talk show hosts.
The Trump administration in general has an incredibly disruptive record on free speech, from science to the operation of the largest social networks. Donald Trump insults anyone who does not bow to him, and the list of his victims is too long to count. But here’s the bottom line: The president once threatened to arrest Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg for life. Zuckerberg is richer and more powerful than Trump in many ways, but what has he done? Two years after the threat, Zuckerberg appeared on the White House lawn to celebrate Trump’s UFC fight show. He spoke in a loud voice.
This is what makes everything beautiful. We live in an age dominated by social media that is so rich, powerful, and ubiquitous that it seems unstoppable by the US government, but ironically still has to go along with a government that doesn’t really respect it or theirs free speech. Trump once threatened to blow up the entire internet because he wanted platforms to be hacked for his own benefit. The CEOs of those companies still entertain him with compliments and photos.
This blurring of public and private interests has fueled the funhouse-mirror view of the “culture of free speech” ie actually designed to violate free speech. The loudest people who complain about the culture of free speech are pretending theirs it is not the most liberal in history, while it is supportive at the same time the original government inspections, such as book bans.
I can’t say it better than Ken White, so just go read him on this point. White describes how the “culture of free speech” has encouraged the Trump administration and others to engage in real-life investigations. “When enough people think that all free speech—including free speech—is nonsense, then free speech rights will not be exercised,” he writes.
Our constitutional punchbowl is inspired by lunatics who benefit from confusion about our rights and the law. It doesn’t have to be this way. Just remember: The First Amendment is a ban on the government that prevents it from to forbid your speech.
In addition: The real test is the government’s suppression of speech. It is understandable that we are confused about what research is because there are many people who have worked hard to keep us confused. A social media platform that manages your posts it’s not research – it’s actually free speech. Yes, that sounds completely absurd, but it’s true. Another is a situation where the government forces private citizens to publish content they do not want, including hate speech.
There is much left unsaid here, including the history of pain and suffering that has kept the First Amendment and our broader rights alive. I will not say that I know what is being fixed in our current issue, but I will say that I really hate it when our leaders say things like “this is not who we are” when they speak. directly through the things that define who we are. And part of who we are is a coalition that claims to want free speech in theory while at the same time suppressing it in practice.
So what can you do? Yes, of course, vote. But there is still much to do. Write or call your congresspeople (I promise this matters). Get involved of the area Elections, especially for school boards, are at the forefront of book bans. And if you’re reading this, thanks for subscribing — but please consider supporting other newsrooms.
