First Amendment Limitations

The First Amendment guarantees every American’s right to the free exchange of ideas, beliefs, and political debate. The First Amendment of the Constitution states that "Congress shall make no law… abridging the freedom of speech or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances" (National Archives and Records Administration 2001). We have the right of freedom of speech and by definition, this means that we have “the right to express any opinions without censorship or restraint” (Dictionary). This law is stated in the Bill of Rights and has been around since 1971. It is one of the oldest and most important amendments we adopted because as American people we have a
There are now limitations of free speech that were not put in place before because they have evolved as a problem of our society in this day and age. These limitations that "Fall outside of its protection are obscenity, child pornography, defamation, incitement to violence and true threats of violence," (Richards) "Even in those categories, there are tests that have to be met in order for the speech to be illegal. Beyond that, we are free to speak" (Richards). The Supreme Court of the United States of America fully supports and condones the First Amendment in all aspects and cases that don’t fall under any of these categories. This law is held to the highest importance because our country is run off of the human rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and without freedom to have a voice this would not exist. The limitations are set in place, but when the Founding Fathers passed this Amendment they wanted absolute freedom of speech, as they felt there should be no limits on what can be said and not said. Everyone has a voice or at least that’s how it started off. Present day issues, such as the items listed above, shouldn’t create a limitation on what can and cannot be said. That’s why we live in a free country unlike any in the world.
In order to address why we need such unlimited free speech and why this was such an important issue for our Founding Fathers, we can look at countries
We are a nation that has always been for the people and by the people. We are known as the land of opportunity because of the amount of job opportunities, our voting processes, and our unlimited amount of patriotic citizens. There would no longer be that passion and drive of the American people if there were limitations enforced on their right to freedom of speech. Our society and population density would slowly decline overtime as the people have less say because that’s what separates us from the rest of the world. If we don’t have that, we aren’t truly a land of opportunity. America is just equal to every other nation. Where the people follow strict laws and have little to no say in the government that rules the land they love. George Washington once stated: “If freedom of speech is taken away. Then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter” (Washington). Arguably, this is what occurs in North Korea today. However, while we strive so hard to keep this inalienable right, we must now recognize the complications created with the newest forum for freedom of speech – the Internet. While we strive to protect our basic right, we could very well lose the country we love so much if we don’t develop censorship means to stop the spreading propaganda and recruitment by such evil forces as ISIS. Censorship by targeting such accounts is a must in order for our very