“Free speech is the right to shout "Theater!" in a crowded fire.”
Abbie Hoffman (1936–1989) American political and social activist
Source: Soon to be a Major Motion Picture (1980), p. 214.
Schenck v. United States, 249 U.S. 47, 52 (3 March 1919).
1910s
“Free speech is the right to shout "Theater!" in a crowded fire.”
Abbie Hoffman (1936–1989) American political and social activist
Source: Soon to be a Major Motion Picture (1980), p. 214.
“There are no protections of autonomy and free speech.”
Charles A. Reich (1928–2019) American lawyer
The Liberals' Mistake (1987)
Context: Liberals placed an unreasonable amount of faith in large institutions: unions, foundations, big government, large corporations, and universities. These institutions are based on principles that are antithetical to democracy. They are not democratic, they are hierarchical: Someone is at the top and everybody else is at the bottom. Their policies are not made democratically, they are made at the top. These institutions are also not egalitarian. They operate by administrative discretion and authority, not the rule of law: There is no legislature, no group lawmaking body.
The individual in the large organization does not have the kind of constitutional rights that an individual in the society at large has. There are no protections of autonomy and free speech. Employees can be fired for many reasons. We need to constitutionalize large organizations to protect the people within them, to ensure that they can be politically outspoken.
Clarence Darrow (1857–1938) American lawyer and leading member of the American Civil Liberties Union
Address to the court in People v. Lloyd (1920)
Anthony Kennedy (1936) Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition, 535 U.S. 234 (2002) (Opinion of the Court).
Camille Paglia (1947) American writer
In an interview about the book. " Camille Paglia on her controversial feminism https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69rgLvitaYM" (at 10m35s), CBC News: The National on YouTube, 7 May 2017. <br class="br">Free Women, Free Men (2017)
Edward Jenks (1861–1939) British legal scholar
Source: A Short History Of The English Law (First Edition) (1912), Chapter VIII, Methods Of Alienation, p. 109
Baba Hari Dass (1923–2018) master yogi, author, builder, commentator of Indian spiritual tradition
Source: The Yellow Book, 1974, p.11
Michael J. Sandel (1953) American political philosopher
Chap. 3. Religious Liberty and Freedom of Speech
Democracy's Discontent (1996)