What Free Speech Has To Do With Skim Milk, Condoms And Corporate Political Spending
Many modern free-speech cases have less to do with citizens speaking to government power than with the reach of businesses and organizations into Americans' lives. We look at a few highlights.
The concept of free speech is frequently heard in courtrooms across the country. Advocates on all kinds of issues try to tie their legal and policy arguments to a constitutional right most Americans hold as fundamental. Consider recent debates over net neutrality, for example, or abortion rights.
The impetus for the First Amendment — granting Americans the freedom of speech, religion and the press and the right to petition and peacefully protest — stemmed from the view that the Constitution granted a lot of power to the federal government without much protection for citizens' rights, historians say. But many of the modern cases have less to do with citizens
