409 A broader-grounded view is expounded by scholars who argue that freedom of expression is necessary to promote individual self-fulfillment-that, when speech is freely chosen by the speaker to persuade others, it defines and expresses the speaker’s “self” and promotes his liberty 410 and “self-realization” by enabling him to develop his powers and abilities and to make and influence decisions regarding his destiny. Others recur to the writings of Milton and Mill and argue that protecting speech, even speech in error, is necessary for the eventual ascertainment of the truth through the conflict of ideas in the marketplace-a view skeptical of our ability ever to know the truth. 407 Others would limit the basis of the First Amendment to only one among a constellation of possible values and would therefore limit the coverage or the degree of protection of the speech and press clauses.įor example, one school of thought believes that, because of the constitutional commitment to free self-government, only political speech is within the core protected area, 408 although some commentators tend to define more broadly the concept of “political” than one might suppose from the word alone. “The outstanding fact about the First Amendment today is that the Supreme Court has never developed any comprehensive theory of what that constitutional guarantee means and how it should be applied in concrete cases.” 406 Some commentators argue on behalf of a complex of values, none of which by itself is sufficient to support a broad-based protection of freedom of expression. 405 The argument has been fought out among the commentators. Probably no other provision of the Constitution has given rise to so many different views with respect to its underlying philosophical foundations, and hence proper interpretive framework, as has the guanantee of freedom of expression. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof or 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.
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