What's Wrong with the First Amendment
Title
What's Wrong with the First Amendment
Subject
United States. Constitution. 1st Amendment
Freedom of speech -- United States
Description
What is Wrong with the First Amendment? argues that the US love affair with the First Amendment has mutated into free speech idolatry. Free speech has been placed on so high a pedestal that it is almost automatically privileged over privacy, fair trials, equality and public health, even protecting depictions of animal cruelty and violent video games sold to children. At the same time, dissent is unduly stifled and religious minorities are burdened. The First Amendment benefits the powerful at the expense of the vulnerable. By contrast, other Western democracies provide more reasonable accommodations between free speech and other values though their protections of dissent, and religious minorities are also inadequate. Professor Steven H. Shiffrin argues that US free speech extremism is not the product of broad cultural factors, but rather political ideologies developed after the 1950s. He shows that conservatives and liberals have arrived at similar conclusions for different political reasons.
Creator
Shiffrin, Steven H.
Source
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Date
2016
Format
Book, physical
Language
English
Identifier
KF4770 .S555 2016
Collection
Citation
Shiffrin, Steven H., “What's Wrong with the First Amendment,” Trinity College Library, accessed March 28, 2024, https://tclibrary.omeka.net/items/show/261.