The First Freedom -- Speech
Today, the Alabama Supreme Court decides if the University of Alabama System may ignore state law and establish "free speech zones" on its campuses
Today, a long-awaited case will be argued before the Alabama Supreme Court to decide if the University of Alabama in Huntsville’s “free speech zones” violated a student’s rights under the state’s Campus Free Speech Act.
I wrote an extensive four part series on the case last spring, starting here.
But as attorneys for both sides stand before the justices at 10 a.m. today in Montgomery, we should pause to remind ourselves what they’re really arguing about.
It’s not about the Alabama Campus Free Speech Act.
It’s not even about “free speech zones.”
It’s about freedom of speech, which was enshrined in our First Amendment. And in case you may have forgotten the arrangement of those 45 beautifully composed words that stamped it into our national identity, here they are:
“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.”
To paraphrase a quote by Winston Churchill, never in the history of language have so few words protected so many rights for so many people.
For those who think speech isn’t the first among all freedoms, or that those who are “free speech absolutists” are a bit overzealous, think about this: 100-years ago, in the state in which I was born and from where I write this — Alabama — the government could legally stop a black man from:
Voting,
Attending school,
Serving in the military,
Entering certain businesses,
Sitting down in certain places,
Standing up in others,
Using certain public bathrooms,
Swimming in certain public pools,
Drinking from certain public water fountains,
Dating certain girls,
Marrying certain women,
Playing cards, dice, checkers, or dominos with certain people (And in case you think I’m making this one up, it was Section 597 of the General Code of the City of Birmingham.)
Buying a home where he wanted to live and raise his family,
Being hired for certain jobs
Quitting certain jobs,
Sitting on a jury,
Staying in certain hotels,
Simply being within the city limits of certain towns after sunset.
And the list goes on and on.
But … the government couldn’t legally stop a black man from writing, printing, and distributing a newspaper publicly denouncing the injustice of all that and demanding change.
Free speech first, then free everything else after that.
It’s the prime freedom, the motivator, the enabler, and then the protector of all other freedoms.
And everyone can use it. From the colonists to the abolitionists to the civil rights activists. From missionaries to journalists, educators to artists.
To you … to whom our government, with all its massive power and might, is constitutionally obligated to protect from state censorship (and that certainly includes things like the University of Alabama in Huntsville’s free speech zones).
Now, let’s see if the Alabama Supreme Court remembers that.
(J. Pepper Bryars is Alabama’s only reader-supported conservative journalist. You can support his writing by subscribing at https://jpepper.substack.com/subscribe.)