Protecting Free Speech Is Fundamental To Preserving America

With July 4th behind us, it is important to reflect on our Founding principles and what we need to do as a nation to preserve them.  Even as threats loom beyond our borders in Russia, Iran, and China, there are fights happening here at home over the essential principles that make America what it is.  One such principle is the freedom of speech, a right so critical to the proper functioning of our Republic that it is enshrined in the First Amendment in our Bill of Rights.  Despite this prominent position conferred by our Founders, free speech is under threat. Progressives today seek to curb, censor, and even compel the speech of private citizens and companies so that it conforms to their own progressive worldview.  This is a fight conservatives cannot afford to lose.

That’s why we should celebrate the major victory recently won for freedom of speech at our Supreme Court, which held that a website designer did not have to choose between her livelihood – which depended on her creative talents – and violating her deeply held religious beliefs.  The case, 303 Creative v. Elenis, hinged on the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act (CADA), which prohibits all “public accommodations” from denying “the full and equal enjoyment” of its goods and services to any persons based on their race, creed, disability, sexual orientation, or other statutorily enumerated traits.  Ironically – or, perhaps, by design – this anti-discrimination law only enabled the state to discriminate against and punish people of faith who did not wish to compromise their beliefs to maintain their businesses and prosper.  In fact, Lorie Smith – the plaintiff – was not even the first person to have her business and religious convictions placed in CADA’s crosshairs: Masterpiece Cakeshop, a Colorado bakery, won a major victory at the Supreme Court in 2018 following a grueling 5-year legal battle when the owner refused to allow his business to provide services that violated his religious beliefs.

As Americans, we should do all we can to eliminate pernicious forms of discrimination.  But we should be wary, too, of allowing these noble efforts to be hijacked and instead used to undermine the rights of other Americans under the guise of ensuring equality.  That’s what really happened in Colorado, and we should celebrate the fact that these efforts failed.  Moreover, we should push all states to review how their anti-discrimination laws are being applied in practice.

The threat to freedom of speech is even greater at the federal level, as revelations surrounding the Biden Administration’s efforts to censor conservative speech continue to come out.  This week, a federal judge restricted Biden officials from meeting and communicating with social media companies in efforts to moderate their content.  The ruling stated that government agencies like the Department of Health and Human Services and the FBI could not communicate with social media companies for “the purpose of urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner the removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech.” The real question every American – conservative or liberal, Republican or Democrat – should have is this: Why in the world is the Biden Administration manipulating the free speech of Americans online in the first place?

Let’s be clear: Attempts by the Executive branch to suppress or censor speech regarding Hunter Biden’s laptop, the origins of COVID-19, or nearly any other subject cannot possibly be allowed under the Constitution.  The very idea of the federal government suppressing or promoting ideas and speech across media platforms as it sees fit should conjure dystopian visions in the minds of every citizen.  Even the Administration’s lame excuse in the case of COVID vaccines, that it was only seeking to “tamp down misinformation about COVID vaccines to curb preventable deaths,” is an absurd claim.  It opens the door to all sorts of government malpractice in the interests of a vaguely defined “common good” – a common good that the government alone gets to define.  That’s antithetical to the American way of life, and we must guard against efforts to distort it.

We should take heart, though, for these assaults on free speech demonstrate that far from being broken, the American system can overcome such efforts.  Yes, there have already been real and lasting consequences for government overreach, but the American system ultimately allows for these pernicious actions to be challenged and corrected.  These corrections, though, don’t magically happen; they require men and women of courage and conviction, who are prepared to remain engaged and stand up for their rights.  That’s why I’m proud to be working alongside the ACLJ as it seeks to secure the rights of Americans against continued government overreach and intrusion.  I encourage each of you to continue this fight as well.