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In this day and age, every sector must strike a careful balance between protecting free speech and the First Amendment, while also safeguarding people from true harm. Free speech should promote accountability, innovation and democratic participation, but it can also be misused to spread violent and hateful speech or dangerous misinformation. Each sector can and should handle the responsibility of balancing free speech and protecting the public in its own way. Private Internet

The internet has radically and undoubtedly changed freedom of expression. The internet has changed not only in what content is more widely available, but also who has access to free expression and its regulation.  The shift in internet and free expression could be seen in Reno v. ACLU . In this case, which we studied in class, was when the Communications Decency Act tried to censor speech in cyberspace. The case ultimately went to the Supreme Court and was ruled a violation o

State-level legislation attempting to regulate free expression and speech is on the rise — and has been for years. Last year in Arizona, the ACLU testified on 70 bills in committee hearings to make sure Constitutional rights were protected, according to its recap of 2025 .  Among the bills they fought against was HB 2880 , which Gov. Hobbs signed into law. This bill allows public universities to prohibit encampments on campus.  I covered the Pro-Palestine encampments at ASU i

The First Amendment should be a shield for reporters and news outlets when they are doing the job the Constitution envisioned. In most cases this is gathering facts, asking the ‘tough’ questions and publishing information of public concern.  This has held true for nearly a century — as seen in part of our weekly reading, Grosjean v. American Press Co., Inc.  But, the fight is still on.  In November 2025, a county in rural Kansas agreed to pay $3 million and issue a public apo

Identity forming practices have evolved as long as life has. Today, they take the form of "free expression." Free expression has both personal (parrhesia) and public (isegoria) value — ultimately serving the greater society. Teresa M. Bejan, the author of "Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society," wrote that a reduction of free speech and expression, can be a reduction of democracy. "...When the rights of all become the privilege of a few, neither liberty nor equali