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Why care about the First Amendment

Commentary on the First Amendment

By Curt Hazlett
Special to J-Ideas

(Curt Hazlett is the former managing editor of the Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram. He has been a reporter and editor at the Chicago Sun-Times, The Boston Globe, Providence Journal and The Washington Post.)

We take it for granted that we can peacefully protest things with which we don't agree. This is America, after all, and it is our right to disagree with our leaders, whether it's the President of the United States, the City Council where we live, or the Board of Education that oversees our schools.

But what if it wasn't our right? What if you could be suspended from school for wearing a T-shirt that carried a political message? What if you could be sent to the principal's office because you wore a black armband to protest a war?

If it weren't for the First Amendment, all of us would have fewer rights to express ourselves freely and without fear. The First Amendment guarantees our basic freedoms - freedom of speech, press, religion, assembly and petition - and prevents the government from silencing those who criticize it. It's a big part of what makes America so different from other nations.

But the First Amendment's meaning is open to different viewpoints, and it has always been challenged by those who believe others have gone too far in their criticism. That's when the courts have to decide what is allowed.

You might think, for instance, that wearing an article of clothing to protest an action of the government would be acceptable as long as it didn't disrupt your classroom or deny someone else their rights. Others might think that's a bad idea and a distraction to other students. Who would win?

That was exactly the question when a few high school students in Des Moines, Iowa, decided to protest the Vietnam War by wearing black armbands. School officials heard about the planned protest and quickly passed a rule forbidding armbands, but the students wore them anyway and were suspended for violating the new rules. Believing they were right, the students sued the school district.

Their case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, the highest court in the nation. The majority of its justices decided that the First Amendment gave the high school students every right to wear the armbands and that the school's officials didn't have the right to censor free speech.

The justices decided that the First Amendment means students don't lose their right to free speech just because they're in a classroom. Although the officials were worried that the protest might disrupt the school, the court ruled that there was no real evidence that it would do that - and certainly not enough to take away such an important right as the freedom to say what you think.

Sometimes free-speech cases aren't so easily decided. That was the case in 2004 when a seventh-grade student in Vermont wore a T-shirt that was critical of President George W. Bush.

The shirt carried both anti-war slogans and drawings depicting drugs and alcohol. The principal ordered the student to cover up the drawings, which she said violated the school's rules against displaying images of drugs and alcohol. The student was also told that the words on the shirt were against the rules, and he was punished. But wasn't he allowed to state his beliefs?

The student's family sued, and eventually a U.S. District Court judge ruled on the difficult case. He decided that the school had the right to censor the drawings, which he agreed sent inappropriate messages to the other students. But he also decided that the First Amendment guaranteed the student's right to state his opinion in the words on the shirt. As a result, he ordered the school to remove any record of being punished from the student's file.

Sound complicated? Maybe. But in our form of government there is always a balance between the rights of citizens. The First Amendment guarantees that no matter how unpopular your ideas may be, you have a right to state them. There are limits, of course. You don't have the freedom to harm others with your speech - for example, causing a stampede in a crowded movie theater by yelling "Fire!" But generally speaking, the founders of this country believed that the government should not have the power to silence people who disagreed with it. They also believed that even the most unpopular beliefs should be protected.

Now, that doesn't mean that anything goes when it comes to speaking your mind. In other court cases, judges have decided that students don't have the right to say or wear words that are vulgar or obscene. School officials have the right to stop students from expressing such "socially inappropriate" thoughts. But when it comes to "political" opinions, judges usually cite the Supreme Court's ruling on the Des Moines high school students case and side with the free expression of ideas.

America's strength comes from the fact that we're allowed to express our opinions about how our government should be run, whether those opinions are popular or not. The First Amendment gives us that right, and it's one that we should cherish.

(Hazlett is a journalism consultant based in Portland, Maine)

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