The Controversies of Protected and Unprotected Speech

The Controversies of Protected and Unprotected Speech Without the ability to express free and open ideas and exchange those thoughts with other individuals, our country’s representative democracy would never have survived. After abandoning the British monarchy, the Founders desired an open democracy free of tyranny and control of information. In order to protect our civilian’s basic principle of freeness of speech, the Founders established the freedoms of speech and the press otherwise known as the First Amendment. Within the United States Constitution, the first amendment contains the right to freedom of speech. This idea has become the core basis and significance of the American society and democracy. Within this amendment, an individual has the right to express their opposing views compared to the popular majority regarding specific areas of speech, religion and expression. More specifically, the first amendment includes the right to freely express one’s religion as well as grant every citizen the right to express any religious belief without government involvement favoring any particular side of religion. This amendment allows and ensures that an individual is allowed to speak their mind and question their higher authorities when the opportunity arises. Moreover, free and open debate is highly favorable and viewed as an essential component for determining the genuineness of opposing and competing thoughts and ideas between two sides (Ginsberg, Lowi, Weir & Tolbert, 2013, p.122-123). Therefore, our democracy relies on individuals to speak and express their information and ideas in order to effectively operate a representative government. However, not all speech is protected by the first amendment. For example, unprotected speech can be considered an event in which a problem arises or is