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During colonial times, English speech regulations were rather restrictive.The English criminal common law of seditious libel made criticizing the government a crime. Lord Chief Justice John Holt, writing in 1704–1705, explained the rationale for the prohibition: "For it is very necessary for all governments that the people should have a good opinion of it."
In Federalist No. 33, Alexander Hamilton writes about the Supremacy Clause that federal laws by definition must be supreme. If the laws do not function from that position, then they amount to nothing, noting that "A law, by the very meaning of the term, includes supremacy. It is a rule which those to whom it is prescribed are bound to observe.
Freedom of speech and expression has a long history that predates modern international human rights instruments. [4] It is thought that the ancient Athenian democratic principle of free speech may have emerged in the late 6th or early 5th century BC. [5] Freedom of speech was vindicated by Erasmus and Milton. [4]
The U.S. Constitution was a federal one and was greatly influenced by the study of Magna Carta and other federations, both ancient and extant. The Due Process Clause of the Constitution was partly based on common law and on Magna Carta (1215), which had become a foundation of English liberty against arbitrary power wielded by a ruler.
Whether federal or state judges, the Supremacy Clause provides that the Constitution and federal law, applicable for all Americans, are supreme. Legislative and executive officials are political.
The United States Constitution and its amendments comprise hundreds of clauses which outline the functioning of the United States Federal Government, the political relationship between the states and the national government, and affect how the United States federal court system interprets the law. When a particular clause becomes an important ...
But Alito's support for free speech has its limits — he was a notable sole dissenter when the Supreme Court in 2011 ruled 8-1 that members of the conservative Westboro Baptist Church had a free ...
The First Amendment (Amendment I) to the United States Constitution prevents Congress from making laws respecting an establishment of religion; prohibiting the free exercise of religion; or abridging the freedom of speech, the freedom of the press, the freedom of assembly, or the right to petition the government for redress of grievances.