, Columnist
What If the Founders Had Free Speech Wrong?
A scholar's jarring claim: America's framers meant to protect a lot less speech than most of us think.
Exercising the right.
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According to the most famous words of the First Amendment, “Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech.” But what did the founders understand those words to mean?
A remarkable answer comes from Jud Campbell, a University of Richmond law professor, who has just produced what might well be the most illuminating work on the original understanding of free speech in a generation. In brief, Campbell argues that the founders meant to protect a lot less speech than most of us think.