Authors Share Excerpts on Free Speech: Ian Rosenberg and The Marketplace of Ideas

In "The Fight for Free Speech," Ian Rosenberg distills the last century of First Amendment law into ten critical issues. The first chapter, excerpted here, traces the story of several anarchists who were tried under the Espionage Act of 1917 for distributing anti-war pamphlets.

John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, 1859

In his essay, On Liberty, John Stuart Mill argues that government has no right to limit the freedom of thought. He reasons that even a dissenting opinion held by a single individual has great value to society because it may turn out to be true.