Is the Current Era of Free Speech Over?
Considering the rest of the developed world, it is a miracle that the First Amendment continues to reign in the United States. Tracing the precarious history of free speech in the country, legal scholar Eric Heinz writes that shifting bipartisan attitudes are placing it under threat.
In November of 2024, President-elect Donald Trump sued CBS News for $10 billion, later increasing the claim to $20 billion. He complained that the network had manipulated a 60 Minutes interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris to bolster her presidential campaign. And, in July of this year, Paramount, which owns CBS News, settled the lawsuit for $16 million to be donated toward the eventual construction of President Trump’s presidential library.
In February of 2025, Associated Press reporters were banned from White House press events after refusing to follow President Trump’s name change from the “Gulf of Mexico” to the “Gulf of America” in their reporting.
In September of this year, the world witnessed the assassination of Charlie Kirk in Utah. In response, the late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel accused President Trump on-air of flaunting fake grief while accusing the MAGA movement of exploiting the tragedy to “score political points.” Later, ABC briefly tabled Kimmel’s show as Federal Communications Commission chairman Brendan Carr, who was appointed by President Trump, threatened to take retaliatory action against the company and amid Nexstar and Sinclair’s decision to suspend airing Jimmy Kimmel Live! on their stations.
Among the many affronts to free speech in recent years, it remains puzzling why Kimmel’s firing was the incident that unleashed a particularly fierce backlash. Was it just the most mediatized? Or, because of the mutual recriminations triggered by Kirk’s assassination? Perhaps because Americans are seriously worrying about what had seemed to be their untouchable free speech rights?
To this point, certain figures typically supportive of President Trump’s agenda such as Senator Ted Cruz and commentator Tucker Carlson have recently displayed their anxiety, fretting about the health of the First Amendment.
"…in 1919, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes—in Schenck v. United States—led a unanimous Supreme Court to uphold the criminal conviction of a man for no crime other than distributing antiwar leaflets to potential conscripts."
Timeless reading in a fleeting world.
