America’s greatest idea is still under threat

The United States of America recently turned 250 years old. What a sight! The fireworks were spectacular, and millions of proud people celebrated across the country – and even around the world. France lit up the Eiffel Tower; Japan had fireworks. French fighter planes flew over New York City with red, white and blue stripes – our first major ally to paint our common colors across the sky. Meanwhile, shameful white nationalists Viewed through our nation’s capital. This has always been a country of paradoxes.

Our 250th birthday dates back to the Declaration of Independence in 1776. The Declaration was a radical and stunning document that remains the soul of America. But the beating heart of the nation did not come until more than a decade later, when the Constitution was ratified. Which The document is the reason I am able to write this to you today. We need you to help protect it.

The First Amendment is so powerful that people around the world who live in places untouched by U.S. law often believe they have the same rights it stipulates. The First Amendment is our everyday theory of what makes a society free. It is literally the drafters’ first remedy for a project they knew would be forever imperfect and incomplete—and which could only be fixed by the right to freedom of expression.

Edge It exists today because of this great project. We believe in it deeply. The First Amendment gives us the knowledge that we are more likely to be free from prison than to express our freedom of speech. But journalism and expression are always under attack. It’s one of the reasons we’ll always need lawyers even though we probably have the strongest editorial ethics policy in the industry.

Here’s what the First Amendment says:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or limiting freedom of expression or the press; Or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

This is a compelling and beautiful idea. But we had to fight to keep him alive from the beginning.

John Adams, one of the fiercest revolutionaries who rose up against British tyranny and helped secure independence, completely subverted the First Amendment when he became the second president of the United States. Adams’s series of 1798 Alien and Sedition Acts sounds positively Trumpian in retrospect, attacking foreigners, expanding presidential power to arrest, confine, or deport people, and perhaps most insidiously, making it a crime for American citizens to print “scandalous and malicious” writings against the government. Adams certainly loved the country he created, but he nevertheless shrank before the extent of his freedoms.

Fast forward to World War I, when the First Amendment was attacked again, this time by the Supreme Court. The court’s chilling message about freedom of expression remains with us. You’ve probably heard the expression, “You can’t scream ‘fire’ in a crowded theater” — Not actually true. Here is a misquote and misinterpretation Very Funny: Trevor Timm, V.I AtlanticHe points out that the court decision to which the phrase refers was actually about whether an American socialist could be convicted “under the Espionage Act for writing and distributing a pamphlet expressing his opposition to the project.” It seems almost ripped from contemporary headlines. (Nearly a century later, the Espionage Act was passed Will be used again To target this time A New York Times Journalist.)

Misunderstandings about the First Amendment continue to abound. On the front lines, we see this most easily in police encounters where armed state agents subvert their constitutional duties with disastrous results.

Cops are routinely bad at understanding America’s founding law, so much so that there’s now a cottage industry of streamers and influencers who serve as “First Amendment auditors” — people who publicly parade their right to record to lure puppets to limit their freedom of expression. It’s easy to go down the rabbit hole of TikTok where you’ll find someone recording an illegal traffic stop from inside their car, or a fully prepared gamer recording harassment on a public sidewalk. When the police inevitably show up to harass someone for exercising their rights, the stakes are immediately raised.

In the best-case scenario, a higher-ranking cop arrives and dispels the unconstitutional behavior of his colleagues. In other cases, someone ends up being detained or arrested for fully protected conduct.

It’s worse than usual in 2026, because we now live under an administration that floods cities with barely trained federal agents who view constitutionally protected behavior as a threat. This may Resulted in deathsAnd the attacks on reporters, and the broader, immeasurable cost to ordinary people having to bear the enormous burden of facing the justice system simply for doing things they have a fundamental right to do. The right to speak and assemble is Especially valid when it is a protest against the government. That’s the whole point of this thing! And yet.

Recent assaults on the First Amendment have been encouraged by people all the way up the chain of command. We are being betrayed by officials who are supposed to protect us, people who swore an oath to the Constitution and should know better. The FCC isn’t supposed to regulate free speech, but it has become a nightmare of inefficiency and abuse. Suppression of civil rights. Do you miss Stephen Colbert? Late Show? And we thank the Trump administration, which now runs a mob-like patronage system that has frightened the billionaire princes who own American broadcast networks. Or ask Jimmy Kimmel, who was kicked off the air after conservatives went nuclear for his meek remarks about Charlie Kirk, a man who spent his time poisoning our national discourse with none of the grace or wit employed by national talk show hosts.

The Trump regime overall has an incredibly troubling record on freedom of expression, from sciences To operations The largest social networks. Donald Trump attacks everyone who does not bow down to him, and the list of his victims is too long to count. But here’s the catch: The president once threatened to imprison Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg lifelong. Zuckerberg is richer and more powerful than Trump in many ways, but what has he done? Two years after the threat, Zuckerberg appeared on the White House lawn to celebrate Trump’s crazy UFC fight show. He was exploited against the bully.

That’s what makes everything really messy. We live in an era dominated by communications platforms that are so rich, powerful, and pervasive that they seem practically unconstrained by the U.S. government, yet paradoxically still have to court a system that has virtually no regard or respect for them. they Freedom of expression. Trump once He threatened to blow up the entire Internet Because he wanted the platforms to monitor things for him. The CEOs of these companies still treat him with compliments and photo ops.

The blurring of public and private interests has fueled the mirror-mirror idea of ​​a “culture of free expression.” In reality Designed to eliminate freedom of expression. The loudest people who cry over the culture of free speech do so as if they were to them Not the freest ever in history, yet supportive at the same time actual government censorship, Like banning books.

I can’t say it better than Ken White said it, So go and read him on this point. White explains how the “culture of free speech” has encouraged the Trump administration and others to engage in real censorship. “When enough people believe that all freedom of expression — including free speech law — is nonsense, free speech rights will not be enforced,” he writes.

Our Constitution has been challenged by lunatics who profit from confusion about our rights and the rule of law. It doesn’t have to be this way. Just remember: The First Amendment is a limitation government Which prevents He – she from Block your speech.

Furthermore: Actual censorship is government suppression of speech. It’s completely understandable that we feel confused about what censorship is because of how much effort many people have gone to to keep us guessing. A social media platform that moderates your post It’s not censorship – it’s actually freedom of expression. Yes, this seems completely counterintuitive, but it is true. The alternative is a situation in which the government forces ordinary citizens to publish things they do not want to publish, including hate speech.

Much has not been said here, including the history of enormous pain and suffering that has kept the First Amendment and our broader rights alive. I won’t claim to know what the solution to our current mess is, but I will say that I really hate it when our leaders say things like “that’s not who we are” when they speak Specifically about the things that define who we are. Part of our identity is a coalition that claims to want freedom of expression in theory while simultaneously suppressing it in practice.

So what can you do? Yes, of course, vote. But there is a lot to do. Write or call your members of Congress (I promise this is important). Participate in local Elections, especially for school boards, which are on the front lines of book bans. And if you’re reading this, thank you for subscribing — but also consider supporting other newsrooms.