Margaret Sullivan, Washington Post - What’s the state of free speech in America?
Sanford Ungar, who teaches about it at Harvard and Georgetown, has a simple, depressing answer.
“It’s a mess,” he says.
It’s not just the problems on college campuses where high-profile speakers haven’t been allowed to talk. It’s not just what happened in Charlottesville, where a counter-protester was run over and killed. It’s not just President Trump’s insistent call for the firings or suspensions of NFL players who take a knee during the national anthem to protest police violence.
An insidious problem also is developing in dozens of states where legislatures are considering — and sometimes approving — new laws that restrict free speech.
“They are criminalizing things that are pretty routine,” Ungar told me. “Much of the activism of the Vietnam and civil rights era would be completely illegal” under the new laws.
The lunch-counter sit-ins that were a staple of civil rights protests in the ’60s would, under some new legislation, be punishable because they “disrupt commerce.” And the demonstrations that brought thousands into the streets of major cities to protest the Vietnam War would be a crime because they blocked traffic.
Twenty-seven states have considered such legislation, he said. Twelve bills have become law, and many others remain under consideration.
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