Five Ways Free Speech Isn't Free

The battle over free speech -- hatched in the First Amendment to the Bill of Rights more than 200 years ago -- continues to play out around the world in political conventions, courtrooms and the streets of the Middle East, where Libyan demonstrators protesting a U.S.-made anti-Muslim video killed the U.S. ambassador in Beghazi yesterday.

The incident puts into focus the ways different people view speech that can range from merely annoying to blasphemous.

In fact, the meaning of free speech has been evolving over time as the nation's court system has balanced individuals' First Amendment free speech rights with the rights of authorities to maintain order. This battle is most evident during this political season, as protestors complain they're being harassed while candidates say they want to the right to speak without being drowned out.

PHOTOS: Children of the Arab Spring

"The big dividing line is whether the government is trying to control content or just the time, place and manner (of protests)," said Susan Low Bloch, a First Amendment expert and professor at Georgetown University School of Law. "The government has more leeway and latitude when it's regulating time place and manner. It should have no control over content. Certainly political speech is the most protected. That's what the law says."

Still critics are watching new battlegrounds between the rights of the individual versus the government. Here are five ways where free speech is bumping up against authority:

Anti-Muslim images: While cartoons and videos depicting the prophet Mohammed may be protected free speech in the United States, as well as the right to burn the Koran, such activities have provoked Muslims who say it violates, and in fact, blasphemes their religion. Perceived attacks against Islam have led to riots, assassinations and attacks on U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan. U.S. leaders have walked a tightrope, condemning the violent attacks as well as the anti-Muslim images that spawned them. The controversy over the anti-Muslim film produced by an Israeli living in California will likely grow in the coming days as Washington tries to figure out an appropriate response that doesn't make the situation even worse.

Political conventions: Over the past few political conventions, local city and county governments have written more stringent rules that keep protesters far from the sight of convention delegates, rules that are often announced too late for a court challenge before the event. ACLU attorney Ben Wizner says city officials have decided that removing protesters ahead of time is less expensive than the litigation that often follows over First Amendment rights. "Instead of having protests in the same TV shot of the event, they are pushed further and further out for protest zones," Wizner said.

Litigation is still ongoing from the 2004 Republican convention in New York, when hundreds of people were arrested by police. During the 2012 conventions, only 25 were arrested in Charlotte and only two in Tampa, according to the Huffington Post. Foul weather dampened turnout at both locations this year. But think back to past years, where there were bloody riots at the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago, and mass protests at the 1972 Republican convention in Miami.

Occupy Wall Street: Occupy protesters in New York, Washington and dozens of other cities faced legal fights with police and municipal authorities over what kind of "occupation" was legal. In Washington, DC, a judge set ground rules for the protesters and the encampment lasted from October

See the original post here:
Five Ways Free Speech Isn't Free