Should taxpayer money be used to fund private school vouchers? Is the state-sanctioned killing of the mentally retarded constitutional? Is a federally-sponsored affirmative action program for contractors violative of the fourteenth amendment?
These are just a few of the issues facing our High Brethren this time around. So I started wondering what the Supremes would do faced with the task of deciding a Free Speech case in today's environment.
There has been much hubbub over comments made by various in-the-spotlight individuals. Some have lost jobs over their expressions. Granted, an employer can typically fire his or her employee for any reason, save race, age or gender. And, of course, that's not really the point.
How much do we - Americans - value the First Amendment? And, does that value diminish depending on our circumstances?
Justice Hugo Black once remarked in a dissent that the "First Amendment's command -that Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press - shows that the men who drafted our Bill of Rights did all the balancing that was to be done in this field."
He did, however, make allowances for speech as a factor in criminal conduct. And, there are other exceptions, such as perjury, fraud and blackmail, which are not constitutionally protected.
What about opinion or political speech? Not many would disagree that this is the bench mark for protected speech.
The Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 - designed to suppress criticism of the government at a time when war with France was impending - and the Smith Act, also aimed at curbing government disapproval, were supposed to be lessons for our freedoms today.
But did we really learn anything? So many people are going through a difficult time right now and we hear so much about unity and patriotism. All good. Yet we can go too far under the banner of unity. To a point where it is simply irrational.
Should difficult times equate with the denunciation of an opinion that differs from that of the powers-that-be? Or an ordinary citizen, for that matter.
It truly saddens me that in times like these, rather than defending and rallying around that special document known as the Bill of Rights, we admonish one another for living it.
The Bill of Rights is more than just words on a piece of paper. Those words mean something. That document is who we are.
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