From "Readers React" in the NYT today

"Free speech is a privilege."

Uh, nope.

 

A right granted to us by our government, or is it an inalienable right, bestowed on us by a benevolent Creator?

 

The comment is probably written by the same type of people who hold "Get government out of Medicare" signs.

 

Many people, deep down, hate freedom and democracy. They like being told what to do, and they LOVE watching other people being forced to do things. They've been polling this since polls began, and nothing in the Bill of Rights ever gets majority support.

 

Rights are not absolute.

 

To say a right is a privilege shows a vast ignorance of what rights are.

 

For example, the right to free speech doesn't include the right to pitch tents and sleep in a (private) park/plaza.

 

I'm quoting Mayor Bloomberg's statement yesterday.

"No right is absolute . . ."

www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/15/michael-bloomberg-statement-zuccotti-park

 

Fortunately, the right to peaceably assemble is in the Bill of Rights. I believe that includes pitching tents in a public park to protest a sense of oppression.

 

There's the rub (in part) - Zuccotti Park is privately owned public space.

 

By that argument, it would be illegal to kick out a homeless person from a park if they are just sleeping or loitering.

 

So Bloomberg is correct. Freedom of speech is not absolute. The Supreme Court writes that same sentence into almost every First Amendment decision it renders. For example, there are hearsay restrictions in a Court of law. That's a restriction on free speech. You can't picket behind the president during the State of the Union address. That's a restriction on free speech. You can't price-fix. That's a restriction on free speech.

But that is a loooooooooong way from calling it a "privilege."

It is not a privilege.

It is a right.