If that sounds like a bizarre standard for which views you should and should not be allowed to express, that's because it is.
During the founding era, the right to free speech was understood much more narrowly than it is today. Something as simple as swearing or voicing unpopular political opinions might land you on the wrong side of the law.
If rules from the 1790s were enforced today, citizens could be jailed for criticizing politicians, public figures could freely use defamation law to punish critics and schoolchildren would have few if any free speech rights.
Recently, Judge Kevin Newsom of the Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit said it would be terrific if courts started asking what the freedom of speech' meant to the founders.
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