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Free Speech
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What is Free Speech?

Free speech is one of the most debated concepts in political and legal theory, making it a central subject in government, constitutional law, political science, and public policy courses. Its foundations in the First Amendment and the Bill of Rights give it particular significance in American legal study, while its broader application to democratic society raises questions that cross disciplinary boundaries. Students are drawn to the topic because it sits at the intersection of individual rights, government authority, and social harm — tensions that courts, legislatures, and institutions continually struggle to resolve.

The papers archived here approach free speech from several distinct angles. Constitutional and legal analysis is especially common, with essays examining First Amendment interpretation, landmark cases such as Morse v. Frederick and the Westboro Church case, and how the Supreme Court has defined the boundaries of protected expression. Comparative and policy-oriented approaches also appear, including discussions of free speech frameworks in European courts and debates over whether universities should regulate or ban speech through formal codes. Some papers focus on digital contexts, exploring content controls and unrestricted expression in cyberspace.

A strong essay on free speech needs a clearly scoped thesis that takes a position rather than simply surveying the law. Evidence drawn from specific court rulings, constitutional text, or documented policy outcomes carries the most weight in a government-focused paper. One common pitfall is treating free speech as an absolute principle without engaging seriously with the competing rights and harms that courts and scholars use to justify reasonable limits — that tension is precisely what makes the topic analytically rich.

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Research Paper Doctorate

Why censoring sexist and racist media violates the First Amendment

¶ … Proposition Statement: Even if the media might be racist or sexist in its content, there should not be censorship of the media because of the first amendment.

Research Paper Doctorate

Tolerance as inhibition: examining free speech and understanding in American society

Toleration is generally viewed as the ability to accept the beliefs and ideas of others. In American society toleration is generally seen as a positive characteristic. It incorporates both having empathy for others and…

Essay Doctorate

Alain de Botton's Socratic philosophy and modern moral complacency

This paper is an analysis of The Consolations of Philosophy by Alain de Botton. It focuses on the author's analysis of the death of Socrates. De Bottom argues that philosophy's greatest strength is its ability to question conventional wisdom, given that so many of what we regard as 'truths' are really unspoken cultural assumptions. Socrates became unpopular because of his questioning of the definition of values such as piety, courage and virtue.

Research Paper Doctorate

The Josh Wolf First Amendment case and press freedom

Business Dispute: First Amendment & the Media

Research Paper Doctorate

How pornography promotes sexual violence against women

How Pornography Promotes Sexual Violence Against Women

Research Paper Doctorate

Federal regulation of billboard advertising in America

Billboard Advertising: "Litter on a Stick?"

Essay Doctorate

Injunctive relief and equitable remedies in medical malpractice cases

Equity remedies come from common law jurisdictions and are judge made from previous cases. They are applied to other cases that have some of the same circumstances to aid judges in deciding cases.

Research Paper Doctorate

Commercial speech protections and billboard advertising restrictions

¶ … First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees to us freedom of speech - promises to each citizen and resident of the United States that the government will not tell us what we can or cannot say. Right?

Thesis Undergraduate

John Stuart Mill's libertarianism and the constraints of the U.S. Constitution

None of the issues being raised today by the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement are new, but rather they date back to the very beginning of the United States. At the time the Constitution was written in 1787, human rights and civil liberties were far more constrained than they are in the 21st Century. Only white men with property had voting rights for example, while most states still had slavery and women and children were still the property of fathers and husbands. Only very gradually was the Constitution amended to grant equal citizenship and voting rights to all, and even the original Bill of Rights was added only because the Antifederalists threatened to block ratification. In comparison, the libertarianism of John Stuart Mill in his famous book On Liberty was very radical indeed, even in 1859 much less 1789. He insisted that individuals should be left totally free to do as they pleased so long as they did no harm to others. To that extent, he would have supported the rights of OWS to protest and dissent, and been highly critical of how the authorities were suppressing the movement on the flimsiest of pretexts. As a supporter of free markets, he would also have opposed the trillions in dollars in bailout money that large banks and corporations have received from governments. On the other hand, he probably would have found the ideas of many OWS supporters too radical or socialistic, but at the same time have defended their right to assemble and demonstrate

Thesis Undergraduate

Google's content moderation decision on "Innocence of Muslims" video

It does seem that whenever there has been a lag between legislation and disruptive technology, ethics takes a backseat. Agencies admit that they are years behind where they would like to be—and where consumers think they should be. There has been some movement in the privacy arena as companies doing business on the Web voluntarily participate in programs that give consumers opportunity to opt out of tracking. Categorically speaking, Internet privacy is quite a different animal from freedom of expression on the Internet. Nevertheless, the point is taken that the temporal gap between praxis and regulation is a consistent source of difficulty and a drain on resources. As a globalized economy increasingly turns to professional information workers, the market is being altered by the proliferation of regulations that protect access to creative and intellectual property (Nakamura, 2000). Patents, copyrights, brands, and trademarks are all constructing exclusivity, which is largely temporary, but is monopolistic nonetheless (Nakamura, 2000). This wave of protective instruments is serving to erode unfettered access to markets (Nakamura, 2000).

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