Valuing the Freedom of Expression (Blog Post #3)

The Forgotten Check and Balance

            When Checks and Balanced is mentioned, what may come to mind are the three Branches of Government: The Judicial, Legislative, and Executive Branch. The purpose was to separate the powers of the branches stopping one branch from overpowering the other branches creating an equal system. This system was first developed by an 18 century Philosopher Montesquieu.  But what if I were to tell you that there was one more “branch” a part of the checks and balanced system, the people…sort of. This is a value of free expression and is a theory called “Check on Governmental Power".

    Out of the eight values of free expression this theory touched me the most because it conceptualizes that the people have a bigger part in controlling the government that what is thought to be. Similar to the Judicial Branch and how they call out unconstitutional actions, we as people can call out certain politicians for being inhuman and or unconstitutional. Through the press we can release articles documenting and informing others about certain abused powers that the government may have contributed too. Following this we as a society could act and could call upon certain procedures to occur in the government to fix this inequality or abusive behavior. Such as electing a new official to replace the corrupt one. While this may not always work as sometimes even the people are split on an action to occur, it is incredibly comforting to know that while it may not seem like it all the time, we play a big role in dictating our governments place in our society.

Words of Power

            According to Vincent Blasi a free speech theorist and historian, “freedoms of speech and press is to check the abuse of power by public officials”. I full heatedly agree with Vincent because if the government abuses power (and that includes any of the branches) we as a society need to be able to speak out against it and hold them accountable. There are many cases, where abuse of power occurs and when the people try to speak out against it their
are censored. This might not be the best example, but the Schenckv. United States court case is an example of a censorship of the first amendment. The court ruled in favor of the United States due to the fact that Schenck’s release of press that went against the government created “substantive evil” that went against the congress thus they had every right to prevent. This ruling had stripped Schenck of his first amendment right of freedom of press and speech. halting him from spreading information he had to the public. 

 

             However, I feel as though this theory is taken a bit too far at times. Take the most recent headlining riots. In 2021, the Washingtonin an attempt to halt or at the very least slow down the counting/announcement of the electoral vote for the 2020 presidential election. While it began as a peaceful protest outside the capital, with the people respectfully utilizing their first amendment to call out what they thought to be injustice. It quickly evolved into a violent riot. They had broken into the capital harming many officers as well as other participants of the protest. They stole, broke, and vandalized a sacred building to our country to send a message to the government. This is something I completely disagree with and it not at all the right way to call out the government. This is one of the main reasons that many don’t agree with the theory that the people should be a part of the check system. 

 

(This is an image of the riot outside of the capital)

However, if we were to change our perspective, the ability to protest the government and call them out or at the bare minimum call attention to the abuse in their system is incredibly beneficial. If enough eyes get on the subject than the problem cannot just remain existent, it must be delt with. Thus, if we are thinking about the “Check on Governmental Power” theory and put it into context with the people working alongside the government as the branches do, instead of against the government. Then the people have a massive role to play in establishing a fair and just system.

The Freedom to Express Yourself

            While the “Check on Governmental Power” is my personal favorite of the eight theories because it is an aspect of the freedom of expression that is often taken advantage of and use in a very poorly manner. There were a few other theories that had sparked my interest. To begin the seventh theory stating “promote innovation” is a theory that is definitely important to me. It means that the people can become more and more creative with their thoughts allowing certain areas of progress to be made. A government that purely promotes innovation however would be difficult to control as new ideas on how certain things should be dealt with would constantly be floating around.

    Finally, another theory that peaked my interested as it surprised me how relevant it is in our society the first theory “Marketplace of Ideas”. This theory puts truth and false into a metaphorical fight pit until one makes it out alive to the public. In a society where all of this information is being bounced around, it can be reliving to know that the truth will come out on top. However, this theory also has its downside. Take the long war that has raged on: Evolution vs Creation, these two have fought for many years trying to disprove one another while proving themselves to be the truth. But unfortunately, it is impossible really for one to come out over the other and yet because of the Marketplace of Ideas, people have the freedom to continuously argue their side. Never to see a conclusion to the argument.

Multiverse of Expression

            At the end of the day all it is amazing that we as a society have created such an intricate system that offers us so many ways to express our freedom to the public. Furthermore, they all come from the single most important amendment: the first amendment. These theories we have derived from the first amendment provide us with ideas of how we should handle/interpret our freedom of expression.

Question Corner

How do you think we should handle our freedom of expression?