e of a nuisance than a major threat. The situation is not much different in most other industrialized nations.
The First Amendment provision against "abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press" is the foundation of protection of free expression in the US. Its interpretation by the courts has evolved over the years, and I will discuss only what I believe are the fundamental aspects. The basic idea is that there should be no content-based legal impediments to the expression of our opinions, thoughts and feelings.
But there can be constraints arising other from other considerations. For example, one could not reasonably claim the right to operate a loudspeaker, after midnite, in a quiet residential neighborhood, regardless of the subject matter of the speech. More problematic is the issue of unsolicited political phone calls, particularly robotic calls. This is a difficult, as yet unresolved, issue.
Handing out leaflets on a public street is generally considered an important enough political activity to justify the relatively minor nuisance effect. But, along with such activities as picketing, and door-to-door soliciting, this is a complex legal matter [FindLaw]. One key consideration is that the contents of a non-commercial message not be used as legal grounds for restricting distribution.
Commercial speech is quite another matter. Unsolicited phone calls offering products for sale can be legally banned without conflict with the First Amendment. An offer to sell someone the Brooklyn Bridge is not an instance of protected free speech. Nor is a cigarette ad, or a deceptive advertisement of a pharmaceutical product.
Utterances such as, "Hand over your wallet or I'll cut your throat", are also not protected. But, a statement such as, "doctors who perform abortions ought to be killed", or even, "Abortion doctor Smith ought to be killed", fall under the heading of expressions of opinion, which constitute protected speech. However, pointing across the street to Dr. Smith and calling out to a crowd, "Kill that baby murderer!", is an instance of incitement to imminent violence, clearly grounds for criminal prosecution.
A very important, thorny, issue raised by the Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United case [Wikipedia-Cit] is whether contributions to election campaign funds by labor unions, non-profit corporations, and for-profit corporations should be treated as a form of expression protected by the First Amendment. Along with the thorny issue of general regulation of contributions to election campaign funds, this is a matter on which there is no consensus among civil libertarians. Rather than double the length of this essay, I plan to treat these problems in a future essay
Everybody is in favor of allowing the free expression of ideas that they sympathize with, or, at least do not consider harmful. Real advocates of civil liberties oppose suppression even of ideas that they consider most abhorrent. They believe that the proper response to such speech is counterargument.
An excellent example of this attitude was the 1970's Skokie, Illinois case [ACLU]. A group of American Nazis planned to march in uniform, complete with swastikas, thru a street in a town with a substantial Jewish population. An injunction was issued to prohibit the march in order to spare the feelings of the residents, particularly the many holocaust survivors include among them. The ACLU, on First Amendment grounds, succeeded in getting the injunction overturned by the Supreme Court. This victory cost the ACLU some 30,000 members, but is considered to be a landmark case defining the organization's principles.
The flourishing of free speech in the US is due to the fact that it is one of the few political principles that is supported by substantial numbers of Americans who agree on very little else [Malik]. It is also true that that efforts to suppress free speech for various reasons have been made by people with very diverse political views. Fortunately, the supporters have, thus far, prevailed.
ACLU>, "ACLU History", ACLU
David Carr, "Blurred Line Be