Series Editor: Corey Brettschneider

NEW PENGUIN CLASSICS SERIES: Penguin Liberty is a timely and relevant new series that will give readers historic context to issues of constitutional rights. The six titles include On Impeachment: The Presidency on Trial and Decisions and Dissents of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg: A Selection for Fall 2020, and for Spring 2021: Classic Supreme Court Cases (9780525506812), Free Speech (9780143135159), Hamilton (9780143135128), and Religious Freedom (9780143135142).

FREE SPEECH IS ALWAYS CONTROVERSIAL AND NEWSWORTHY: From hate speech to obscenity, burning flags to armbands, the interpretation of speech rights under the First Amendment, including when and where speech is protected and/or limited, is an essential and controversial part of American liberty.

COREY BRETTSCHNEIDER, SERIES EDITOR: Corey Brettschneider is professor of constitutional law and politics at Brown and Fordham and author of The Oath and Office: A Guide to the Constitution for Future Presidents. He has written for The New York Times, Politico, Washington Post, TIME, and The Guardian, and is featured frequently in opinion pieces for NBC News online and on CNN's broadcast.

FOR PENGUIN CIVIC CLASSICS READERS: The Penguin Liberty series is great for readers of The Penguin Guide to the U.S. Constitution and the Penguin Civic Classics series both edited by Richard Beeman and Impeachment: A Citizen's Guide by Cass R. Sunstein.

Series Introduction by Corey Brettschneider

Introduction by Corey Brettschneider

A Note on the Text

FREE SPEECH

Part I: Frameworks of Free Speech
U.S. Constitution Speech or Debate Clause, Art. 1 Sec. 6, and First Amendment (1787)
On Liberty, by John Stuart Mill (1859)
Free Speech and Its Relation to Self-Government, by Alexander Meiklejohn (1948)
Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969)

Part II: The Press
The Alien Act (1798)
The Sedition Act (1798)
The Virginia Resolution—Alien and Sedition Acts (1798)
The Kentucky Resolution—Alien and Sedition Acts (1799)
New York Times Company v. Sullivan (1964)

Part III: Race and Gender
“Plea for Freedom of Speech in Boston,” by Frederick Douglass (1860)
“Lynch Law in All Its Phases,” by Ida B. Wells (1893)
“Model Antipornography Civil Rights Ordinance,” by Catherine MacKinnon (1983)
“If He Hollers Let Him Go,” by Charles Lawrence (1990)
Virginia v. Black (2003)

Part IV: Security and Wartime
Schenck v. United States (1919)
Abrams v. United States (1919)

Acknowledgments

Unabridged Source Materials