Overview

A brisk, practical defense of free speech in America's digital public square that calls on the courts to reject the censors' absolutism, enforce enduring First Amendment principles, and restore a vigorous and robust marketplace of ideas. A vast censorship regime has smothered America's digital marketplace of ideas, squelching free speech on vital policy issues ranging from public health to electoral politics. Its supporters regard its benefits as morally and politically beyond question. They contend it's carried out by private social media platforms, not governmental authorities. And they insist their partnership is voluntary, not coerced. In Free Speech and Turbulent Freedom, Michael J. Glennon offers a timely and incisive response. The censors are short-sighted, he argues. Quibbling over outdated distinctions misses the real threat--which is the fusion of public and private power into a modern-day cartel able to overleap longstanding constitutional safeguards. American democracy, he argues, rests on a decentralized marketplace of ideas independent of the government. In crisp, trenchant terms, Glennon shows how concrete practical concerns justify protecting admittedly harmful online speech--even speech that advocates violence or embraces hatred or apparent falsehood. The intellectual journey of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. from absolutist to skeptic, he suggests, illuminates the value of political pluralism and the perils of the censors' delusory certitude. To safely self-correct, democracy requires open channels of political communication. Glennon calls on the courts to unblock those channels--to measure such speech against enduring First Amendment precepts rather than pliable international norms--and to protect the speech interests not merely of the government and Big Tech, but of all participants in the marketplace of ideas. That includes what's often overlooked: Americans' right to hear. Without robust judicial protection, the specious attractions of censorship--and the absolutist certitude that drives it--will destroy America's marketplace of ideas and, with it, any hope of political self-renewal.

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9780197636763

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Reviews

Michael Glennon's beautifully written book provides a compelling case for protecting freedom of speech when many are expressing doubts about it. Although his arguments for safeguarding expression are timeless, he brilliantly addresses the pressing issues of our time, especially with regard to speech over the internet and social media. * Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean, University of California, Berkeley School of Law * Michael Glennon lays out powerful, historically-grounded, practical arguments that our robust First Amendment free speech principles best protect the safety of society and democracy-showing the urgency of invoking time-tested First Amendment tenets to curb the massive online speech restrictions that Big Tech has been implementing in collaboration with Big Government. A persuasive refutation of burgeoning claims that we should sacrifice free speech for the sake of such concerns as public health, electoral integrity, and national security. * Nadine Strossen, John Marshall Harlan II Professor of Law Emerita, New York Law School, and past President, American Civil Liberties Union (1991-2008) *

Author Information

Michael J. Glennon is Professor of Constitutional and International Law at Tufts University's Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. Before entering teaching, he was the Legal Counsel to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He is the author or co-author of ten books, including National Security and Double Government (OUP, 2014) and Constitutional Diplomacy (Princeton, 1990). His op-ed pieces have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, International Herald Tribune, Financial Times, and Frankfurt Allgemeine Zeitung.

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