How Is Liberty Balanced with Order?
Although the United States has provided more freedom to its residents for a longer time than any other nation in the world, it constantly struggles with how to balance liberty and order. How does it do this? First, generally rights are not absolute and can be compromised if there are very important reasons for doing so. The First Amendment is the one constitutional provision that seems to be written in absolute language; it says that Congress shall make “no law” abridging the free exercise of religion or the freedom of speech or the press. But this provision never has been deemed absolute. Almost a century ago, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes explained that the First Amendment surely does not protect a right to shout fire in a crowded theater. Thus, the Supreme Court has crafted an elaborate body of rules concerning when the government can regulate speech. For example, the court has ruled that there is no First Amendment protection for speech that incites violence or that is obscene or t
