Where does the first amendment right to freedom of speech fit into the discussion?
Llewellyn: Restricting access to a book is precluding the person’s right to even know that an idea exists. Short of chemically or electronically tampering with someone’s brain function, restricting access is the most sweeping restriction possible. Without protection for rights of inquiry in order to form one’s opinions, the mere freedom to express opinions is window-dressing. Ettin: Perhaps this helps us answer the question about the tree that falls in the forest when nobody is around to hear. If you are allowed to publish your opinions but I am prohibited from reading them, do your words make a sound? Or do you merely have the “right” to voice them to the empty air? Llewellyn: Freedom of speech gains its importance in a democracy when coupled with a parallel freedom of inquiry. Those two principles together create a climate for constructive discourse in which an agreeable social reality can be fashioned. Why is it important that viewpoints that incite hatred or propagate lies be heard
