Censorship

FREEDOM OF BELIEF and conscience are essential to democracy; censorship threatens the free exchange of ideas that allows democracy to flourish. English philosopher John Stuart Mill summarized the liberal view of censorship in his essay, “On Liberty” (1869): “If all mankind, minus one were of one opinion, and only one were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing the one than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.” Like Mill, most liberals are afraid that the one person who is silenced might be the one who discovers a universal truth or solves a scientific problem or writes a book, a song, or a poem that will stand the test of time.

The purpose of censorship is always to stop someone from saying, printing, or depicting something that is seen as dangerous or which threatens societal norms. Censors seek to place limits on words, images, ideas, symbols, signs, books, music, and art. The danger in censorship is that the censor sets herself up as the judge of what is permissible and what is not. When government acts as censor by prohibiting criticism of its actions or by blocking the flow of information, it lays the foundation for tyranny. In response to national and state efforts to infringe on civil liberties, the U.S. Supreme Court has become known, sometimes ironically, as the guardians of liberty. The court has cautioned in cases such as FCC v. Pacifica Foundation (438 U.S. 726 438 U.S. 726, 1978) that finding speech offensive is no reason for suppressing it.

The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states, “Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech or of the press.” Yet, by 1789, Congress had passed the first Sedition Act, which prohibited all criticism of the government. During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln rode roughshod over the First Amendment. During World War I, Congress passed the Second Sedition and Espionage Acts, which restricted criticism of the government or of the war effort and established criminal penalties for any speech or writing that was considered “disloyal.”

Efforts to censor speech during World War II centered around the Smith Act of 1940, which established severe penalties for anyone who advocated the overthrow of the government by force or violence. Following World War II, the Cold War and McCarthyism led to the passage of the McCarran or Communist Control Act of 1954 over President Harry Truman's veto, censoring freedom of association by making membership in the Communist Party illegal. During the 1960s, there was an unusual amount of tolerance for free speech that encompassed civil rights, women's rights, the anti-war effort, and student protests. As might be expected, a conservative backlash followed in the 1980s with the election of Ronald Reagan. The religious right launched an all-out effort to censor books, art, web sites, movies, signs, and television programming.

The abortion issue provides an excellent example of what happens when conservatives attempt to limit speech/action with which they disagree. The Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations became so successful in censoring even the use of the word abortion that Congress passed a law banning the use of the word in clinics that received Title X funds. In 1991, in Rust v. Sullivan (500 U.S. 173), the conservative court upheld this limitation on the speech of medical and family planning personnel. President Bill Clinton overturned the case with an executive order, and Congress turned his actions into federal law.

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