Anyone paying attention already knows that the left thinks the First Amendment goes too far. And by going too far, they mean letting conservatives share their opinions and hamstringing the government’s ability to crack down on speech they don’t like.
And they have no problem, or shame sharing, this publicly for all the world to see.
Tim Wu, a Columbia law professor who served on the National Economic Council during both the Obama and Biden administrations, wrote an op-ed for The New York Times literally titled “The First Amendment is Out of Control.”
His piece argues that American judges have twisted the First Amendment into “an all-purpose tool of legislative nullification that now mostly protects corporate interests.”
He writes, “Monday’s Supreme Court decision in the two NetChoice cases” have added to complications with the First Amendment by viewing social media company algorithms as equivalent to “expressive decisions made by human editors at newspapers.”
To leftists like Wu, the First Amendment has outlived its usefulness and purpose because it can’t silence speech he doesn’t like. He sees 1A as a “barrier” to government action and overreach.
Isn’t that a good thing?
It seems as if Wu is trying to place the blame of censorship on the algorithms and not the far-left employees who made the technology biased or the politicians who have been caught ordering companies to censor certain information.
One sentence in Wu’s article gets to the bottom of his real fear, which his that the overgrown U.S. bureaucracy may soon be trimmed down.
The ex-government official wrote, “The judiciary needs to realize that the First Amendment is spinning out of control. It is beginning to threaten many of the essential jobs of the state, such as protecting national security and the safety and privacy of its citizens.”
Wu continues, “Nearly any law that has to do with the movement of information can be attacked in the name of the First Amendment.”
Apparently, Wu does not like that the First Amendment places restrictions on the government and their efforts to use the power of the state to control what people can say and hear. Because how can you control what people think and do if you don’t control access to the information they are “allowed” to hear?
The government is already out of control in its attempts to control the information the American people have access to.
Last week, in a stunning 6-3 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Biden Administration’s policy of deleting, suppressing, and deplatforming specific people, topics, and ideas is immune from suit, leaving no one able to challenge it in court.
In addition, Justice Coney Barrett let the government off the hook for the censorship regime the government created and maintained. A regime that suppressed information on Hunter Biden’s laptop, on voter fraud in the 2020 election and information on Covid’s origins, the dangers of the Covid vaccine, the truth about treatment options, the true science behind masking, lockdowns and mandates, just to name a few.
But the First Amendment is out of control?
Wu’s piece hit a nerve.
The New York Times is attacking *your* freedom of speech! pic.twitter.com/TRIa13TWdY
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 2, 2024
Tim Wu’s beef with a First Amendment “spinning out of control”: too much speech of the wrong sort. Even as Wu praises judicial decisions that made room for “dissenters” and protected “robust political debate,” he pushes sweeping rationales for censorship. https://t.co/3SSo7davR5
— Jacob Sullum (@jacobsullum) July 2, 2024
The New York Times: The Times pledged “to give the news impartially, without fear or favor, regardless of party, sect, or interests involved.”
Also The New York Times: The First Amendment Is Out Of Control pic.twitter.com/zAsFJrhd19
— Kevin Dalton (@TheKevinDalton) July 2, 2024
The side that claims to be protecting democracy wants to cancel elections, drone their political opponents, and thinks the First Amendment is bad. pic.twitter.com/Fst4oHj4rw
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) July 2, 2024
