Is Speech Free?

 Rosenberg, Ian.  Free Speech Handbook: A Practical Framework for Understanding Our Free 

          Speech Protections.  Art by Mike Cavallaro.  New York: First Second, 2021.  ISBN:     

          9781250619754 

How much do you know about free speech?  The First Amendment?  What speech is actually free and what is not?  In 2021, Ian Rosenberg wrote The Fight for Free Speech: Ten Cases That Define Our First Amendment Freedoms which as been adapted into a graphic format by First Second Books as the first volume in a series about the US Constitution.

 

In both The Fight for Free Speech and Free Speech Handbook, Ian Rosenberg takes up current events to use as a lens on particular aspects of free speech.  Chapter one opens with the Women's March of 2017 and focuses on the marketplace of ideas.  Chapter two takes kneeling during the Pledge of Allegiance and the history of the Pledge of Allegiance in First Amendment case law.  Chapter three covers the concept of libel vs actual malice and the role this played in the Civil Rights Movement.  Chapter four walks out of school with student speech from the Vietnam War until now.  Chapter five talks Stormy Daniels, prior restraint and the Pentagon Papers.  Chapter six has a flipped-off President and the Draft.  Chapter seven brings up the role of the FCC with Samantha Bee, seven dirty words, and indecency.  Chapter eight powers up parody, Saturday Night Live, and Hustler.  Chapter nine listens to speakers we dislike or hate, the freedom of assembly, and funeral protests.  Chapter ten dives into social media, public parks, and "the Vast Democratic Forums of the Internet."  

 

In these ten chapters, the Afterword, and list of sources, Ian Rosenberg provides a very understandable summary of First Amendment right that we all, I hope, hold dear.  Take a look, pay attention, and practice your free speech rights!