You Either Support and Defend Free Speech, Or You Don't

Plausibly Live - The Dave Bowman Show Podcast · Mar 6, 2023 · 22m

In 1798, less than a full decade after the ratification of the Constitution and just eight years after the Bill of Rights, the President of the United States, signed into law the Sedition Act of 1798. It was, simply put, one of the most egregious and appalling laws ever passed by the Congress of the United States, signed by a President AND it was upheld by the Supreme Court. It was proof of almost everything that the anti-Federalists had predicted. It nearly severed the nation.

It was born from mass hysteria and bruised ego.

You might hope that cooler heads prevailed and the law was repealed…