I can’t imagine what it’s like to go to law school or even teach law school these days.

As a former history teacher, Constitutional Law was my favourite class when I was in law school. I took as many Con law related classes as were offered. The case law at that time defined, as the Supreme Court saw its obligations, was settled and new cases that demanded new interpretations of the Constitution were decided in a political vacuum.

The classic example of the apoliitical nature of the Supreme Court was the Warren Court.

Earl Warren had been the Republican Governor of California before his appointment to the bench as Chief Justice by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, also a Republican. That however did not affect the jurisprudence of the new Chief Justice.

Brown v The Board of Education and Miranda v Arizona are only two of the Court’s decisions that revolutionzed Ameerican law during Warren’s tenure.

I am not going to bother writing about the current court.

However, given the state of affairs in which we find ourselves where it is impossible to predict which rights we have and those that are being taken away, I would like to address the Firt Amendment to The Constitution particularly as it applies to free speech.

Like all rights (except those mentioned in the Second Amendment) the right to Free Speech is not limitless. The famous line by Oliver Wendell Homes explained that the First Amendment is not absolute by using the analogy of yelling fire in a crowded theater. The notion that free speech doesn’t extend to causing physical harm. (But I always asked: Are we not allowed, are we not duty bound to alert the people in the theater when there is a fire?)

Anyway, the first amendment is not absolute.

However, the purpose of the first amendment is clearly that of protectin unpopular speech. Pornography is protected. The marches of hate inspired groups are allowed to protest just as Civil Rights workers and anti war demonstrators.

You may not like what any of these groups have to say but that is the point of thte First Amendment. We all have the right to speak our mind so long as we do not cause physical harm or incite others to do so.

So late night TV hosts can offer us political satire just as Fox News can say what they say. Trying to bully the media by threatening to cancel television stations licenses or preventing corporate activities should be unconstitutional but we know this court doesn’t have the stomach to even read the Constitution never mind apply its tenets.

I am not sure where these justices (or our politicians) went to school but they should bring a suit based on educational malfeasance.