Lying is an epidemic in America. We need an amendment enforcing political and social lying as a criminal offense. There are people who will scream that lying is free speech. But it is not. That opinion is a perversion of the founding fathers’ intent of free speech. They created the 1st amendment to allow themselves the expression of opposing views without punishment. When they established the amendment, it was primarily to protect themselves from retribution for their political, religious and social opinions and beliefs. The 1st amendment was not created to protect the practice of lying, misrepresentation through distorted facts or outright untruths for personal gain.
The founding fathers wanted freedom to express dissatisfaction with the government, to express the beliefs of their chosen religion and to comment on social wrongs without legal backlash. It was not meant to allow lying about neighbors, attacking religions through misrepresentation or presenting alternative facts for personal agendas and gain.
Americans should know their history and the foundational principles of this country. Permitting lying as freedom of speech has created chaos in this country. Lying is wrong. It is irrelevant that so many established entities have embraced lying as a means of furthering their cause or increasing their profits. Lying is wrong. It is destructive. It is time to correct the illusion that lying is freedom of speech. It is not.
One of the most well-known constitutional rights, freedom of speech essentially means that government entities cannot restrict a person’s ability to express their opinions or ideas. Nor can the government retaliate against someone based on what they say.
However, free speech does have its limits. For example, in Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969), the Supreme Court held that inciting a crowd to violence was not protected speech.
The Supreme Court’s approach to free speech cases has also evolved along with the nation. For example, in Schenck v. United States (1919), the court held that the government could infringe on a person’s free speech if they were a “clear and present danger” to the nation’s security.
Jefferson’s Bill sets out four reasons why government can make no law that constrains our freedom of speech, conscience, or opinion… Free speech is necessary for the discovery of truth and the rejection of falsehood… Jefferson concludes his Religious Freedom Bill with words expressing his unshakeable faith in the power of reasoned deliberation to distinguish truth from error.
The Founding Fathers intended freedom of speech to be a robust right, allowing for open public discourse and criticism of the government, even if it sometimes included controversial or unpopular opinions, but they did not intend for this to protect outright lies, especially when they caused demonstrable harm to individuals or society; they believed that the marketplace of ideas would ultimately reveal the truth through open debate.
On Being Human 