Law Commons^™

The First Amendment At Home And Abroad, Pnina Lahav

Faculty Scholarship

The powerful appeal of the First Amendment flows from the rhetoric it has inspired. Holmes's "[W]hen men have realized that time has upset many fighting faiths, they may come to believe ... that the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market"; Brandeis's " ... the greatest menace to freedom is an inert people; ... order cannot be secured merely through fear of punishment for its infraction; ... it is hazardous to discourage thought, hope and imagination; fear breeds repression; ... repression breeds hate; ... hate menaces stable …