Saturday, August 30, 2008

More Background

This, I fervently hope, will be familiar:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

In other classes, some of you have heard me make a distinction between rights (obligations of government) and liberties (restrictions upon government), and I've observed that the Bill of Rights is largely, in fact, an articulation of liberties, not of rights. So -- if we align ourselves with Stewart and Tocqueville (see below), does the Constitution permit any formal obligation upon media (see The Fairness Doctrine), or must we allow the market to be the ultimate arbiter? Or are there other options?

[posted bumbed up for your reading and thinking pleasure for Wednesday's class]

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