No President or Party Can Erase Free Speech: How the First Amendment Protects Public Forums

January 29, 2025

Just ten days ago, President Trump signed an Executive Order purporting to restore Free Speech and decried government overreach. It said “The First Amendment to the United States Constitution, an amendment essential to the success of our Republic, enshrines the right of the American people to speak freely in the public square without Government interference.

Over the last 4 years, the previous administration trampled free speech rights by censoring Americans’ speech on online platforms, often by exerting substantial coercive pressure on third parties, such as social media companies, to moderate, deplatform, or otherwise suppress speech that the Federal Government did not approve.”

Yet today, he signed another Executive Order to “combat antisemitism” that tramples on the rights of students and other activists who engage in pro-Palestinian demonstrations.

This latest move that is right in line with the Republican National Platform is a blatant attempt to do what he accused the Biden administration of doing – suppressing unpopular speech that the government disagrees with. Let us not forget the 1969 landmark Supreme Court case of Tinker v. Des Moines that enshrined a right to free speech over just such a topic – ending U.S. involvement in an unpopular war.

We cannot allow our government to vilify speech and violate constitutional rights through strongarm policies under the guise of national security.

The First Amendment protects our right to Free Speech in public forums that can not be erased by a U.S. president or political party.

Kate Brady | MLFA Immigration Litigation Department Head