We are living in the most dangerous anti-free speech period in our history: Jonathan Turley

I'm proud that I have put forward a detailed plan to smash the censorship and industrial complex and restore free speech in America. We respect and protect fundamental rights of free speech to protest peacefully. That's America. But there's no place in any campus in America, any place in America for anti-Semitism, for hate speech that threatens violence of any kind against Jews or anyone else. Let's not talk about free speech. But many people are concerned about threats to free speech in our country. Tonight we're going to talk about that with George Washington University law professor. Fox News contributor Jonathan Turley is the author of a new book, The Indispensable Right, Free Speech in an Age of Rage. It's on sale right now. Jonathan, Congrats on the book. Thank you. What's the elevator pitch here? We talk about free speech all the time, and it is under attack. It is under attack and indeed what the books argues is that we are living in the most dangerous anti free speech. In our history and the question is why we continue to struggle with free speech. And the book goes back and looks at the very founding of the Republic when framers had a truly revolutionary idea that free speech really adheres to us as human beings. It's not just because we're citizens, it's because we need free speech to be fully human. That view was lost within a few years of the Adams administration, which became, until the Biden administration, the most anti free speech administration in history. I think President Biden is rivaling that record. We have the largest censorship system in history, but more importantly, we have this alliance of government, corporations, media and academia and all supporting censorship, blacklisting and other forms of limitations. And this book looks at that history and and why we continue to struggle with what Brandeis called the indispensable right. I mean, you spend time at a college and a university. We've seen these protests now all over the country, and they really fit in the timing of this book about speech and protecting it and where we stand, where colleges and universities stand. Yeah, I have never really, well, I never really imagined I would see what I now see on campuses. It has become an orthodox, unforgiving and intolerant place. Academics and and journalists used to be the defenders of free speech. So did the Democratic Party. It's now become in come really in vogue to be anti free speech, to say free speech is harmful. It has to be curtailed. There's a movement to rewrite the 1st Amendment because one law professor said it's excessively individualistic. Those are popular views now on campus. And this book sort of sort of how we got here. I mean, why is it that this indispensable right seems so dispensable for others? Why do we call it indispensable? You know, in the middle of all of this, there is an upcoming Supreme Court ruling on a case that's coming up. Just we expect either the 20th, the 21st, when the Supreme Court comes out. This is Moody versus Net Choice LLC and Paxson, and it deals with the issue of free speech and what is protected under the First Amendment, whether the federal government efforts to combat disinformation online violates free speech rights of users on social media platforms. And this goes really right to the heart of what we're dealing with on the high tech side. It does. The question is whether the court is going to take that issue straight on or whether it's going to try to take an off ramp. The oral argument was not very clear on that point, but you're absolutely right. It encapsulates much of this problem we have, this alliance I talked about and a system of censorship that's that's funded in part through the government, organized, directed in part through the government. And one federal judge called it Orwellian. And it is. And many citizens don't like it. And that's the one positive aspect that, you know, I tell the stories of people who put their lives at risk to fight for free speech and all of our periods of rage. But there is one constant here, and that citizens don't like censorship. They still don't. It's in our DNA. And So what this book really tries to do is to see if there is this common article of faith that we can still gather around despite all of our political divisions, that this defines us in a way that we can't lose it. And I think that there is common ground there. I like that word, Common ground book cover. And it's a great book. Indispensable, right? Free speech in an age of rage. Jonathan, Congrats. Thank you, Brad.