Democracy and the Problem of Free Speech - Paperback

by Cass R. Sunstein (Author)

Freedom of speech is one of our greatest legal rights and Cass Sunstein is one of our greatest legal theorists. This book is a must read for anyone who wants to think seriously about the free speech issues facing this generation.
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Akhil Amar, Southmayd Professor, Yale Law School

This is an important book. Beautifully clear and carefully argued, Sunstein's contribution reaches well beyond the confines of academic debate. It will be of interest to any citizen concerned about freedom of speech and the current state of American democracy.
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Joshua Cohen, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

How can our constitutional protection of free speech serve to strengthen democracy? Cass Sunstein challenges conventional answers with a remarkable array of lucid arguments and legal examples. There is no better book on the subject.
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Amy Gutmann, Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor, Princeton University

Back Jacket

The right to free speech is invoked to protect an astonishing range of activities, a range that seems to expand every day. Newspapers publish the names of rape victims, flags are burned, pornography flourishes, and all of these controversial actions are protected under the constitutional right of free speech. The Supreme Court increasingly decides disputes by invoking the First Amendment. Civil libertarians, former antiwar protesters, and tobacco advertisers join revisionist conservatives in attacking almost all forms of censorship, extending the search to the farthest reaches of commercial and symbolic speech. In short, we are in the midst of a revolution of absolutist interpretations of free expression. The absolutists are misguided, argues Cass Sunstein. Our government now protects speech that causes harm yet forbids speech that is essential, he says. Instead, we should conceive of free speech first and foremost as a means to achieve civic deliberation and true popular sovereignty. Building on James Madison, Sunstein proposes a "New Deal" for the first Amendment, a new interpretation that attacks undifferentiated absolutism and replaces it with a vision of responsible public life. Sunstein examines broadcasting, campaign finance, hate speech, pornography, government art funding, commercial speech, and the privacy of rape victims. He insists that political speech, essential for the functioning of any democracy, must not only be protected, but encouraged. If the government, say were to use broadcasting markets to encourage attention to public issues and diverse points of view, the First Amendment would not stand in the way. Nonpolitical speech, on the other hand, should be less fullyprotected when it conflicts with other interests and rights such as that of privacy. Democracy cannot achieve its full potential with a stunted public discourse. Instant polls and 900 numbers may seem to increase political participation, but they are no substitute for reasoned and careful public deliberation. In Democracy and the Problem of Free Speech, Cass Sunstein points the way toward a renewal of American democracy and a reaffirmation of political equality.

Author Biography

Cass R. Sunstein is the nation's most-cited legal scholar who, for the past fifteen years, has been at the forefront of behavioral economics. From 2009 to 2012, he served as the administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. Since that time, he has served in the US government in multiple capacities and worked with the United Nations and the World Health Organization, where he chaired the Technical Advisory Group on Behavioral Insights and Sciences for Health during the COVID-19 pandemic. He is the Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard Law School. His book Nudge, coauthored with Richard Thaler, was a national bestseller. In 2018, he was the recipient of the Holberg Prize from the government of Norway, sometimes described as equivalent of the Nobel Prize for law and the humanities. He lives in Boston and Washington, DC, with his wife, children, and labrador retrievers.