But what does it mean?
Free speech is a huge and complicated topic because there are so
many contexts in which free speech might be implicated.
We've got to decide what counts as speech, for one thing.
How about political contribution?
Burning a flag or a draft card?
Nude dance, music?
Abstract art?
Yes, the Supreme Court says to all those things.
Speech ends up being defined very broadly.
Anything that could in any way convey an idea or
emotion can count as speech, so the armband counts.
And not just political speech, but speech on any topic.
Because speech is an essential right.
It defines who you are.
Here's Justice Anthony Kennedy with more.
>> It's who you are.
We define ourselves by what we say, by what we read,
by what we think, by what he hear, by what we sing, by what we pray.
This is who we are.
This is our self definition.
And we define ourselves, the government does not define us.
>> Which again, just makes things harder.
Because it increases the number of situations in which the government might
restrain speech.
The other thing that increases the number of situations,
where free speech issues come up, is the growth of the government.
We're going to see this again with the religion clauses of the First Amendment.
The general issue is this, it means one thing to
say that the government can't restrain speech when the government is small.
When it doesn't do much.