First Amendment

The Bill of Rights gets free speech right. Unlike Canadians and Europeans, I fear government regulation of speech more than all the jerks who are offensive with it. It's only a matter of time before an administration or a bureaucracy chooses self-protection over liberty. Given a third term, the Bushists might well trim the edges of free speech further than free speech zones and Ari Fleischer warnings.

I'm not interested in restricting robust dialog because it might hurt the feelings of someone who needs a thicker skin. We've seen hypersensitivity from just about everyone at one time or another from fundie Christians to Muslims, from feminists to conservative men who are tired of having their penis-centrism mocked, from Confederate sympathizers to respect-hungry rappers.

Adapted from a comment on this Philosoraptor thread.