It’s time for ‘Open Mic Night’ in America again

For a nation that has long hallowed freedom of speech, we Americans spend an awful lot of time telling each other to “shut up.”

This preoccupation isn’t limited to family fights, angry neighbors, or competing protestors. Governments – federal, state and local – don’t like being criticized. Neither do major corporations. Neither like seeing their political enthusiasms and social agendas questioned, much less critiqued. And those with enough money, enough power, and enough influence are finding more and more ways to silence those who do.

Recent years have seen rapid growth in the number of censorship options available to these heavy-handed players and the increasing skill with which they implement them. Alone or in collaboration, politicians, bureaucrats, universities, corporations, nonprofits, and social media companies have found it easier and more convenient to pass censorship laws, cancel inconvenient platforms, or smear unwelcome speakers for what they call “disinformation,” “misinformation,” “malinformation” or “hate speech.”

It’s called the Censorship Industrial Complex, and it has been incredibly effective at ensuring that a broad swath of Americans don’t hear messages and information that might inform their personal decisions or sway their critical votes.

Examples abound. California, for instance, recently passed laws designed to outlaw certain election-related satire, parody, and other political speech. Colorado officials tried to force a graphic artist to design messages she didn’t agree with. Congressional investigations raised concerns that the White House pressured medical experts who questioned administration pandemic policies, and that the FBI tried to block reporting on the Hunter Biden laptop.

A rising chorus of protests have challenged this surging assault on our communications, but little of substance has been done to reverse the tide. That may be about to change.

Restoring those communications and shoring up civil liberties will be the work of the new Center for Freedom of Speech announced this week by my organization, Alliance Defending Freedom. ADF, a legal organization focused on advancing every person’s right to live and speak the truth, has accrued an 80% litigation win rate (including 15 U.S. Supreme Court victories) over the last 13 years, while contending for free speech rights in law, policy and the public square.

The first goal of the center will be to expose the depth and breadth of the current threats to free speech. We’ll catalog the evidence of these civil rights abuses using public records laws and, when necessary, litigation. We note with hope that many incoming Trump administration officials have signaled their desire to shine a light on government corruption. We hope to work with them to challenge those infringing free speech, whether for their own purposes or as government proxies. And we will pull back the curtain on the many actors working behind the scenes to punish citizens for engaging in their constitutionally protected freedoms.

ADF also plans to go to bat for the many victims of this censorship regime, instituting pioneering litigation to hold public and private censors accountable for the harm they’ve wreaked and prevent them from continuing to suppress speech.

A crucial question is why U.S. officials and media powerbrokers have been so contemptuous of a liberty that continues to set America apart as the envy of the world. Our First Amendment – sorely battered though it is – continues to stand strong against the kinds of onslaughts faced by, say, Brazilians, who saw a Supreme Court judge ban X (formerly Twitter) for more than a month earlier this year. European governments have passed a flurry of “hate speech” legislation, while the populations of Communist countries can only dream of the freedom Americans still enjoy to speak their beliefs and debate their views.

At the ADF Center for Free Speech, we aim to bring an end to the Censorship Industrial Complex, affirming what is universally recognized – if not respected or protected – as one of the most fundamental of all human rights. Democracy hinges on the rights of individuals to say what they think, ask the questions on their minds, and passionately argue the convictions of their souls. There are – and should be – serious legal and societal consequences for impairing, intimidating, and denying that freedom.

Too many in America are less interested, now, in finding their own voices than in silencing the voices of others. Let’s end the political and social karaoke that compels us all to sing from the approved songbook. It’s time for Open Mic Night in America again.