Judging Freedom - Get Off Our Free Speech Lawn

Episode Date: May 2, 2022

The Fear being expressed over Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter. #ElonMusk #TwitterSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Resolve to earn your degree in the new year in the Bay with WGU. WGU is an online accredited university that specializes in personalized learning. With courses available 24-7 and monthly start dates, you can earn your degree on your schedule. You may even be able to graduate sooner than you think by demonstrating mastery of the material you know. Make 2025 the year you focus on your future. Learn more at wgu.edu. Hi, everyone. Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Monday, May 2nd, 2022. It's about 125 in the afternoon on the east coast of the United States. Those of you who have been watching me know that I've been ranting and raving against the idea of the Ministry of Truth,

the government's new division within the Department of Homeland Security, established by executive order, not by legislation. So it has no authority, but it is going to comment publicly expressing the government's opinion on public matters. Of course, under the law, the government has no freedom of speech. Only individuals have freedom of speech. All this came about because the lefty loonies in the Biden administration are furious that Elon Musk is about to take over Twitter because Elon Musk is going to have a different set of algorithms for who will be thrown off of Twitter. I said that wrong. He's going to have a different set of algorithms for who should stay on Twitter, and that's just about everybody. Musk believes, along with me and along with most of you, all innocuous speech

is absolutely protected, and all speech is innocuous when there is time for more speech to challenge it. Musk himself said if he becomes the owner of Twitter, he wants people who hate him to be able to post hateful things about him. So the burden would be on those who want somebody banned. All speech would be presumed able to be posted on Twitter. This will make Twitter what it was when it first started, before the people that now run it exercised political judgment on the speech that was posted. It was at one time a true bulletin board, a true town square of people's political opinions. Well, the concept of Twitter as a true town square of people's political opinions is driving the left crazy.

I have a lot of friends in the media and I have friends all across the media. And some of my friends in CNN are going crazy over this. I don't personally know this fellow, but he is the CNN media analyst. Listen to this meltdown over the weekend about Elon Musk liberating Twitter. No, I think there's a bigger problem that when we focus on the personalities of people like Elon Musk and people say, oh, I think Elon's thinking this or that. There's a bigger problem here about how we are going to control the channels of communication in this country. You need controls on this. You need regulation. You cannot let these guys control discourse in this country, or we are headed to hell. We are there. Trump opened the gates of hell, and now they're chasing

us down. Trump opened the gates of hell, and now they're chasing us down there. What he's talking about is speech, speech that he hates, speech that he doesn't like. He wants to regulate it and suppress it rather than liberate it. The whole purpose of the First Amendment is to allow the listener to decide what speech the listener will accept. The government should have no business entering the marketplace of speech. So when this fellow from CNN talks about we need regulation, we need regulation, he's talking about the government. He's talking about the government setting down parameters for speech. The whole purpose of the First Amendment is to keep the government out of the business of speech. It has no business whatsoever in the marketplace

of free speech. You should be able to think as you say and say what you think and publish what you say. The First Amendment says Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech or of the press. No law means no law. This is what happens when the left loses control over one of its favorite instruments, Twitter. I may disagree with the things Donald Trump says on Twitter, but I will defend to the death his right to say them. And under the new Elon Musk-owned Twitter, guess what, my friends at CNN? You'll be able to say whatever you want. Judge Napolitano for judging freedom.