{
  "id": 6773811,
  "title": "The ‘war on terror’ weakened the first amendment. Now we desperately need it | Jameel Jaffer",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/11/the-war-on-terror-weakened-the-first-amendment-now-we-desperately",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-09-11T16:00:09.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Guardian US",
    "slug": "the-guardian-us",
    "url": "https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/sep/11/9-11-war-on-terror-first-amendment"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The US Supreme Court has, over the past quarter-century, persistently fallen short in safeguarding the first amendment rights. The consequences of this negligence have been severe. The first amendment was ratified in 1791, yet the court did not fully comprehend its significance until after World War I. Prosecutions against antiwar protesters revealed to justices Oliver Wendell Holmes and Louis Brandeis, and later to other justices, that suppressing unpopular political opinions would weaken, rather than strengthen, American democracy. This realization prompted the court to better protect the freedom of expression during the Cold War. Similarly, the court improved protection of freedom of association and freedom of the press in response to government repression during the Vietnam War. While this progress took time, each instance demonstrated the court's capacity to develop legal doctrine that more robustly protected first amendment freedoms. However, the court's continued failure to uphold these crucial rights has left the nation in desperate need of the protection originally guaranteed by the first amendment.",
  "summary": "Over the past quarter-century, the US supreme court has repeatedly failed to protect first amendment rights. We are suffering the consequences Congress ratified the first amendment in 1791 but the supreme court didn’t breathe life into it until after the first world war, when prosecutions of antiwar protesters led the justices Oliver Wendell Holmes and Louis Brandeis – and then, fortunately,…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}