On The Front Lines
'Muzzled: Stories of Free Speech and Censorship in America' Inaugural Podcast Features Interview With Constitutional Attorney John Whitehead
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — For its inaugural broadcast, “Muzzled: Stories of Free Speech and Censorship” features an hour-long interview with constitutional attorney John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute, who speaks candidly about the impact of government surveillance on First Amendment activity, the importance of academic freedom, and his role in mounting a legal challenge to the U.S. Supreme Court’s own ban on expressive activities on the Supreme Court plaza.
“Muzzled” is the first in a series of podcasts by the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression. Whitehead’s interview is available to listen to at podbay.fm (http://podbay.fm/show/1053923740/e/1445958190).
“If we no longer have the right to tell a Census Worker to get off our property, if we no longer have the right to tell a police officer to get a search warrant before they crash through our doors, if we no longer have the right to stand in front of the Supreme Court wearing a protest sign or approach an elected representative to share our views, if we no longer have the right to voice our opinions in public or through social media without being investigated, spied on, or labeled a domestic extremist by the government, then we do not have free speech,” said constitutional attorney John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute and author of Battlefield America: The War on the American People. “What we have instead is regulated, controlled speech, and that’s just government censorship in disguise. Yet as history shows, government censorship gives rise to self-censorship, breeds compliance, makes independent thought all but impossible, and ultimately foments a seething discontent that has no outlet but violence.”
The Rutherford Institute has been at the forefront of the battle to safeguard the First Amendment, defending a broad array of individuals who are voicing their discontent within the peaceful, nonviolent framework of the First Amendment. “We’re taking on the government whenever it attempts to whittle away at free speech, confining it to carefully constructed ‘free speech zones,’ criminalizing it when it skates too close to challenging the status quo, shaming it when it butts up against politically correct ideals, and muzzling it when it appears dangerous,” said Whitehead. “We’re fighting these First Amendment battles because we believe that freedom of speech is a steam valve that allows people to speak their minds, air their grievances and contribute to a larger dialogue that hopefully results in a more just world.”
Whitehead is an internationally renowned attorney and author who has written, debated and practiced widely in the areas of constitutional law and human rights. Whitehead’s concern for the persecuted and oppressed led him, in 1982, to establish The Rutherford Institute, a nonprofit civil liberties and human rights organization. Whitehead serves as the Institute’s president and spokesperson, in addition to writing a weekly commentary that is distributed to several hundred newspapers and news sites across the country. Whitehead's aggressive, pioneering approach to civil liberties issues has earned him numerous accolades, including the Hungarian Medal of Freedom.
