Seeing as a well-defended first amendment is essential to what we do here, these remarks by Justice Gorsuch in NIEVES ET AL. v. BARTLETT seemed a timely reminder of the potential for tyranny that exists (without most of us realizing) around every corner of America. Even in little old New Hampshire.
History shows that governments sometimes seek to regulate our lives finely, acutely, thoroughly, and exhaustively. In our own time and place, criminal laws have grown so exuberantly and come to cover so much previously innocent conduct that almost anyone can be arrested for something. If the state could use these laws not for their intended purposes but to silence those who voice unpopular ideas, little would be left of our First Amendment liberties, and little would separate us from the tyrannies of the past or the malignant fiefdoms of our own age. The freedom to speak without risking arrest is “one of the principal characteristics by which we distinguish a free nation.”
While this case relates to the subject of a probable cause arrest claiming the officers only detained him to silence his speech (the court ruled there was probable cause) Justice Gorsuch gets to the heart of a much larger matter. The exercise of force under any circumstance where agents of the state have an opportunity to quiet the rabble simply because we disagree.
His full remarks are worth a look (beg. pg 24) if you like feel up to following the legal linguistic gymnastics. If not, the above quote is powerful and relevant all on its own.
