Eugene Volokh at his eponymous conspiracy has this post on an astonishingly broad, and almost certainly unconstitutional, proposal on cyberbullying in New York. He emphasizes this sentence:
Proponents of a more refined First Amendment argue that this freedom should be treated not as a right but as a privilege -- a special entitlement granted by the state on a conditional basis that can be revoked if it is ever abused or maltreated.Yeah, right, "refined." Always cast your proposal as the more sophisticated approach.
Governments that punish pure speech (i.e., putting aside things like fraud, threats etc.) are evil. And the idea that one has a license to speak that can be revoked is pernicious.
Why do we constantly have to relearn the same lessons?