Free Speech Coalition: “First Amendment freedoms are most in danger when the government seeks to control thought or to justify its laws for that impermissible end. Inconvenience does not absolve the government of its obligation to tolerate speech.”Ģ. Lee: “The First Amendment is often inconvenient. International Society for Krishna Consciousness v. In honor of his retirement, here are are six quotes from Kennedy on free speech:ġ. A study conducted in 2013 showed that Kennedy was significantly more willing to find a First Amendment violation than the Court as a whole.

Yet there was one area of jurisprudence on which Kennedy was consistently praiseworthy: freedom of speech.

For this reason many conservatives (including me) are relieved to be able to replace him on the high court. When he nominated Kennedy, President Ronald Reagan called the justice a “true conservative.” But over the years, Kennedy often served as a “swing vote” and sided with the court’s liberal faction in a vast number of substantial rulings. Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy announced yesterday that at the end of next month he will retire from the U.S.

Free speech quotes