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Why Free Speech Is Essential to a Free Republic
AEI
2025.10.16
The recent assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk prompted celebration from many people on social media, suggesting a large subculture that rejects the values of free speech.

Free speech must be understood not only in the Lockean tradition of natural rights but, per James Madison, in the republican tradition as the key to ensuring popular sovereignty over the government.

Following Thomas Jefferson and other liberal theorists, free speech is essential to human flourishing. The limits of human knowledge require what John Stuart Mill called a “collision of adverse sentiments” so that truth can be found.

Besides certain categories, such as incitement to violence, free speech rights cannot be balanced with most other rights but must be accommodated by society.