![The constitution with the first amendment and a gavel](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/optimized/public/2021-01/GettyImages-1003129940.jpg?itok=Q2XZ8KA-) # Free Speech and Civil Liberties At a Glance The United States has a strictly limited federal government, with a robust Bill of Rights, yet our freedom of speech and civil liberties remain in question as government seeks new authority over citizens. The federal government today limits our political speech, subjects us to more wiretapping than ever before, criminalizes more activities every year, regulates and sometimes interferes with the content of broadcasting, and assumes unprecedented police and prosecutorial powers. The best way to protect civil liberties is to rein in the scope and power of the federal government and begin to return the federal government to its constitutional limits. Share This Topic #### Featured Content [![IEEPA tariffs and Supreme Court](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/content_teaser/public/2026-02/GettyImages-2249416199.jpg?itok=qVtjCXua)](https://www.cato.org/blog/private-property-shouldnt-be-comandeered-unwelcome-speech) blog ## [Private Property Shouldn’t Be Commandeered for Others’ Speech](/blog/private-property-shouldnt-be-comandeered-unwelcome-speech) By [Thomas A. Berry](https://www.cato.org/people/thomas-berry) and [Dan Greenberg](https://www.cato.org/people/dan-greenberg) California forces privately owned shopping malls to host pamphleteers and protesters, even when the owners disagree with the hosted speech. The Supreme Court should hold that this rule violates the First Amendment rights of property owners. [![AR22 - Fox News Transparent Logo ](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/content_teaser/public/2023-06/Fox-News-Channel-Emblem.png?itok=vJEDJMWR)](https://www.cato.org/blog/drawing-policy-lessons-fox-dominion-libel-case) blog ### [Drawing Policy Lessons from the Fox-Dominion Libel Case](/blog/drawing-policy-lessons-fox-dominion-libel-case) By [Walter Olson](https://www.cato.org/people/walter-olson) Ian Rosenberg has written a new book, Terrible Stuff Damaging Everybody, about the Dominion v. Fox libel litigation and settlement. It furnishes some policy lessons. [![patriot-day-911.jpg](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/content_teaser/public/2021-08/patriot-day-911.jpg?itok=B53e0_PI)](https://www.cato.org/commentary/9/11s-aftereffect-constitutional-accountability-abyss) Commentary ### [9/11’s Aftereffect: The Constitutional Accountability Abyss](/commentary/9/11s-aftereffect-constitutional-accountability-abyss) By [Patrick G. Eddington](https://www.cato.org/people/patrick-g-eddington) 9/11 didn’t change us, we *allowed it* to change us, and in doing so critically damaged our very own political way of life. [![white house media](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/content_teaser/public/2026-09/press%20room%20white%20house.jpg?itok=9F4tFvd7)](https://www.cato.org/blog/presidents-ban-journalists-disgraceful-illegal) blog ### [The President’s Ban on Journalists Is Disgraceful and Illegal](/blog/presidents-ban-journalists-disgraceful-illegal) By [Dan Greenberg](https://www.cato.org/people/dan-greenberg) It is a pity that Donald Trump has evidently not yet learned this important lesson, and it is unfortunately an open question what he will learn when he loses the lawsuit that CNN and others filed yesterday. [![censorship](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/content_teaser/public/2023-12/censorship%203.jpg?itok=dq63yNjV)](https://www.cato.org/blog/its-spying-cato-exposed-fbi-wants-its-databases-names-kept-secret-history-says-thats-how) blog ### [Its Spying on Cato Exposed, the FBI Wants Its Database Names Kept Secret—That’s How Rights Violations Start and Endure](/blog/its-spying-cato-exposed-fbi-wants-its-databases-names-kept-secret-history-says-thats-how) By [Patrick G. Eddington](https://www.cato.org/people/patrick-g-eddington) A FOIA exemption meant to protect unique, perishable law enforcement tradecraft should not become the tool that keeps the public from knowing even the names of the systems being run in its name and potentially being used to track their very patterns of life, much less categorize them as de facto enemies of the state. [View More Related Content](/search/topic/28) #### Meet Our Experts [![Media Name: duffield-cropped.jpg](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/bio_picture_mobile/public/2021-01/duffield-cropped.jpg?itok=lojJjrdQ)](/people/will-duffield) ##### [Will Duffield](/people/will-duffield) Adjunct Scholar [![Patrick G. Eddington](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/bio_picture_mobile/public/2021-01/Patrick%20Eddington.jpg?itok=ZZOgYGj0)](/people/patrick-g-eddington) ##### [Patrick G. Eddington](/people/patrick-g-eddington) Senior Fellow [![Robert A. Levy](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/bio_picture_mobile/public/2021-01/Bob%20Levy.jpg?itok=Z-7yyJto)](/people/robert-levy) ##### [Robert A. Levy](/people/robert-levy) Chairman Emeritus [![john-samples-cropped-final.jpg](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/bio_picture_mobile/public/2022-08/john-samples-cropped-final.jpg?itok=fglX3jIb)](/people/john-samples) ##### [John Samples](/people/john-samples) Senior Fellow [![Free Speech and Liberal Education: A Plea for Intellectual Diversity and Tolerance](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/aside_mobile/public/2020-03/Free-Speech-and-Liberal-Education.jpg?itok=t07XuBLG)](https://www.cato.org/books/free-speech-liberal-education) ### [*Free Speech and Liberal Education*](/books/free-speech-liberal-education) *Free Speech and Liberal Education: A Plea for Intellectual Diversity and Tolerance* dissects the nature, extent, and causes of the speech suppression that exists, emphasizing the need for intellectual diversity and how repression often co​exists with counter​forces that need to be energized and mobilized in what author Donald Alexander Downs portrays as the “embattled” status of academic free speech; the character of the harms that the new policies and actions pose to liberal education; broader “structural and societal threats” to academic freedom; how to mobilize to protect campus freedom using resources inside and outside the campus; and most importantly, why robust free speech and academic freedom are so important to both liberal education and the prospects of liberal democracy. 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