Falling Far and Fast The Turn Against Free Speech in AmericaI have been studying and teaching First Amendment law for more than forty years, and in all that time I have been more or less confident that basic minima of freedom of speech would remain unscathed in the United States. Free speech ensures that those who are ruled will have the opportunity to persuade others to invest them with the authority to rule in the future. They have claimed that conservative speech was unfairly repressed. Falling far and fastAnd now, this week, the Trump Administration has taken direct aim at the First Amendment, the foundation stone of our democracy. That this should even be a question illustrates how far and how fast we have fallen.