The First Amendment has not always provided much protection in the courts for Americans; in fact, the Supreme Court did not decide any First Amendment cases for the first 150 years after the adoption of the Constitution.
Michigan Bar Journal, June 2005, p. 30.
Reminds us of Willmoore Kendall's whimsical observation when responding to First Amendment absolutists and other advocates of extreme versions of the open society: the true American tradition is not "preferred freedoms" but "riding somebody out of town on a rail."
