Ever since grade school, I can remember folks saying something stupid or hurtful, and when you called them on it they’d respond, “This is a free country. I can say whatever I want.” And that is true, barring certain reasonable exceptions like yelling “Fire” in a crowded theater. But here is the thing: person X calling “bullshit” on what person Y said doesn’t violate person Y’s first amendment rights. Person X is just exercising their first amendment right. So when Dr. Laura Schlessinger stated she was quitting radio to “regain my First Amendment rights,” she is engaging in a bit of hyperbole. The first amendment doesn’t protect us from other people’s opinions but from government censorship.

Let’s go to the source and do a bit of reading here:

 Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

 And for the succinct version of my point: “Congress shall make no law… abridging the freedom of speech….”

At no point did the government try and censor Dr. Schlessinger, no matter what Sarah Palin might think. If she wants “to be able to say what’s on my mind and in my heart and what I think is helpful and useful without somebody getting angry, some special interest group deciding this is the time to silence a voice of dissent and attack affiliates, attack sponsors.” She still has every right to at least try to say things that won’t upset people. Given her views and outspokenness on them, I don’t see her succeeding—but she had, has, and will have the right to try.