Gitlow v. New York

How, how did we get here from there? What is the, what's the justification for it? Is there something in the Constitution that supports it? Surely, there must be some instance in which a, um, the, the judiciary looked at the text of the Constitution, gave it an honest assessment, interpreted it, and provided an explanation as to why it was doing what it was doing.

And I remember in the class, um, t- um, that I learned that the history of incorporation, I now know it's more complicated than this, but the history of incorporation begins in Gitlow versus New York, 1925, i- in a case in which the Supreme Court, um- was said to have incorporated the free speech clause against the states, and then in subsequent cases, other clauses were added.

First free press in Near v. Minnesota, then freedom of, free exercise of religion in Cantwell, Everson, and many other cases, uh, many other cases involving, uh, most of, but not all the other amendments.

So I was very curious.

I was, I was hoping to find in Gitlow a kind of foundational explanation argument for, for what, uh, um, became such a, such an enormous part of American, uh, not only American constitutional law, but, but American politics.

And I found, uh, reading Gitlow, um, um, the, the statement that, uh, for present purposes, we may assume that the liberty, um, the liberty secured by the 14th Amendment includes, uh, the freedom of speech.

In my...

If I recall, my edition of constitutional law did not have the footnote that was added to that, which provided some explanation.