Conservative myths about the First Amendment:

I criticize them in this National Review Online column. Here’s the introduction:

The liberals on the Supreme Court, and in universities, have been undermining the Framers’ First Amendment handiwork. The Court’s decision upholding campaign-finance restrictions show that Americans are losing the liberties that they’ve long enjoyed; likewise with the speech codes that some public universities have been instituting. And this loss of liberty stems from liberals’ disdain for the text of the Constitution, and liberal judges’ willingness to make law, instead of simply applying it. Soon we will lose the freedom of speech that Americans have long taken for granted.

That’s the story I’ve been hearing from many of my conservative and libertarian correspondents. And it’s just plain false. . . .