Because 'free speech' is literally _all they know_ about the subject. If they did look it up, they would literally see the very first words of the first amendment: "Congress shall make no law (...)".
Literally about the legislative branch. Every other consequence of the First Amendment comes from that. Other laws can be more specific and may grant more rights, but this just specifies what the government can't take away.
Apologies if this is a stupid question; I'm a foreigner so I can't understand freedom like Americans do.
But if the first words are "Congress shall make no law", does that mean that the President and his executive orders are not bound by the First Amendment?
The president has no authority over this subject matter except that given him by congress.
This executive order is a directive to the FTC and FCC, which are both bodies created by congressional law.
As a result, neither has power to violate the first amendment since by virtue of being created by congress, they are subject to the literal reading of “Congress shall make no law”.
For what it’s worth - the 14th amendment passed after the civil war has been read to extend the protections of the bill of rights beyond their literal sense anyway.
Technically yes, other branches are not bound by the first amendment.
By the spirit of the law, no. A lot of historical laws and constitutional writings were to limit power of the government in general. When the constitution was actually written, the executive was just a puppet with military commander powers. But over the centuries there has been power creep into the executive.
Such battles end up in supreme court and the court decides ultimately what interpretation would hold up. The current supreme court is republican/right wing leaning which often ignores the spirit of the law FWIW.
FCC, FTC etc were created by legislative branch to make governing specific areas more streamlined, they are still bound by whatever legislative branch is bound.
> FCC, FTC etc were created by legislative branch to make governing specific areas more streamlined, they are still bound by whatever legislative branch is bound.
I would recommend reading up on historical executive orders held judicial review and how they impacted operations of 3-letter organizations
The first amendment is there from preventing the government from controlling the speech. Exactly what Trump is doing to Twitter right now.