...essential right in a democratic society. As the poet and essayist John Milton put it eloquently in 1644, "The liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience [is] above all liberties."1 Reflecting this wisdom, the First Amendment to the US Constitution guarantees...

...of John Milton, vol. 2 (1643-1648), ed. Ernest Sirluck (New Haven CT, 1959), pp. 480-570, at p. 520. are now more capacious, our thoughts now more erected...to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.68 The use of this particular quotation from the Areopagitica did more than bring Milton's...

...discoursing, even to a rarity, and admiration, things not before discoursed or written of." Give them freedom "to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties." Do all this, said Milton, and "I see in my mind a noble and puissant nation rousing herself like a...