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Show i Thomas Paine, the American patriot who fearlessly spoke up for freedom, was once convicted of libel against the English Crown for writing a booklet entitled, "The Rights of Man." Even though he lost the case, the defending attorney presented an argument that has become basic to our First Amendment Amend-ment freedoms. The attorney, Lord Erskine, said: "The proposition which I mean to maintain as the basis of the liberty of the press, and without which it is an empty sound, is this that every' man. not intending to mislead, but seeking to enlighten others with what his own reason and conscience, however erroneously, have dictated to him as the truth, may address himself to the universal reason of a whole nation, either upon the subject of government in general, or upon that of our own . . particular country." That fundamental principle allows anyone today to speak or write whatever he believes is the truth in political issues without fear of governmental censorship or reprisal. |