The Founders may not have intentionally put the First Amendment first in the Bill of Rights, but they treated it as the foundation of self-government. Without the freedom to speak and publish, to worship, to assemble, and to petition, every other right is at risk. It’s important to honor this free speech principle consistently – not just when it suits us politically.
That principle guided a recent vote of mine, and that vote drew criticism from some (but not all) of my fellow Republicans. Last month, I voted against a resolution to censure Rep. Ilhan Omar for comments she endorsed after Charlie Kirk’s brutal assassination. The proposed censure would have stripped Omar of committee assignments, taking away her participation in a key legislative process, and would have compelled her to stand in silence on the House floor as the resolution was read.
I condemn Omar’s comments completely. Her remarks about Charlie Kirk and his supporters were grotesque and wrong. Of course, not all speech is constitutionally protected: true threats and incitement to violence, for example. But Omar’s comments, however offensive, were political speech at the heart of what the First Amendment protects. And Congress is free to voice its disapproval. But it crosses a line when it turns that disapproval into legislative punishment, which is what this censure would have done. Free speech means letting voters hold us accountable, not weaponizing House procedures to silence colleagues for what they’ve said on social media.
I knew my position and my vote carried political risks. My political opponents say I “went soft.” The truth is the opposite: the easy vote would have been to join most others in my party; that would have cost me nothing. I instead chose to defend the principle.
Some more thoughtful constituents have told me they respect the free speech principle, but believe the situation and speaker here were just too egregious. I am certainly sympathetic to those arguments. But principles matter most when it’s hard: The right to think freely and to speak freely don’t need defenders when it’s easy. And the same principle that protects misguided words is the one that safeguards truth. In his classic work, 1984, George Orwell said it well: “Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.” Once the government claims the power to decide what political speech we can and cannot say, every other right is at risk.
When the FCC chairman recently pressured broadcasters to remove Jimmy Kimmel from TV – warning it could be done “the easy way or the hard way” – alarm bells should have gone off for every American. We saw the same dynamic during the pandemic, when federal officials leaned on social media companies to suppress debate over COVID-19’s Chinese origins. Those discussions, previously branded “misinformation” and suppressed, are today the subject of serious inquiry by our own intelligence agencies. Government pressure like this runs headlong into the First Amendment. The government should never punish or threaten speech because of political views. It’s wrong to do it against conservatives, and it’s wrong to do it against liberals. It’s wrong to do it against the unpopular, and it’s wrong to do it in the name of science.
To their great credit, many of my most stalwart conservative and Republican constituents have told me they understand the principle and support my free speech vote, as politically tough as it is. Popular speech doesn’t need protection. It’s the unpopular, the offensive, and the uncomfortable political speech that tests whether we really believe in freedom. And I can’t be afraid of losing my job for doing what I believe to be the right thing.
In the long run, I trust that most constituents will see defending free speech – even at political cost – was the right choice. We don’t win by silencing. We win by persuading. That’s how you honor free speech, and that’s how we keep freedom alive for the next generation.
Rep. Jeff Hurd represents the 3rd District of Colorado in the U.S. House of Representatives. Reach him or a staff member at hurd.house.gov/contact.
