First things first

Here is how I start each course I teach on the First Amendment:  "We are going to spend an entire semester studying one sentence. ... It is the most important sentence in the history of the law."

The First Amendment is the backbone of every other freedom we hold dear.   It is America's most profound contribution to liberty.

Without the First Amendment's protections for free speech, a robust and independent press and religious liberty, our society would not -- could not -- be the same.  There would be no voting as we know it and no freewheeling discussions about government surveillance.  Religious strife would make this country barely recognizable.

This blog is a tribute to the First Amendment, especially as it relates to the world's greatest invention for the dissemination of free thought and information: the Internet.  

And, here's hoping that someone besides my Mom and closest friends think anything I say in here is remotely interesting ...