“One Nation Indivisible”: Unnamed Human Rights in the States

Abstract

In the United States, the right to free expression, if it is to be enjoyed in the real world, has to be guarded (like all American human rights) within the structure of federalism-of the coexistence, in as good as every square foot of the country, of two governments, the national government and the government of some State. Free expression might be guaranteed in the most absolute and efficient way against infringement by national law-and still, if there were no national guarantee of free expression against action by the States, you might live all your years in dread of going to prison for publishing or even owning a book dealing favorably with Socialism. The nation would not in practical truth be a free nation. There is no advantage, believe me, in going to a state prison rather than to a national prison.