In 399 B.C., Socrates chose to drink hemlock and suffer a painful death rather than submit to the state and live a life devoid of critical examination. He would be horrified to see how close we have come to constructing his nightmare: a society willing to jettison free speech and embrace state-defined “safety” over the messy, painful, and necessary work of questioning why we believe what we believe.  The nation’s founders viewed freedom of speech and the press as essential to a free society. Not as privileges granted by the government, but as fundamental, pre-existing natural rights derived...