Unpopular Speech: The Price of Freedom
By Dr. Brian CarrAmong other cherished values, the First Amendment protects freedom of speech. The U.S. Supreme Court often has struggled to determine what exactly constitutes protected speech. The following are examples of speech, both direct (words) and symbolic (actions), that the Court has decided are either entitled to First Amendment protections, or not.
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Freedom of speech includes the right:
1. Not to speak (specifically, the right not to salute the flag).
West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943).
2. Of students to wear black armbands to school to protest a war (“Students do not shed their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse gate.”).
Tinker v. Des Moines, 393 U.S. 503 (1969).
3. To use certain offensive words and phrases to convey political messages.
Cohen v. California, 403 U.S. 15 (1971).
The remainder of the list, along with what freedom of speech does not include the right to say, is at http://lubbockonline.com/interact/blog-post/dr-brian-carr/2013-06-18/unpopular-speech-price-freedom .
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To provide some additional background about Dr. Carr and his blog:
Dr. Carr is a psychologist; however, he begins with a decent list that is directed to the blogging community at the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. Dr. Carr started to blog on a daily basis to provide a forum to respond to "Mr. Conservative", Dr. Donald R. May, a former Air Force major, ophthalmologist and know-it-all who pastes information from right-wing Websites and adds his own conspiracies to more respected conservative opinions. Dr. May is also inflicted with Obama Derangement Syndrome (virtually every blog shows his obsession), he is condescending to those that dissent from his opinion and he has never been known to apologize when in error.
Dr. Carr and Dr. May serve on the Lubbock Board of Health and are known for heated exchanges on topics such as whether the women's health clinic should be located next to the children's immunization center (he doesn't believe that prostitutes should be in proximity to children), and enacting local ordinances on fracking. Some of the meetings are available on YouTube.
Dr. May was employed at the Texas Tech Health Sciences Center and was demoted from the chairman of the ophthalmology department and eventually dismissed for his conduct. There was also some evidence that he was involved with Medicare fraud for submitting improper billings. Dr. May subsequently filed a wrongful termination suit, even though we know the position of most Republicans on tort reform. He lost the case but filed an appeal and a summary of the case is available here (it is fairly long):
http://tx.findacase.com/research/wfrmDocViewer.aspx/xq/fac.20010607_0003501.TX.htm/qx
In addition, Dr. May writes about socialism under President Obama, but between 1995 and 2012 received over $65,000 in farm subsidy grants (with payments in each year). Dr. May is considered to be a hypocrite by most of the people that read his posts.
Dr. May has also been a keynote speaker at the local Republican convention and ran for the Congressional seat held by Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R), but he was so distasteful that he only received 1% of the vote in the Republican primary.
Thanks again for contributing to the discussion and your wisdom and insight are always welcome. 
