Editor, Gazette-Journal:

I believe that most of us are aware of the intent of the framers of the U.S. Constitution when they began to craft the First Amendment, specifically that statement of purpose which is so strikingly elegant and simple in its clarity:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

By placing this amendment foremost in the Bill of Rights, the framers confirmed what was by then a long-established tradition of Western law. With Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press, the concept of free speech naturally evolved into the freedom of the press. The printed word, by the use of carved wording on blocks of wood, preceded the invention of Gutenberg’s press.

The Magna Carta, the basis for all English law as well as for our ...