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.
Amendment I of the Constitution of the United States of America
No law.
Not a few laws, or reasonable laws, or laws that serve an overriding government interest, or laws that reflect a prevailing community moral standard.
No law.
NO LAW.
There is nothing to interpret here.
To demonstrate, pose this little thought-experiment:
Assume America was to come to its senses tomorrow (from my point of view) and decided they really, truly wanted their Constitution to completely guarantee the freedom of all speech and press, without exception, and started agitating for a constitutional amendment to that effect. How might such an amendment be worded? Could it, to be effective, be worded very differently from:
"Congress shall make NO LAW abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press"?
I think not.
But people, and most disgracefully the courts, have proven all too ready to throw away the protection of the 1st Amendment for "good reasons".
It's reprehensible. Worse, it's dangerous.
In both Canada and Europe we now have so-called "hate speech" laws prohibiting freedom of speech. That wasn't so very controversial (although I think it should have been) when these laws were enacted, essentially against the Nazis. But now they are being used to harass and even criminalize people who are merely expressing what their religion tells them, and has for thousands of years.
People, even religious leaders, are being threatened with criminal prosecution merely for uttering the opinion, based on the traditions of their religion, that they do not approve of gay marriage. Support homosexuality and gay marriage, keep your mouth shut, or go to jail.
That's where "hate speech" laws lead us.
And what does THAT have to do with living in a civilized society?
Update: Emperor Misha passes along another outrageous example of this Idiotarianism. Are we going to give our own liberties the Death of a Thousand Cuts?