Conclusion

Summary

At its core, constitutional law addresses the uses and abuses of government power. This should include the use and abuses of the government’s expressive powers. This book describes and explores the complexities of the constitutional questions triggered by the government’s speech, and offers a framework for thinking about them. Its objectives also include shining a light on the government’s speech in its many manifestations, with its vast array of audiences, topics, means, motives, and consequences. The more we recognize the volume and variety of the government’s speech in our lives, the more thoughtfully we can puzzle over its constitutional implications. The government’s speech packs great power. Even—and perhaps especially—in times of grave crisis, the government’s speech can be soaring in its inspiration, its humanity, and in its success in achieving essential public purposes. At times, however, the government’s speech instead threatens, bullies, divides, and deceives for self-interested reasons, and sometimes with crushing results. This book identifies some of the motivations for and consequences of those choices, as well as possible means for constructively influencing them.