Commentary
In 1964, the U.S. Supreme Court examined how we use debate and argument to unravel major public issues.
In New York Times Company v. Sullivan, the court said, “Debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide open, and that it may well include vehement, caustic, and sometimes unpleasant sharp attacks on government and public officials.” The justices also said, “Right conclusions are more likely to be gathered out of a multitude of tongues, than through any kind of authoritative selection.”
In 1951, Canada’s Supreme Court also canvassed this subject. In Boucher v. The King, the court said, “Disagreement in ideas and beliefs, on every conceivable subject, are the essence of our life.” The court went on to say that “the clash of critical discussion on political, social, and religious subjects” is the “stuff of daily experience.”…