“The revolution, like Saturn, devours it’s own children.” – Georg Büchner

It’s Bastille Day in France, commemorating the storming of the notorious French prison in 1789. Among the common criminals and religious prisoners who inhabited the keep, were those who were incarcerated for printing and writing pamphlets.

On Veterans Day, when Americans are apt to take an expansive view of their freedoms and the role of their armed forces in securing them, The New York Times ran an article calling into question the commitment of one sitting Supreme Court justice to the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.  Anthony Kennedy, a Reagan appointee who is considered a staunch First Amendment defender, addressed an assembly on October 28th at the tony Dalton School on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.  The talk was covered by the student newspaper, The Daltonian.  The judge’s staff insisted that he be able to pre-approve the resulting article, and the school complied with this demand.