Questions about First Amendment freedoms are enduring in the United States. They have been raised and debated since before the ratification of the Bill of Rights. In the modern era, countless cases before the U.S. Supreme Court have defined these rights. These cases have presented issues involving student speech in public schools, campaign finance regulations, the intersection of religious freedom and free expression, protests of military funerals, depictions of violence in video games, and the use of profanity. Kevin A. Johnson and Craig R. Smith tackle these cases and more, asking their readers to consider one common denominator that often drives the narratives about these decisions and the justices’ reasoning in their opinions. That common denominator is fear.

In Fear and the First Amendment, Johnson and Smith describe their argument and project as follows: “fear is significant and rhetorical in First Amendment conflicts. We do not maintain that fear motivates every First Amendment decision. Rather we argue that fear surfaces as a theme in several important, controversial cases and opinions that are precedential” (10). Johnson and Smith have selected for analysis some of the most noteworthy First Amendment cases decided during the Roberts Court, including Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, Snyder