Lee Cheek, Alexander Hamilton Institute for the Study of Western Civilization (AHI) Senior Fellow recently published an article on freedom of speech in the Library of Law & Liberty. In his article “Silencing Warren,” Cheek discusses the recent censoring of Senator Elizabeth Warren by Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, during the debate over Senator Jeff Sessions’ fitness to be the next U.S. Attorney General. His his article Cheek states:

“Senator McConnell should have allowed Warren to speak at her heart’s content, which is more in the spirit of the U.S. Senate than invoking Rule 19 when you disagree with a fellow senator’s assessment of a candidate for confirmation.  Unlike being elected to the U.S. House, on the day you are sworn in as a member of the U.S. Senate, you are an equal in most regards to your colleagues.  You also accept the normative rules of decency and openness, and allow your colleagues to discuss and debate with few limitations.  Sadly, McConnell ignored the historical ethos of the Senate and the political implications of stifling debate in shutting down Senator Warren.”

H. Lee Cheek, Jr., is Dean of the School of Social Sciences at East Georgia State College. He is the author of the Patrick Henry-Onslow Debate: Republicanism and Liberty in American Political Thought (Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books, 2013 [with Carey M. Roberts and Sean R. Busick]).