[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 11148]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION

  (Mr. COSTA asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. COSTA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak about one of the most 
basic rights that serves as the cornerstone of our democracy, and that 
is freedom of speech, freedom of expression for all Americans 
guaranteed in the First Amendment in our Bill of Rights. It is the 
freedom of press; it is the freedom of assembly; it is the freedom to 
petition.
  This morning, I joined with several fellow Members of Congress and 
other Americans to exercise this First Amendment freedom in a 
demonstration outside the Turkish Ambassador's residence, the same 
place where members of Turkish President Erdogan's security forces 
attacked 11 peaceful Americans who were exercising their freedom of 
speech on May 16.
  This morning, we stood together to demand the protection of the 
freedom of expression. We stood together to say that we will never stop 
fighting for those basic freedoms that are enshrined in our Bill of 
Rights and protected by our Constitution.
  Americans have fought for over 241 years and shed blood to protect 
our basic freedoms that we hold most dearly. As Supreme Court Justice 
Cardozo stated in 1937, freedom of expression is ``the indispensable 
condition of nearly every other form of freedom'' that we cherish in 
our country.

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