To the Editor:

Freedom of speech is sacrosanct, without it the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights would be meaningless, and we could have become a dictatorship.

Yelling FIRE in a crowded movie house does not come under freedom of speech — it is a criminal act.

Abolishing the independence of the Supreme Court, in any state or any country, like Mr. Netanyahu, the current prime minister of Israel, is trying to do is worse than yelling fire in a crowded movie house, it the first step in abolishing democratic Israel and eventually creating another Middle East dictatorship.

So when one of Mr. Netanyahu’s extreme right-wing allies, Professor Ronen Shoval, who is currently a visiting professor at Princeton University (PU), was invited to speak at the Center for Jewish Life of PU we should not be surprised that democratic and freedom advocates, professors and students of PU, came out and demonstrated against the speaker and Mr. Netanyahu [“Protestors Demonstrate for Democracy, Freedom at PU Jewish Center,” page 1, March 29].

What is of concern is that while almost one million Israelis are demonstrating against their own prime minister all over Israel, the representative of PU made some reference to free expression. Will PU characterize the January 6, 2021 assault on the U.S. Congress as free expression, a form of freedom of speech, or maybe even invite Mr. Putin to lecture on why dictatorship is a better form of government than democracy?

I don’t believe that one of the best universities in the United States will stoop that low. This incident may be just a warning for all of us to watch out for what is really freedom of speech.

Ralph Perry
Random Road