The Check on Governmental Power

The Check on Governmental Power and the First Amendment

Vincent Blasi is a theorist and First Amendment scholar who is a professor at Columbia Law School in New York, New York. He is best known for his "Check Value" theory of free speech and free press clauses of the First Amendment.

His theory suggest that the power of the press has the ability to "check the abuse of power by public officials." This states that journalist and news organizations have an obligation to research and criticize public officials if they are in the process of abusing the power that they were elected to do. Most common cases have been with U.S. Presidents, such as Nixon within Watergate and Clinton with Clintongate.

Currently, we are dealing with the same issue with President Trump on if he abused the powers of the Presidency. This is all following a July, 2019 phone conversation with the Ukrainian President, which then lead to an impeachment proceeding by House Democrats into the President. This all got started allegedly when the President threatened to withhold financial aid to Ukraine.

I feel a check on Governmental power is big when it comes to elected officials who hold high level jobs. If any one officials is doing something that is illegal or in clear violation of any law then they should be reprimanded for their actions. In relation to the First Amendment, it should be journalist and news organizations to determine what potential crime such official has committed and investigate the possible wrongdoing without being punished for it.

The most meaningful idea that I have taken away from this would be that the main operation of free press is to develop and investigate information of the electorate that the public can understand.