The 4th of July 2017

This coming July 4^th holiday celebrates the independence of the United States of America. My significantly better half, Carolyn Vella, reminded me that this began the process that established some of the critical liberties that enable us to post blogs like this and, yes, to conduct competitive intelligence research. Here are just two of them:

At the Virginia Ratifying Convention, on June 9, 1788, while debating the ratification of the US Constitution, Patrick Henry rose to say

“The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure, when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them…. [T]o cover with the veil of secrecy the common routine of business, is an abomination in the eyes of every intelligent man, and every friend to his country.”

From the Bill of Rights, the First Amendment to the US Constitution, ratified in 1791, provides, in part that “Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press….”

These fundamental rights were later extended to protect US citizens from state governments as well as the federal governments. In 1925, the US Supreme Court stated that

“[W]e may and do assume that freedom of speech and of the press which are protected by the First Amendment from abridgment by Congress are among the fundamental personal rights and ‘liberties’ protected by the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment from impairment by the States.” Gitlow v. New York, 268 U.S. 652 (1925).

Celebrate the 4^th of July’s gifts of liberty.