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Virginia city tries to limit free speech

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(WTVR) – Freedom is what the country was founded on, but when one Virginia city tried to curb the right to free speech in certain public places many voices spoke up.

Williamsburg’s City Council wanted to limit the free speech of street preachers and demonstrators to specific designated areas out of Merchants Square.

For William and Mary Law Professor Timothy Zick, a nationally known expert on the first amendment, the idea of banning free speech in any part of America’s colonial capital was baffling, “It is odd to say the least to impose this kind of draconian speech regulation in this sort of quintessential public forum.”

That plan brought the threat of a lawsuit.

So, instead council limited how loud demonstrators can be.