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The Duke of Sussex’s recent appearance on Hollywood actor Dax Shepard’s podcast, Armchair Expert, has caused a stir. Harry discussed his mental health struggles and explained how he tried to move away from the Royal Family to break the “cycle” of “genetic pain” he inherited from his parents and grandparents. But, the royal has now come under fire for putting the US Constitution in the spotlight after he dubbed the First Amendment, which permits freedom of speech, “bonkers”.
This Amendment reads: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press; or the right of people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
The US Constitution marks the defining moment the American colonies broke away from British rule, making Harry’s ancestor King George III America’s last monarch.
The former monarch struggled to enunciate how he felt about America and its battle for independence, as revealed in George’s newly-unearthed 350,000 page essay on losing the colonies.
Although George wrote sharp summaries of the ongoing fallout with America, acknowledging the overseas colonies were “lost”, he had never set foot on the American continent.
Four years before the US Constitution was drawn up, he also asked: “Must we [Britain] fall beneath the blow? Or have we resources that may repair the mischiefs?”
Examining these documents, scholar Rick Atkinson told the Smithsonian Magazine: “What comes across to me, looking at him via the papers, is someone who is puzzling through an extraordinarily complex problem for which he does not really have a vocabulary.”
When briefly touching on the First Amendment during his extensive Armchair Expert discussion, Harry also indicates that he does not “understand” this part of the US Constitution.
But, in the podcast, Harry said: “I’ve got so much I want to say about the First Amendment.
“I still don’t understand it, but it is bonkers.”
He later added: “Again, I don’t want to start sort of going down the First Amendment route, because that’s a huge subject and one of which I don’t understand as I’ve only been in [the US] for a short period of time, but you can find a loophole in anything and you can capitalise or exploit what’s not said, rather than uphold what is said.”
He continued: “We can do that with anything we want.
“If it’s a commercial incentive, then great, or if there’s an ideology or you want to spread hate laws that were created to protect people. Right? That’s how I see it.”
Harry then put the argument in the context of his fight against unregulated social media platforms.
He added: “I believe we live in an age now where you’ve got certain elements of the media redefining to us what privacy means.
“There’s a massive conflict of interest. And then you’ve got social media platforms trying to redefine what free speech means.”
However, by questioning this element of the constitution, Harry has upset many Americans — especially as he is still part of the British monarchy, an institution the US fought hard to free itself from.
Meghan McCain, daughter of the late senator John McCain, told ABC’s The View how the Queen’s grandson had “chosen to seek refuge from your homeland” and should subsequently take more care when discussing the laws of his new home.
She tweeted: “We fought a war in 1776 so we don’t have to care what you say or think.
“That being said, you have chosen to seek refuge from your homeland here and thrive because all of what our country has to offer and one of the biggest things is the First Amendment — show some utter respect.”
Indeed, some of America’s most memorable leaders are remembered for their defence on this key liberty for the country’s citizens.
The States’ first president George Washington said: “If the freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.”
America’s third president Thomas Jefferson repeated this sentiment, when he declared: “Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press and that cannot be limited without being lost.”
Post source Daily Express