Make no mistake about what is at stake here. The Supreme Court is already dangerously deferential to executive power. Only days ago, the Court let stand the conviction of a protester who committed the crime of holding a "no war for oil" sign at a Bush event held on public property in South Carolina in 2002. The Department of Justice has begun demanding that Google and other internet search providers turn over search records. Conservatives are paying students to expose "radical" college professors. Safeguarding our rights under the First Amendment may be the most sacred of the traditional duties of the Supreme Court. If Samuel Alito joins his deferential brethren on the Court, that role will recede into history. In its place will likely come a new Sedition Act, and in a year or three the courts will cheerfully approve the banning of websites like this one for our protection.