Before the American Revolution, the British government used seditious libel laws to control the press.

Amusing oneself at the expense of the president had a heavy price in post-Revolutionary America.

Even with freedom of speech and expression, there were boundaries that needed to be maintained so that a person or the government could not be falsely accused or slandered.

Covers the case of John Peter Zenger who printed an article in colonial America for which he was accused of seditious libel.

Jeffrey Rosen of the National Constitution Center in conversation with Walter Isaacson of the Aspen Institute about the First Amendment. [7:05]