Let’s hear it for the biographers! They can sometimes be as creative as the people they profile.

Voltaire’s name rings a bell, but I needed AI to remember his importance: he ”was a key figure in the Enlightenment, ... emphasizing reason, individualism, and scientific inquiry” and well-known for his “satirical works.” But one biographer, Evelyn Beatrice Hall, writing under a male pseudonym in 1906, summarized his attitudes about free speech with a memorable line often attributed to Voltaire himself: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”

Voltaire helped establish a revolutionary attitude toward free speech in the mid-1700s that eventually became a sacred part of the First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech.” It’s a principle that has helped attract millions of immigrants to America for centuries.

Of course, there are few absolutes in government. U.S. courts outlawed speech that posed “a clear and present danger,” such as shouting fire in a crowded theater, or qualified as treason against the U.S. Libel and slander laws prohibit knowingly false statements about a person’s actions or character.

In the 1960s and 1970s, many notable free speech cases came through the courts. They classified burning the American flag (never a comfortable sight for me) as a form of free speech, and unsuccessfully tried to define and limit pornography. Currently, several cases concern removing “offensive” books from public and school libraries, mostly in the Midwest and South. Some of the books are considered classic literature, including “Huckleberry Finn,” “The Grapes of Wrath,” “To Kill a Mockingbird,” and “The Color Purple.”

Today, ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) is arresting people and throwing them in jail for their words and thoughts, not their actions. They arrested pro-Palestinian leader Mahmoud Khalil in New York March 8, then jailed him in New Jersey, and finally Louisiana. His crime? So far, the government hasn’t brought any charges. To repeat: He’s been arrested and held for weeks without any charges against him.

Dr. RashaAlawieh, a kidney transplant specialist for Brown University working under a legal visa, was forcibly deported. ICE blocked her from reentering the U.S. in Boston, then placed her on a flight to Lebanon. Again, no formal charges were filed, although Homeland Security officials charged in the press that she “sympathized” with the terrorist organization Hezbollah, and had pictures from a Hezbollah leader’s funeral on her phone.

It’s been almost 75 years since now-reviled Sen. Joe McCarthy, Donald Trump mentor Roy Cohn, and others destroyed the lives and careers of hundreds of people by labeling them either “communists” or “communist sympathizers” without proof or due process. After more than four years of sensational public hearings that delved deeply into people’s private lives, senators finally grew sick of McCarthy, ended the hearings and censured him.

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Recently, a New Yorker book review noted that McCarthyism was actually “a mode of politics rather than ideology. It meant hitting hard, moving fast, telling lies, and grabbing headlines,” a game plan we’ve witnessed repeatedly since Trump entered politics.

I haven’t studied all of Khalil’s or Alawieh’s words, and I certainly don’t know their private thoughts. I am sure that we would disagree on many things, especially on support and sympathy for Hamas and Hezbollah. But I’m going to follow Voltaire and his biographer rather than McCarthy and his witch hunt. We are a nation that guarantees freedom of speech and thought, with few exceptions.

After the aspirational Declaration of Independence opened with the unalienable rights to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” the Constitution’s framers enshrined them in its First Amendment, prohibiting government interference with the freedoms of religion, speech, the press, and the right to assemble.

Trump has never used words precisely (can tariffs really be “beautiful?”), and his evasive explanations can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear (read: tariffs). But his new favorite word, “illegal,” could have serious constitutional consequences. He recently suggested that not buying Tesla cars is illegal, and that reporting that criticized him (e.g., CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times, and others) is also.

He and his administration are attacking the concept of free speech, sidestepping or blatantly ignoring the checks and balances in the Constitution and Bill of Rights. They should follow the law, keep their hands off programs benefiting millions of Americans, and respect the fundamental liberties guaranteed by the radical dreamers who hammered them into shape nearly 250 years ago.

Allen Woods is a freelance writer, author of the Revolutionary-era historical fiction novel “The Sword and Scabbard,” and Greenfield resident. His column appears regularly on a Saturday. Comments are welcome here or at awoods2846@gmail.com.