Fair use is a exemption that exists in copyright law. It's not free speech.

> Fair use is a exemption that exists in copyright law. It's not free speech.

Fair use was a judicially-created copyright law doctrine founded on the First Amendment freedom of speech and press before it was codified, in a very loose form closely mirroring the pre-existing judicially-created factors, into the copyright statutes in 1976. So it is an express exemption in statutory copyright law, but it is also closely tied to First Amendment free speech/press.

And, independently of whether the statutory exemption applies, that the First Amendment freedom of speech and press limits the scope of exclusive rights that can be granted in copyright and permits those rights nominally assigned in the statute to be violated when the government grant of those exclusive rights would conflict with speech/press freedoms is the entire foundation of the pre-existing fair use doctrine.