Freedom of thought is one of the great and venerable notions of Western thought, often celebrated in philosophical texts ¿ and described as a crucial right in American, European, and International Law, and in that of other jurisdictions. What it means more precisely is, however, anything but clear; surprisingly little writing has been devoted to it. In the past, perhaps, there has been little need for such elaboration. As one Supreme Court Justice stressed, ¿[f]reedom to think is absolute of its own nature¿ because even ¿the most tyrannical government is powerless to control the inward workings of the mind.¿ But the rise of brain scanning, cognition