General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: This flag in Virginia needs to go as well. [View all]merrily
(45,251 posts)to seditious speech, whether certain specific words create a clear and present danger, etc. Even the Court is not always unanimous on particular wording. But, those are the kinds of First Amendment decisions courts have made year in and year out for centuries.
My view that hate speech should be another exception to absolute First Amendment protection may never prevail, and I get that, too. Republicans in particular seem to have a libertarian approach to the First Amendment, since the Rehnquist Court anyway. And that has so far culminated in holding that money is political speech and corporations are people and therefore Congress can do zero about money and secrecy in political campaigns. I don't agree with that either.
Still, I would like to see the extreme forms of hate speech go unprotected. I think we are becoming more and more conscious that it is deadly. It causes people to kill African Americans and gays and to blow up federal buildings. I don't think the nation or freedom will suffer much if people are not totally free to urge others again and again to do that kind of shit. I don't think courts carving out some limited, reasonable exceptions to absolute First Amendment protection of that kind of speech will destroy liberty in general.