Day by Day Cartoon by Chris Muir

Friday, May 8, 2015

No, there’s no “hate speech” exception to the First Amendment

From Eugene Volokh:
I keep hearing about a supposed "hate speech" exception to the First Amendment, or statements such as, "This isn't free speech, it's hate speech," or "When does free speech stop and hate speech begin?" But there is no hate speech exception to the First Amendment. Hateful ideas (whatever exactly that might mean) are just as protected under the First Amendment as other ideas. ...To be sure, there are some kinds of speech that are unprotected by the First Amendment. But those narrow exceptions have nothing to do with "hate speech" in any conventionally used sense of the term.
This is something liberals need to understand. They love the Constitution as a living document and want to change it to reflect THEIR values. They don't understand the purpose of the Constitution is to protect the minority, something they will be in ceryt soon, hopefully for a very long time.

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