Is 'hate speech' protected under the 1st Amendment?

Is 'hate speech' protected under the 1st Amendment?

  • Yes

    Votes: 45 90.0%
  • No

    Votes: 1 2.0%
  • I don't know / Abstain / Other

    Votes: 4 8.0%

  • Total voters
    50

Cabal

Member
Joined
Sep 15, 2011
Messages
2,972
Sorry, kids, the 1st Amendment does protect 'hate speech'

A recent poll of college students’ attitudes toward free speech (in general and on campus) is a mixed bag.

The survey by McLaughlin & Associates for the William F. Buckley Jr. Program at Yale shows that 87% of respondents agreed with this statement: “There is educational value in listening to and understanding views and opinions that I may disagree with and are different from my own.”

That’s good news that runs counter to the narrative that campuses have been seized by a speech-stultifying political correctness.

On the other hand, 21% students -- and 30% of self-described liberals -- agreed with the statement that the 1st Amendment was an “outdated amendment that can no longer be applied in today’s society and should be changed.”

Also remarkable was the fact that 35% of respondents agreed that “hate speech is NOT protected under the 1st Amendment.”

When the editor-in-chief of the student newspaper at Williams College recanted an editorial that had suggested that “some speech is too harmful to invite to campus,” she added this qualification: “Students should not face restrictions in terms of the speakers they bring to campus, provided of course that these speakers do not participate in forms of legally recognized hate speech.”

The problem is that there is no such thing.

As Eugene Volokh of UCLA law school pointed out on his blog in the Washington Post: “Hateful ideas (whatever exactly that might mean) are just as protected under the 1st Amendment as other ideas. One is as free to condemn Islam — or Muslims, or Jews, or blacks, or whites, or illegal aliens, or native-born citizens — as one is to condemn capitalism or Socialism or Democrats or Republicans.”

(Volokh’s parenthesis about “whatever exactly that might mean” points to a different issue: the defining down of the word “hate.” Opposing same-sex marriage, a position embraced not that long ago by President Obama, is sometimes viewed as anti-gay hate speech. So is criticism of the Catholic Church. Bill Donohue of the Catholic League asserted that a Jon Stewart skit involving a Nativity scene "ranks with the most vulgar expression of hate speech ever aired on television.")

So where does the idea that the 1st Amendment doesn’t protect hate speech come from?

...

First Amendment to the United States Constitution

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

The First Amendment (Amendment I) to the United States Constitution prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering with the right to peaceably assemble or prohibiting the petitioning for a governmental redress of grievances. It was adopted on December 15, 1791, as one of the ten amendments that constitute the Bill of Rights.
 
The 1st Amendment doesn't protect anything and it doesn't bestow rights. It restrains government. Failing to keep that clear results in muddled articles like that in the OP. For example, if a student at Yale (which did the study) were asked "Is the university prohibition on hate speech a violation of the First Amendment?" The correct answer is "no". Yale University is not restrained in any way by the First Amendment because it is not the government.
 
On the other hand, 21% students -- and 30% of self-described liberals -- agreed with the statement that the 1st Amendment was an “outdated amendment that can no longer be applied in today’s society and should be changed.”

Also remarkable was the fact that 35% of respondents agreed that “hate speech is NOT protected under the 1st Amendment.”

Nice.
 
Leftists have always been the biggest fascists. They can't even argue for equality without complaining that evil, malicious ppl are secretly coordinating to ruin poor ppl's lives. Seriously, leftism has been built around hate and class warfare bullshit from the very beginning.
 
I abstain because I do not acknowledge "hate" speech as a category of speech, therefore I cannot vote either way on whether it is protected. It's like asking if unicorns like to eat carrots.
 
It is the very rancidified group-identity zealous "progressives" who blurt out "hate speech"; furthermore, they only believe in freedom of speech for themselves (99% of them) and if you are characterized by the following groups: "white," heterosexual," "Christian" (especially if you are a patriot), "male," and "conservative" (including conservatarians) you are the insurmountable oppressors and the first amendment never applies to you (in all sincerity, the Bill of Rights is always discarded by contemporary progressive and neocon governments for everyone including minorities). I'm 4 of those things as-well as a natural born non-theist with Asperger's syndrome who is proud of being non-afflicted with a victimhood mentality.
 
Last edited:
I abstain because I do not acknowledge "hate" speech as a category of speech, therefore I cannot vote either way on whether it is protected.

Are you implying there exists a category of speech that would not be protected under the 1st Amendment?
 
Are you implying there exists a category of speech that would not be protected under the 1st Amendment?

Of course. For example, fraudulent misrepresentations, libel, and slander can be the basis for civil suits regardless of the First Amendment. Fraud can even be a criminal act.
 
Back
Top