Ep. 212: Should the First Amendment protect hate speech?

In America, hate speech is generally protected by the First Amendment.

But should it be?

Today’s guest is out with a new book, “Hate Speech is Not Free: The Case Against First Amendment Protection.”

W. Wat Hopkins is emeritus professor of communication at Virginia Tech, where he taught communication law and cyberspace law. 

Timestamps

0:00 Introduction

5:34 Why write about hate speech?

8:50 Has the Supreme Court ruled on hate speech?

13:56 What speech falls outside First Amendment protection?

16:44 The history of the First Amendment

20:00 Fighting words and Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire (1942)

24:00 How does the Supreme Court determine what speech is protected?

35:24 Defining hate speech

38:54 Debating the value of hate speech

44:02 Defining hate speech (again)

50:30 Abuses of hate speech codes

1:00:10 Skokie

1:02:39 Current Supreme Court and hate speech

1:06:00 Outro

Show Notes 

Transcript

Scotland’s “Hate Crime and Public Order Act”

Matal v. Tam (2017)

Snyder v. Phelps (2011)

Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association (2011)

United States v. Stevens (2010)

Virginia v. Black (2003)

R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul (1992)

National Socialist Party of America v. Village of Skokie (1977)

Police Department of Chicago v. Mosley (1972)

Beauharnais v. Illinois (1952)

Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire (1942)

“HATE: Why We Should Resist it With Free Speech, Not Censorship” by Nadine Strossen