{"id":9120,"date":"2007-05-24T18:30:00","date_gmt":"2007-05-25T01:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/?p=9120"},"modified":"2007-05-24T18:30:00","modified_gmt":"2007-05-25T01:30:00","slug":"theres-no-such-thing-as-free-speech-and-its-not-a-good-thing-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/?p=9120","title":{"rendered":"There’s no such thing as free speech (and it’s not a good thing, too)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Unless there are some facts here that are missing from the news coverage, this prosecution strikes me as a clear and serious constitutional violation. And it is evidence that fears that “hate crimes” laws will become “hate speech” bans are not implausible.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nSo argues Eugene Volokh, referencing<\/a> a case in which two 16-year-old high school students have been arrested on felony hate crime charges<\/a> in Illinois for posting fliers with the legend “God Hates Fags” and featuring a picture of a two males kissing, one of whom is a fellow student with whom one of the girls had been having a conflict.\n<\/p>\n

\nAn interesting legal discussion taking place in the comments, with one lawyer noting:<\/p>\n

\n

The whole point of “hate crimes” legislation is to stifle speech that is not politically correct. Locking up fundamentalists preachers, or at least denying their churches’ 501(c)(3) status, is soon to follow. The Supreme Court has already held that normal first amendment rights don’t apply near abortion clinics. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a similar result here.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

—while others continue to scoff at the “slippery slope” arguments made by those of us who remain convinced that “hate crimes” legislation (which Volokh notes are “generally constitutional,”<\/a> though bad policy) was merely an important foundational step in a legal and public policy movement to weaken the First Amendment, redefine “tolerance,” and move toward a more Euro-centric view of speech protection, a “progressive” model that tends to protect aggrieved groups from offensive speech, rather than protecting unpopular speech that doesn’t rise to the level of threat from those who may be offended by it.<\/p>\n

\nIt is the First Amendment essentially turned on its head—and the test cases almost always will be drawn from instances where members of some aggrieved group are publicly humiliated by speech that is not (if I’m understanding the facts of this case) knowingly intended to incite violence.\n<\/p>\n

\nBesides, libel is generally handled in the civil courts.  Here, the girls are being charged with criminal felony for uttering unpopular (and very Phelpsian) speech that is, potentially, in keeping with their religious beliefs.  Which raises a whole other host of first amendment concerns.\n<\/p>\n

\nWill the ACLU step in here?  Or have they become so politicized and intent on pushing for a particular ideological agenda that they will shrug this off as a matter of local concern?\n<\/p>\n

\nBecause having read a recent feministe thread on “Lookism,” I fear that we have a large contingency in the US who have been reared on illiberal concepts of speech who would readily accept a complete revision of the First Amendment—to the point where it becomes its opposite, much like (as I discussed earlier<\/a>) “patriotism,” “tolerance,” and other terms that have been carefully usurped and re-crafted by those enthralled by an egalitarian agenda that would enforce equality of outcome by policing the discourse that identifies and pressures philosophical difference.\n<\/p>\n

\nWe are, that is to say, on dangerous ground here.  And I wouldn’t leave it up to the politicians—who are increasingly dependent on swing voter “blocs” (read: identity groups)—to stand on principle; nor am I comfortable allowing those who found “hate crimes” constitutional in the first place to begin contorting and decontextualizing prior anti-speech precedent for fear that they might reach a politically-motivated conclusion that will carry with it the imprimatur of constitutionality.\n<\/p>\n

\nCertain slippery slope arguments are, of course, problematic.  But remember:  it was the anti-smoking crusaders who mocked what they called “the slippery slope argument” that a ban on food or “unhealthy behavior” would surely follow.\n<\/p>\n

\nAnd today we have the banning of trans fats, additional taxes on soft drinks, and a New York Mayor who wants to ban incandescent light bulbs.\n<\/p>\n

\nTime to get concerned, I’d say, if you aren’t already…\n<\/p>\n

\n(thanks to Dan C)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unless there are some facts here that are missing from the news coverage, this prosecution strikes me as a clear and serious constitutional violation. And it is evidence that fears that “hate crimes” laws will become “hate speech” bans are not implausible. So argues Eugene Volokh, referencing a case in which two 16-year-old high school students have been arrested on felony hate crime charges in Illinois for posting fliers with<\/p>\n

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