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, “HateSpeech 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.

Transcript of Interview: https://www.thefire.org/research-learn/so-speak-podcast-transcript-should-first-amendment-protect-hate-speech

Timestamps

0:00 Introduction
5:34 Why write about hate speech?
8:50 Has the Supreme Court ruled on hate speech?
13:56What speech falls outside First Amendment protection?
16:44The history of the First Amendment
20:00Fighting words and Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire (1942)
24:00How does the Supreme Court determine what speech is protected?
35:24Defining hate speech
38:54Debating the value of hate speech
44:02Defining hate speech (again)
50:30Abuses of hate speech codes
1:00:10Skokie
1:02:39Current Supreme Court and hate speech
1:06:00Outro

Show Notes
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