Favoring Free Speech
Chris Demaske · 2020
In comparison to the international community, the United States is significantly more lenient regarding hate speech. In the United States, hate speech traditionally has been protected by the First Amendment. Hate speech has a long history of contentious court rulings in the United States and has generated much debate about whether it should be protected by the First Amendment in all circumstances, some circumstances, or not at all. This chapter explores the history of the legal treatment of hate speech restrictions through US Supreme Court rulings. Following that review, it highlights and discusses the implications of the key legal doctrines that the Court has relied upon in those cases. The chapter talks about a pattern that emerges in Supreme Court hate speech related cases that illustrates the historical movement from the successful application of the fighting words doctrine to a reliance on reasoning grounded almost exclusively in content neutrality and true threats doctrine.