Offensive Speech and Unpopular Association
Susan Dente Ross · 2004
The Supreme Court has clearly and consistently established that the First Amendment protects the right to express unpopular or offensive ideas.1 The Court has reasoned that the benefits of such speech far exceed its costs to an open marketplace of ideas. The Court fundamentally asserts that the candid exchange of extreme, radical, vulgar and even repulsive views is vital to the search for truth advanced by the First Amendment. Thus, government efforts to eliminate unpopular or offensive speech strike at the heart of the First Amendment and constitute the very essence of censorship.2