Can you give me the rule that supports not yelling fire? Or how to
distinguish fighting words in all cases?
Context matters. Method matters. Calculated to inflame another matters.
Of course you may disagree with other speech rrestrictions because a
computer cannot apply them in a simple syllogistic manner-- fair
enough, but all such rules have boundaries worked out over time.
Sent from Steve Jamar's iPhone
On Sep 16, 2010, at 4:34 PM, "Volokh, Eugene" <vol...@law.ucla.edu>
wrote:
I indeed believe that people should be free to
express hatred of the Koran, or of Christianity, or of America, or
of Israel, or of Iran, or of whatever else. And I think the
suggestion that people could be punished – maybe even sent to prison
, yes? – for expressing hatred of the Koran or of Islam just helps s
how the problem with “hate speech” laws.
But the deeper problem with many calls for regulation
of hate speech, including this one, is that they almost never come
with a clear definition of just what constitutes the “hate
speech” that people could now be punished for. Can we have a defini
tion out on the table, so we can figure just what else besides burni
ng the Koran would be punishable? (Would it, for instance, allow pe
ople to be imprisoned for published the Mohammed cartoons? For argu
ing that Catholicism is a diabolical religion, or for that matter a
harmful one?)
Eugene
From: religionlaw-boun...@lists.ucla.edu [mailto:religionlaw-
boun...@lists.ucla.edu] On Behalf Of Steven Jamar
Sent: Thursday, September 16, 2010 12:24 PM
To: Law & Religion issues for Law Academics
Cc: religionlaw@lists.ucla.edu
Subject: Re: N.J. public transit employee fired for blasphemy
This case is easy if one accepts the legitimacy of regulating and in
some instances curtailing hate speech.
I know Eugene does not.
Sent from Steve Jamar's iPhone
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