Posted by Eugene Volokh:
Be Careful What You Wish For:
One thing I noticed recently is the increasing sentiment among some
American Jews in favor of "hate speech" restrictions, especially given
the recent incidents of anti-Semitism at some universities. I just ran
into that a couple of days ago on a Jewish academics' discussion list
on which I'm a passive reader. The [1]Australian decision that found
harsh criticism of Islam illegal should, I think, be a reminder that
hate speech bans can bite anyone.
Many people think such laws will ban criticism (which they think is
hateful, and much of which may indeed be hateful) of their group. But
they quickly discover that the laws easily spread, and soon spread to
criticisms that you yourself may want to make -- though of course
you'll make such criticisms much more fairly and temperately, and
naturally you're completely sure that a hostile judiciary will
recognize this and find your speech to be different, right?
Justice Douglas put it well when dissenting from Beauharnais v.
Illinois, a 1952 case that upheld a law that banned libels of races
and religions (and that is fortunately widely believed to have been
implicitly overruled):
Today a white man stands convicted for protesting in unseemly
language against our decisions invalidating restrictive covenants.
Tomorrow a negro will be hailed before a court for denouncing lynch
law in heated terms. Farm laborers in the west who compete with
field hands drifting up from Mexico; whites who feel the pressure
of orientals; a minority which finds employment going to members of
the dominant religious group -- all of these are caught in the mesh
of today�s decision.
Today you may want Aryan racists or Muslim radicals to be convicted
for condemning Jews. Tomorrow a Christian will be hailed before a
court for denouncing Islam in heated terms. The next day someone with
perfectly fair and sensible criticisms of Islam will be convicted
because his views seem too radical or not sufficiently balanced for
the judicial elites of the time.
References
1. http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2005_02_27-2005_03_05.shtml#1109774462
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