On Sun, Feb 07, 1999 at 02:08:51AM -0800, Javilk wrote:
>If we ban publication of hate literature per se, where does it stop?
The issue in the case discussed here is NOT hate literature, which enjoys
constitutional protection.
The issue is speech outside the bounds of that which enjoys constitutional
protection under the First Amendment. (e.g. fire-in-a-crowded-theater)
It is easy to claim that *all* speech should be protected, but this is
an abstract ideal which cannot be consistently maintained while
simultaneously guaranteeing other rights. The process of delineating
the bounds of protected speech then becomes a balancing act, which
the Supreme Court has attempted to carry on for nearly two centuries:
On the one hand, it is desirable to make those bounds as wide as possible;
on the other, it is sometimes necessary to impose limits when conflicts
arise with other rights (or with the rights of others).
So the answer to "where does it stop?" is that it stops when either
(a) it bumps into one of the bounds that circumscribe the right
of free speech as determined by the Supreme Court or (b) it ceases
to be speech and becomes conduct, which is not covered by the
First Amendment.
(BTW, This is why flag-burning is such a thorny issue: on one hand,
it can be argued that it is a form of political speech, and the Court
has a very long history of being especially sensitive to this particular
form of speech. On the other, it's also an action.)
---Rsk
Rich Kulawiec
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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