Ep. 227: Should there be categories of unprotected speech?

The FIRE team debates the proposition: Should there be any
categories of unprotected speech?

General Counsel Ronnie London and Chief Counsel Bob Corn-Revere
go through each category of speech falling outside First
Amendment protection to decide whether it should remain
unprotected or if it’s time to “remove an arrow from the
government’s quiver.”


Read the transcript.


Timestamps: 


00:00 Intro


17:59 Obscenity


21:20 Child pornography


25:25 Fighting words


32:36 Defamation


41:22 Incitement to imminent lawless action


52:07 True threats


56:30 False advertising and hate speech


01:02:50 Outro


Show notes:


-Court cases:




Schenck v. United States (1919)




Near v. Minnesota Ex Rel. Olson, County Attorney (1931)




Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire (1942)




Roth v. United States (1957)




Miller v. California (1973)




R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul, Minnesota (1992)




Counterman v. Colorado (2023)




Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969)




New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964)




Virginia v. Barry Elton Black, Richard J. Elliot, and
Jonathan O’Mara (2003)




United States v. Xavier Alvarez (2012)




-Legislation:




The Comstock Act (1873)




The Stolen Valor Act (2005)