Law Commons^™

Restricting Hate Speech Against Private Figures: Lessons In Power-Based Censorship From Defamation Law, Victor C. Romero

Journal Articles

This article examines the debate between those who favor greater protection for minorities vulnerable to hate speech and First Amendment absolutists who are skeptical of any burdens on pure speech. The author also provides another perspective on the debate by highlighting the "public/private figure" distinction as an area within First Amendment law that acknowledges differences in power, a construct anti-hate speech advocates should use to further their cause. Specifically, the author places the "public/private figure" division in a theoretical and historical context and then provides empirical support for the thesis that whites enjoy a more prominent societal role and greater …

The Importance Of Being Biased, Anthony M. Dillof

Michigan Law Review

The war against bias crimes is far from finished. In contrast, the battle over bias-crime laws is largely over. Bias-crime laws, as commonly formulated, increase the penalties for crimes motivated by bias. The Supreme Court has held that such laws do not violate the First Amendment. Virtually every state has enacted some sort of biascrime law. Even the federal government, which may consider itself without power to enact a general bias-crime law, has made bias a sentence-aggravating factor for the range of federal criminal offenses. Bias-crime laws thus are an established feature of the legal landscape. Against this background, Frederick …

Racist Speech, Outsider Jurisprudence, And The Meaning Of America, Steven H. Shiffrin

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

University Hate Speech Codes: A Necessary Method In The Process Of Eradicating The Universal Wrong Of Racism, Nooshin Namazi, James H. Cahill

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Racist Speech, Democracy, And The First Amendment, Robert C. Post

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Title Vii As Censorship: Hostile Environment Harassment And The First Amendment, Kingsley R. Browne

Law Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.

Free Speech: It's Great For Hate, Kenneth Lasson

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Public Response To Racist Speech: Considering The Victim's Story, Mari J. Matsuda

Michigan Law Review

The threat of hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan and the neo-Nazi skinheads goes beyond their repeated acts of illegal violence. Their presence and the active dissemination of racist propaganda means that citizens are denied personal security and liberty as they go about their daily lives. Professor Richard Delgado recognized the harm of racist speech in his breakthrough article, Words That Wound, in which he suggested a tort remedy for injury from racist words. This Article takes inspiration from Professor Delgado's position, and makes the further suggestion that formal criminal and administrative sanction - public as opposed to private …

Racism In Great Britain: Drawing The Line On Free Speech, Kenneth Lasson

All Faculty Scholarship

On any given Sunday in Hyde Park, London's huge urban sanctuary of tailored ponds and manicured gardens, one is likely to hear outrageous and provocative public utterances about race and religion. A few of those venting their spleen here are practicing rhetoricians, a few are clearly acting-but others are absolutely sincere in their hatemongering and passionate in their vilification. All of them are focal points for assembled spectators of varying classes, many of whom are professional hecklers. The police, milling about to put down possible disturbances of the peace, are seldom called upon to quell roused rabble. Thus is this …

In Defense Of Group-Libel Laws, Or Why The First Amendment Should Not Protect Nazis, Kenneth Lasson

All Faculty Scholarship

The author discusses group libel laws, and the underlying problems when free speech is used as a defense by those who would defame specific racial or ethnic groups and/or minorities. The topic is further explained in reference to various state laws, and the subsequent court cases extant at the time of the article's writing which defined the issue in terms of law. References are also made to such laws in countries other than the United States for the sake of comparison.

Student Publications, The First Amendment, And State Speech, T. D. Buckley Jr.

Cleveland State Law Review

The lower federal courts and state courts have been applying the first amendment in student press cases arising at public colleges and high schools since 1967. But ordinary first amendment analysis is inadequate in most student press disputes. As a result the courts in some cases have been unable to articulate satisfactorily the bases for good decisions. And in other cases the real issues generated in student press litigations have been ignored. This Article evaluates the cases so far decided, and proposes a new approach to student press disputes which would rationalize what the courts have intuitively done correctly in …

Constitutional Law-Civil Rights-Threat Of Mob Violence As Justification For Restraint On Exercise Of Right To Travel In Interstate Commerce, Chester A. Skinner

Michigan Law Review

Pursuant to a plan to test for racial segregation in interstate commerce facilities, white and Negro students traveled through Alabama on an interstate bus journey. In Birmingham and Anniston, the students were assaulted by members of the Ku Klux Klan and other conspirators; at or near Anniston one of the buses was destroyed. On arrival at Montgomery, the students were again assaulted and intimidated by members of the Ku Klux Klan and various other individuals. The Montgomery police, with full knowledge of the impending violence, did nothing to protect the personal safety of the interstate travelers. The plaintiff, United States, …