Faculty Scholarship Repository
A Service of the Ross-Blakley Law Library
| Book Chapter |
| Hate Speech, Viewpoint Neutrality, and the American Concept of Democracy |
| James Weinstein |
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The Boundaries of Freedom of Expression & Order in American Democracy Thomas R. Hensley ed., Kent State University Press 2001 |
| Library Access |
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Abstract: Are laws banning racist speech inconsistent with democracy? Most American legal scholars, and more importantly, the U.S. Supreme Court believe that they are. But if we lift our eyes for a moment from the official reports of the United States Supreme Court, we will notice that most other democracies in the world today have some sort of ban on racist speech. In this article, I shall first discuss the relationship between free speech and democracy. I shall then review the basic structure of American free speech doctrine, including the values that underlie it, and show how a ban on racist propaganda would run afoul of the First Amendment. We will then be in a position to inquire whether various types of hate-speech laws comport with the commitment to democratic self-governance. I conclude that the answer is both more complex and more equivocal than most American commentators suppose. |
| 317 |
| Total Views |