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In reply to the discussion: Philly buses ordered to accept ads featuring Hitler & 1941 Palestinian leader [View all]Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)repeatedly over and mis-used "exception to free speech" which, actually, isn't.
To wit, to argue that "you can't yell fire in a crowded theater" and then claim that somehow any speech which might piss people off is equivalent to that, is doubly incorrect. For one, aside from on the palatial estates of commonly accepted wisdom which isn't, actually, legal precedent, "yelling fire in a crowded theater" isn't some sort of tried-and-true exception to the 1st Amendment.
But leaving aside that, again, vastly overused limited circumstance example, no, "saying something that might piss people off" or "saying something nasty that might make some people not like other people" are NOT 'like yelling fire' nor are they exceptions to the 1st Amendment. If a gay man were to get up on stage at CPAC or a Southern Baptist convention and say "I'm Gay", it very well might piss a bunch of people in the audience off, some of them so much that they might argue they were "forced to" respond violently.
Does that mean the man does not have the 1st Amendment right to speak? No, it does not.
Furthermore, even bigoted speech, obnoxious speech, racist speech or so-called "hate speech" is likewise still protected by the 1AM. Whether or not it "might stir up fear and hatred" is irrelevant. Doesn't mean the speech isn't obnoxious and, yes, hateful, but it is still protected by the 1st Amendment.
Now, none of that to my mind means that a metro bus system has to accept all ads, but if it is strictly a 1st Amendment issue then on those grounds, yes.