The Complex Landscape 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)