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Careful How You Handle Hated Speech, Says First Amendment Expert

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Careful How You Handle Hated Speech, Says First Amendment Expert

FRANKLIN COLLEGE—Debates about when free speech goes too far and how to regulate hate speech cropped up across the country when the Jan. 6 insurrectionists’ actions came under question. Following Jan. 6, many state legislatures have considered or enacted laws to suppress public protest.

But according to Nadine Strossen, a New York Law School professor emerita and past president of the American Civil Liberties Union, Americans must resist that urge.

“Our detestation of them alone is not a justification for government censorship that would constitute viewpoint-based discrimination,” she said. “And we defend freedom, even for the thought we hate.”

Franklin College hosted Strossen at the first installment of its annual convocation lecture series Wednesday evening. The event was focused on free speech and moderated by John Krull, director of the Pulliam School of Journalism and publisher of TheStatehouseFile.com. Strossen’s lifelong work has involved preserving free speech in U.S. society. She recently authored “HATE: Why We Should Resist It With Free Speech, Not Censorship.”

Free speech is one of five rights that fall under the protections of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, the others being freedom of the press, freedom of religion, freedom to peacefully assemble, and freedom to petition the government.

Strossen said the best way to summarize her stance on disagreements about free speech would be a friend’s definition of the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you too.
“That’s what civil liberties are in essence … You can’t be result oriented or selective in defending free speech because once you see the power of government to pick certain ideas or speakers that are disfavored, you can guarantee that that power is going to be turned around and used against exactly the opposite ideas and very different speakers,” Strossen said.
The conference was the college’s way to commemorate the signing of the U.S. Constitution and Constitution Day, observed on Sept. 17.
“Freedom of speech is the beginning of the freedom of thought,” Strossen said. “On an individual level, it is incredibly important to our identity, our autonomy as human beings on a societal level. It has many important functions.”

—Sydney Byerly

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