Legal Studies Assignment

Even though hate speech can be damaging to the targeted victims, it still cannot be set to a standard or principle because it is hard to define what is and is not hate speech. Hate speech is so wide-ranging and vast, no limit can be set to regulate it. What some groups may consider to be hateful and demeaning, others groups deem to be their founding principles and beliefs. A study taken place at University of Colorado quotes, "Often, when hate speech prohibitions are in place, people engaged in serious intergroup conflicts simply refuse to talk at all, preventing constructive problem solving and allowing tensions to build." American Civil Liberties Union suggests the best way to counterattack hate speech is to not censor it, but to respond with more moral speech. ACLU goes by the principles that the rights of free speech are indivisible:

As of today, the supreme court has interpreted the first amendment to say “The First Amendment provides no protection for obscenity, child pornography, or speech that constitutes what has become widely known as “fighting words.” The First Amendment provides less than full protection to commercial speech, defamation (libel and slander), speech that may be harmful to children, speech broadcast on radio and television (as opposed to speech transmitted via cable or the Internet), and public employees’ speech.”(Ruane, Kathleen Ann) with this loose definition in mind many people have begun to think whether freedom of speech should be further limited to several cases seen in recent years such as what happened in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Mental Illness - The prisoner’s moral culpability for his offending is reduced by reason of his mental illness and the objective

In this paper I will analyze the arguments presented in Caroline West’s article, “Words That Silence? Freedom of Express and Racist Hate Speech.” Here West probes what is meant by free speech and in so doing, identifies three dimensions of speech from which the value of free speech derives. These are production and distribution, comprehension, and consideration. Her major premise is that absent requirements of comprehension or consideration, free speech lacks the value it is generally accorded. West argues that allowing the production and distribution of racist hate speech has a silencing effect on, not only the production and distribution of speech by racial minorities, but the comprehension and consideration of their speech as well. She concludes that this silencing may have a net effect of diminishing free speech.

As hate crimes have risen in number during the past five years; many state governments have attempted to prevent such crimes by passing laws called bias laws. These laws make a crime that is motivated by hatred based on the victim’s race, religion, ethnic background, or sexual orientation a more serious crime than such an act would ordinarily be. Many people believe that these laws violate the criminal’s freedom of speech. Many hate group members say that freedom of speech is the right to say or write or publish one’s thoughts, or to express one’s self, they also say that this right is guaranteed to all Americans. But people and organizations who are against these hate groups ask themselves if the first amendment include and protect all form of expression, even those that ugly or hurtful like the burning crosses. The Supreme Court Justices have decided that some kinds of speech are not protected by the Constitution,

On January 13, 2015, the applicant was placed on probation for offences of injuring animals and trespass. These offences were committed on November 9, 2014, when the applicant was 12 years old. In this instance, the applicant caught and beat two sheep, later letting them be mauled by a dog. While there was no conviction recorded for these offences, the applicant was sentenced to three months probation.

In 1999, Maria Avila was hired as a housekeeper by Saratoga Hostel; she was 42 years old. Her duties included: cleaning twelve rooms a day, doing some laundry, and cleaning the hallways as well. Due to the economic crisis of 2009, Saratoga Hostel hired a new business consultant to find ways to reduce costs and personnel. The housekeeping department let go 3 of their 10 employees. The manager then decided to train all employees to clean 14 rooms per day instead of 12. When the training was over, 3 employees could not handle the pressure of the new routine, Avila was of them. These three employees were given another week of training. After that week, when

-There was a reckless lack of interest or concern to human life, resulting in death. (an example of this is a person unloads a firearm in a crowded street.

This act was supposed to be a step forward in the nation’s long-stalled efforts to curb racial discrimination. However, it condemns unjustly discriminatory language as “unforgivable,” but it does not legally ban hate speech and sets no penalty for committing it. In the United States, hate speech cases goes through a scrutiny test based on two crucial factors; content-based and content-neutral. Additionally, this test is used by the supreme court to determine the rhetoric of hate speech.

In order to hold a media defendant liable for statements made about a public figure, _____ must be established on the part of the media defendant.

As a constitutional right, people often exercise their right to freedom of speech believing that they also have the right to voice their opinions which can be provocative to opposing parties no matter where they stand. There is a defining line between what can be constituted as hate speech and free speech. Depending on the way that it is expressed, voicing an opinion can easily be misinterpreted causing certain people to feel threatened or attacked, then leading to dangerous physical outbursts. The right to exercise one’s own opinion that can challenge or provoke others should be deterred or at least limited if safety of all parties, even those not directly involved, cannot be guaranteed.

It has caused a major uproar of violence amongst the extreme right wing Muslims. On the afternoon of January 7, 2015, two lone gunman entered the headquarters of the Charlie Hebdo magazine, and open fired on the employees killing twelve of them. In the aftermath of this attack, the magazine sold over six million copies of their cartoons, instead of their average of around sixty thousand copies. Since the attack on Charlie Hebdo headquarters, it has garnered massive support from all around the world, and many public figures have expressed their condolences to the victims and their

Like most democratic nations in the world, the United States has had its own fair share of issues with hate speech. There has been a lot of controversy over whether hate speech should be regulated. In analyzing the concept of free speech, one cannot ignore that it does not occur in a vacuum. There have been all types of debasements ranging from ethnic, religious, racial and gendered stereotyping. Freedom of speech inherently includes all other fundamental human rights. Hence, as acknowledged through natural rights, other rights and personhood should adamantly be included within this scope of this protection. Hate speech is a limit on free speech, as it not only puts the victim under deliberate psychological and physical harm, but also

The tests used by the federal government used to determine if certain types of speech can be censored or banned are as follows. The clear and present danger test which is a test where the government can restrict speech if there is evidence that the speech will cause a clear and present dangerous condition to the public(Bardes&Shelley, 2014, p.122). Direct incitement test protects the advocacy of illegal action under the First Amendment unless imminent action is likely to happen. For Instance, it can apply to the Supreme Court case Brandenburg v. Ohio when a KKK leader’s conviction was overturned (Bardes&Shelley, 2014, p.123). Bad Tendency test is when speech has a tendency to induce to induce illegal behavior (Notes). As defined in the Gitlow case when a left wing group was convicted of publishing a pamphlet that urged a violent overthrow of U.S. government (Bardes&Shelley, 2014, p.123). The Test Defamation of character, or Libel is ruining an individual’s good name in which the law bans individuals from making false, defamatory statements about others this includes slander (Bardes&Shelley, 2014, p.124).

Speech that attacks a person or group of people on the basis of race, gender, or sexual orientation is regarded as hateful. It has the potential to incite violence or prejudicial action against or by a protected group of people. In Millian Principles, Freedom of Expression, and Hate Speech, Mill makes the claim that essentially all speech, including hate speech, should be allowed. This claim holds its validity as long as no harm is done to an individual. Here, I will show that low value speech fails to engage deliberative views that underlie central first amendment fundamental liberties. Subsequently, I will support these claims by comparing the aspects of hate speech to low value speech. Lastly, I advocate for the prohibition against the use of hate speech in a university setting.