The U.S. Supreme Court voted 8-0 on Monday to reaffirm that hate speech is still free speech.
The case before the justices concerned a trademark registration application for a band called The Slants. The trademark office deemed the term offensive to asians and rejected the application.
The ruling comes at a time when leftist groups nationwide are using the hate speech label to silence the voices of those whose opinions they do not share. Hate speech was the label used by the violent protesters at Berkeley University who shut down a speech by right-wing speaker and former Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos. Talks by conservative speakers have similarly been disrupted and shut down by violent leftist protesters using hate speech as a pretext.
“Speech that demeans on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, religion, age, disability, or any other similar ground is hateful; but the proudest boast of our free speech jurisprudence is that we protect the freedom to express ”the thought that we hate,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote on behalf of four of the justices.
Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing on behalf of four of the other justices, stated:
“A law that can be directed against speech found offensive to some portion of the public can be turned against minority and dissenting views to the detriment of all. The First Amendment does not entrust that power to the government’s benevolence. Instead, our reliance must be on the substantial safeguards of free and open discussion in a democratic society.”
Surprisingly, no dissent emerged from the left-leaning justices.
