The Briefing Room
General Category => Editorial/Opinion/Blogs => Topic started by: rangerrebew on April 25, 2017, 01:01:09 pm
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Hate speech is free speech, Gov. Dean: Glenn Reynolds
Glenn Harlan Reynolds 1:48 p.m. ET April 24, 2017
The former governor showed himself to be a constitutional illiterate on Twitter.
I tell my constitutional law students that there are a couple of statements that indicate that a speaker is a constitutional illiterate who can safely be ignored. One is the claim that the Constitution views black people as ⅗ the worth of white people (actually, it was all about power in Congress, with slaveowners wanting black people to count 100% toward apportionment so that slaveowners would get more seats in Congress, and abolitionists wanting them not counted at all so that slaveowners would get fewer seats in Congress; the ⅗ compromise was just that, a compromise).
The other hallmark of constitutional illiteracy is the claim that the First Amendment doesn’t protect “hate speech.” And by making that claim last week, Howard Dean, former governor of Vermont and Democratic presidential candidate, revealed himself to be a constitutional illiterate. Then, predictably, he doubled down on his ignorance.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2017/04/24/free-speech-first-amendment-hate-howard-dean-glenn-reynolds-column/100815564/
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Its not that progressives are constitutionally illiterate. In fact most academic progressives are fully aware of what the constitution says and what it represents. They lie about it because they do know and your average progressive on the street just repeats what they hear.
Playing stupid is a strategy and we should not fight them on that ground. Our strategy should be to expose their deception.
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Of course, the first question is who defines what is so called hate speech