NCJ Number
132686
Journal
Criminal Law Forum Volume: 2 Issue: 1 Dated: (Autumn 1990) Pages: 117-126
Date Published
1990
Length
10 pages
Annotation
Most nations guarantee freedom of speech to the extent necessary to ensure free trade in ideas. However, sometimes these guarantees are illusory because of limitations that exempt many of the most hateful ideas from protection.
Abstract
In determining whether absolute protection should be given to free trade in ideas, it should be ascertained why protection is necessary at all. At some level, protecting hateful ideas is counter intuitive. However, it is not the role of a democratic government to tell its citizens what they should think. Because the principle supporting free trade in ideas is the legal disability of a democratic government to separate good ideas from bad for the free people that it governs, there can be no limit on the principle. Much of the abuse to which minorities are subjected should be punishable under either trespass, threats, or insults statutes. A few serious sentences for the trespassing hoodlums should convey the message that the right to advocate anything does not include the right to trespass anywhere. The government does not have to approve abhorrent ideas such as racism, however, it cannot punish racists or anyone else for conveying hateful propaganda. 24 footnotes