Defending the First Amendment’s principle of content neutrality
The First Amendment’s requirement of content neutrality protects even hate speech, and it is not a tool of white supremacists....
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Virginia law on burning crosses and tiki torches
The alt-right demonstrators who keep coming to Charlottesville like to march around carrying tiki torches. Vice Mayor Wes Bellamy has called on the Commonwealth’s Attorney to prosecute them under Virginia’s cross-burning statute. But the United States Supreme Court says that fire and hate, without a direct threat, is not prosecutable under this statute....
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Political Demonstrations and Guns
I was in downtown Charlottesville on Saturday, and the single most disconcerting, disorienting, confusing, troubling thing I saw was the “militia” brought in by Jason Kessler and his friends to “protect” their rally. As this picture shows, these militia members — 32, I am told — were dressed in camouflage, some wearing what looked like […]...
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Can speech that incites others to commit crimes be punished?
Quick answer — “Not likely.” On August 12, 2017, Charlottesville resident Jason Kessler staged his “Unite the Right” rally, featuring a star-studded lineup of white nationalist and neo-Nazi speakers. The rally was expected to start at 12 noon. At about 11:35 AM a battle broke out on one side of Emancipation Park; the State Police […]...
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The ACLU/Rutherford Institute Letter to Charlottesville, Analyzed
Today (August 8, 2017) the ACLU and the Rutherford Institute sent Charlottesville a letter demanding that the City withdraw its August 7, 2017 letter that modified Jason Kessler’s demonstration permit to permit the demonstration only in McIntire Park. The City decision is explained in the statements of City Manager Maurice Jones, Police Chief Al Thomas, […]...
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Can Charlottesville Require Insurance for a Demonstration?
No. The City Standard Operating Procedure on Special Events, passed in 2009, distinguishes between “Special Events” — sports events, pageants, music festivals, etc., — and “demonstrations,” a term that refers to “non-commercial expression protected by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution (such as picketing, political marches, speechmaking, vigils, walks, etc.) conducted on public […]...
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It’s Hard to Regulate Demonstrations
In the last two installments of my primer on First Amendment law, we reviewed the history of government regulations of demonstrations. In Part One, we saw how efforts to shut down civil rights marches enabled the Supreme Court to say, in increasingly emphatic tones, that governments cannot forbid, or even substantially inconvenience, protests because of […]...
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Time, Place and Manner Restrictions on Demonstrations
A few days ago, I discussed the history of efforts by governments to regulate demonstrations and protests. In Part One, I discussed the roots of the doctrines — in decisions by the United States Supreme Court to protect civil rights marchers from the efforts of the likes of Birmingham Police Commissioner Bull Connor to shut […]...
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What is the Heckler’s Veto?
The “heckler’s-veto” doctrine prohibits the government from regulating speech on the grounds that it will cause its hearers anger or discomfort. If speech provokes wrongful acts on the part of hecklers, the government must deal with those wrongful acts directly; it may not avoid doing so by suppressing the speech....
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The History of Trying to Impose Conditions on a Demonstration Permit
The leading cases on imposing conditions on the issuance of demonstration permits — Shuttlesworth v. Birmingham and Forsyth County v. Nationalist Movement — have their roots in the Civil Rights movement....
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