NY Times: Unlike Other, More Nuanced Nations, the US Clings to Free Speech

Wed, Jun 11, 2008 at 5:11:03 pm PST

The New York Times, scrupulously fair as always (cough), suggests that it might be time for the United States to reconsider this antiquated idea of “free speech” and join the rest of the world in prosecuting people like Mark Steyn: American Exception - Unlike Others, U.S. Defends Freedom to Offend in Speech - Series - NYTimes.com.

Some prominent legal scholars say the United States should reconsider its position on hate speech.

“It is not clear to me that the Europeans are mistaken,” Jeremy Waldron, a legal philosopher, wrote in The New York Review of Books last month, “when they say that a liberal democracy must take affirmative responsibility for protecting the atmosphere of mutual respect against certain forms of vicious attack.”

Professor Waldron was reviewing “Freedom for the Thought That We Hate: A Biography of the First Amendment” by Anthony Lewis, the former New York Times columnist. Mr. Lewis has been critical of attempts to use the law to limit hate speech.

But even Mr. Lewis, a liberal, wrote in his book that he was inclined to relax some of the most stringent First Amendment protections “in an age when words have inspired acts of mass murder and terrorism.” In particular, he called for a re-examination of the Supreme Court’s insistence that there is only one justification for making incitement a criminal offense: the likelihood of imminent violence.