Timeline for Does the First Amendment protect deliberately publicizing the incorrect date for an election?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
12 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Aug 19 at 16:51 | comment | added | reirab | @David42 Yeah, commercial speech, especially fraudulent/misleading commercial speech, is probably the broadest category of 1A exceptions that still exists. Which makes sense. Kind of hard to have an economy if people can just lie about what they're selling or the terms under which they're selling it. Election memes aren't commercial speech, though, so not really relevant here. Most false speech outside of fraud or defamation is still protected speech. | |
| Aug 19 at 13:45 | comment | added | David42 | @reirab You're right, I misremembered the text. While dangerous practical jokes may be a narrow exception, restrictions on commercial speech are both extensive and apply to an entire category of ubiquitous speech. I have a hard time seeing this exception as narrow. | |
| Aug 18 at 21:00 | comment | added | phoog | @reirab the fire in a theater thing was dicta. The fact that the decision was overturned has no bearing on the correctness of the dicta, which nobody seriously doubts. | |
| Aug 17 at 18:27 | comment | added | Very Tiny Brain | See the book press.jhu.edu/books/title/12911/liar-crowded-theater for an in-depth exploration of the contexts in which the First Amendment does, does not, should, and should not protect lies. | |
| Aug 16 at 16:41 | answer | added | reirab | timeline score: 9 | |
| Aug 16 at 16:00 | comment | added | reirab | @David42 The First Amendment also protects "freedom of speech." The exceptions are generally quite narrow. The "fire in a crowded theater" thing came from Schenck v. U.S., which was a particularly terrible WWI-era decision that was obviously unconstitutional and overturned more than half a century ago. | |
| Aug 16 at 14:47 | comment | added | David42 | The exceptions are not particularly narrow. The First Amendment protects the "press" and "assembly". In other words the right to share information and ideas. It provides very little protection to provably false statements on which others are likely to rely to their determinent. Merchants can't claim a right to misrepresent their wares to buyers. Practical jokers can't claim a right to shout Fire! in crowds for laughs. | |
| Aug 16 at 3:21 | vote | accept | Very Tiny Brain | ||
| Aug 15 at 11:23 | history | became hot network question | |||
| Aug 15 at 9:18 | comment | added | phoog | Who is publicizing the incorrect date? An election official, a person with no particular authority, someone else? | |
| Aug 15 at 4:19 | answer | added | Jen | timeline score: 45 | |
| Aug 15 at 3:22 | history | asked | Very Tiny Brain | CC BY-SA 4.0 |