Tim Walz’s Very Bad Answer on Social Media Censorship
Toward the end of Tuesday night’s vice presidential debate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) argued with Sen. J.D. Vance (R–Ohio) about former President Donald Trump’s efforts to remain in power following his 2020 election loss. Trump’s conduct was indefensible, and thus Vance did not do a very good job defending it. Rather, he attempted to turn the tables on Walz, accusing the Democratic ticket of disrespecting the most important democratic norm of all: free speech.
“You guys attack us for not believing in democracy,” said Vance. “The most sacred right under United States democracy is the First Amendment.”
Vance went on to accuse Walz of wanting to criminalize misinformation, referencing previous, inaccurate comments the governor made about exceptions to the First Amendment. At that point, Walz actually interrupted Vance, and claimed that the First Amendment does not protect misinformation or “threatening or hate speech.”
Tim Walz doubles down on his claim that “misinformation and hate speech” aren’t protected by the First Amendment. pic.twitter.com/cGeoWEJnF1
— Alpha News (@AlphaNewsMN) October 2, 2024
In other words, misinformation, threats, and hate speech are all unprotected categories of speech, according to Walz.
But the governor is mostly, very wrong. He’s correct to note that true threats of violence lack First Amendment protection if they are specific enough. Misinformation and hate speech are absolutely protected by the First Amendment, however. And while the former is a relatively new category of expression facing explicit calls for censorship, the latter category—hate speech—has been exhaustively litigated before the Supreme Court.
Don’t Hate the Player
Walz defended his position by glibly asserting that it is constitutionally impermissible to yell “fire in a crowded theater.” This is an oft-expressed sentiment—and one that’s completely and utterly false. It comes from the Supreme Court’s odious opinion in the 1919 case Schenk v. United States, in which the majority held that the government could stop people from distributing leaflets opposing World War I. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes likened such activism as akin to yelling fire in a crowded theater; in other words, he believed that raising doubts about the desirability of the U.S. participating in such a global catastrophe was dangerous, and could be prohibited.
Today we recognize that the right to criticize U.S. military policy and oppose foreign wars is an essential component of the First Amendment. And the Supreme Court agrees: Schenk was gradually overturned by subsequent decisions. The right to engage in speech that the government might deem reckless, dangerous, or hateful was explicitly affirmed in the 2017 case Matal v. Tam, in which Justice Samuel Ali
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