Rex Kerr
1 min readJun 7, 2022

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Funny, then, that the ACLU has won multiple lawsuits (approximately all of them as far as I know) defending exactly racist speech. Skokie was probably the most contentious. The "imminent lawless action" standard is much higher than you're suggesting (see, for instance, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hess_v._Indiana).

Indeed, college campuses have tried unsuccessfully to use the "imminent lawless action" defense against Richard Spencer, and been refuted: http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2018/01/18/richard-spencer-michigan-state-

university/1044354001/. (The solution was mediated, but the judge wouldn't have ordered mediation if racist speech was automatically incitement--nobody was pretending that Spencer's speech wasn't going to be racist.)

Anyway, as a matter of law, you're simply wrong.

You're wrong as a matter of morality, too, but that's a trickier argument, and might go the other way in a context where there is no right to rebut. But the law is plenty clear. You, not the courts, unilaterally decided that "being a racist incites and produces imminent lawless action". Courts have already considered that idea and rejected it.

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Rex Kerr
Rex Kerr

Written by Rex Kerr

One who rejoices when everything is made as simple as possible, but no simpler. Sayer of things that may be wrong, but not so bad that they're not even wrong.

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