Christian Dior has fired head designer John Galliano over anti-Semitic and racist remarks he allegedly made on two occasions. The AP reports that Paris prosecutors ordered Galliano to stand trial in the coming months over alleged racial insults. Unlike France, that most of us think is a free country, in the United States you really do have Freedom of Speech!
Remember the KKK marches in Skokie, Illinois? The ACLU defended the right to march and display hate.
Can you see any difference between these two videos?
Once again the right to hate has been upheld. The Supreme Court has ruled that the First Amendment protects fundamentalist church members who mount anti-gay protests outside military funerals, despite the pain they cause grieving families. The court voted 8-1 in favor of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the opinion for the court. Justice Samuel Alito dissented.
“Speech is powerful. It can stir people to action, move them to tears of both joy and sorrow, and — as it did here — inflict great pain. On the facts before us, we cannot react to that pain by punishing the speaker,” Roberts said. “As a nation we have chosen a different course — to protect even hurtful speech on public issues to ensure that we do not stifle public debate.”
Alito strongly disagreed. “Our profound national commitment to free and open debate is not a license for the vicious verbal assault that occurred in this case,” he said.
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