Cross Burning as Hate Speech Under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution

Abstract

<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: ";Garamond";,";serif";; mso-fareast-font-family: ";Times New Roman";; mso-bidi-font-family: ";Times New Roman";; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;" lang="EN-US">Cross burning is a particularly vicious form of “hate speech.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some American states and cities have enacted laws prohibiting cross burning, and in two cases (<em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-no-proof: yes;">R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul </span></em><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-no-proof: yes;">(1992) and <em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Virginia v. Black </em>(2003)) </span>the United States Supreme Court has issued decisions regarding the constitutionality of those laws..<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These cases establish the principle that under the First Amendment hate speech is not punishable as a crime unless the speaker intended to threaten another person or the speaker intended to incite an imminent act of violence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Furthermore, the cases reinforce the principle that under the First Amendment a person may be convicted of a expressive crime only if the law under which the defendant was charged is narrowly drawn to prohibit only “unprotected” speech. </span>

Keywords

• Freedom of Speech
• cross burning
• First Amendment