The shifting line between free speech and a criminal threat
6/11/202636 min
Threats against public officials have become much, much more common. This includes everyone from the president of the United States to members of Congress, to state and local officials, and even civil servants like local librarians. Threats have always been a part of United States history, often manifesting in times of political turmoil or cultural tension. The internet age opened a new chapter in the U.S. making threats easier to make and harder to trace and prosecute. So what exactly is the standard for defining a criminal threat? How has it changed? And how do we balance safety and free speech in a world where the two seem increasingly at odds? On this episode of Throughline, the shifting line between protected speech and true threats.
Guests:
David L. Hudson, Jr., associate professor of Law at Belmont University Law School and First Amendment fellow for the Freedom Forum
Mary Anne Franks, professor at The George Washington Law School, and author of Fearless Speech and The Cult of the Constitution
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First 90 secondsSpeaker 10:00
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Rund Abdelfatah· Host0:16
August 27th, 1966. A group of mostly teens and men in their early 20s met in Washington, DC.
Speaker 30:27
Right on the Washington Monument grounds near the Sylvan Theater.
Rund Abdelfatah· Host0:31
They were part of the W.E.B. Du Bois Club, a national youth organization sponsored by the Communist Party USA. It was a left-wing group that was riding the wave of the Civil Rights Movement, labor organizing, and anti-big government.
Speaker 30:47
They were really protesting the Vietnam War and the racially disparate use of the draft.
Rund Abdelfatah· Host0:55
Black men were only 12% of the U.S. population, but they made up over 30% of the ground combat battalion troops in Vietnam.
Speaker 31:05
There was a discussion group about police brutality.
Rund Abdelfatah· Host1:08
And in that group, there was one man named Robert Watts who made an off-the-cuff comment.
Speaker 31:14
And allegedly, Robert Watts, who was 18 years old at the time, said something to the effect, um, you know, "Look, if they make me go fight in Vietnam, the first person I'm gonna put in my scope is LBJ. They're not gonna make me go kill my Black brothers."