Silence words that anger others?

Posted by Ryft

Jun 25

When it comes to a ‘hostile audience’ situation (emphasis mine),

the Court once sustained a conviction for disorderly conduct of one who refused police demands to cease speaking after his speech seemingly stirred numbers of his listeners to mutterings and threatened disorders. But this case has been significantly limited by cases which hold protected the peaceful expression of views which stirs people to anger because of the content of the expression, or perhaps because of the manner in which it is conveyed, and that breach of the peace and disorderly conduct statutes may not be used to curb such expression.

For more information and relevant case law, see “Fighting Words and Other Threats to the Peace,” from Annotated Constitution (2000) by Congressional Research Service.