Jordan Rubin is the Deadline: Legal Blog writer. He was a prosecutor for the New York County District Attorney’s Office in Manhattan and is the author of “Bizarro,' a book about the secret war on synthetic drugs. Before he joined MSNBC, he was a legal reporter for Bloomberg Law.
Does Attorney General Pam Bondi misunderstand the law, or does she want Donald Trump’s supporters to misunderstand the law? Either would be bad, but the question arises in connection with her recent comments about so-called hate speech.
Speaking on a podcast hosted by Katie Miller , Bondi said, “There’s free speech and then there’s hate speech.” That sounds like the sort of thing that maybe could be true, especially coming from a nominally authoritative figure like the attorney general of the United States. But she’s incorrect. The law doesn’t make such a distinction. The point has been reinforced by none other than Justice Samuel Alito, certainly no wilting liberal. “Speech that demeans on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, religion, age, disability, or any other similar ground is hateful; but the proudest boast of our free speech jurisprudence is that we protect the freedom to express ‘the thought that we hate,’” he wrote in a 2017 opinion. Nonetheless, Bondi told Miller that the administration “will absolutely target you, go after you, if you are targeting anyone with hate speech.” The attorney general’s comments came in the context of last week’s fatal shooting of Trump ally Charlie Kirk. Though Kirk has been celebrated over the last week by conservatives and some liberals as a free speech proponent, the administration and its supporters and enablers have supported, sought or carried out the firings of Americans who have made hateful or even simply critical comments about Kirk. But putting aside the clear political hypocrisy, the legal fact remains that there’s no hate speech exception to the First Amendment. On the one hand, that’s comforting insofar as it should defeat any prosecutions attempted by the administration against people for protected speech. Yet, even if one is ultimately successful in defeating any frivolous legal moves, that comfort only extends so far under an administration whose words and actions show that it has gone after and will continue to go after people and groups it sees as its opponents. Regardless of the outcome, no one should want to be targeted in the first place. Beyond this one important speech issue, Bondi’s error raises a broader question: If the attorney general is incorrect about this basic legal premise, what other errors might she be making when it comes to the range of crucial matters that face the Justice Department every day? Subscribe to the Deadline: Legal Newsletter for expert analysis on the top legal stories of the week, including updates from the Supreme Court and developments in the Trump administration’s legal cases.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Officials investigate motive behind Charlie Kirk assassination: Here's what we knowUtah Attorney General Derek Brown has not announced if authorities would pursue the death penalty.
Read more »
Republican attorney general helped push out brothel that Democratic prosecutor toleratedAfter the 'Washington Examiner' reported on a brothel in a suburb, Virginia's attorney general leaned on the landlord to boot the business.
Read more »
Florida attorney general clarifies open carry ‘law of the state’ after appeals court ruling causes confusionAn appeals court ruled that Florida’s ban on open carry is unconstitutional, citing a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Second Amendment rights.
Read more »
Pam Bondi Says No One Knows When Trump, 79, SleepsMystery surrounds how much shut-eye the president gets.
Read more »
Pam Bondi Defends 'Hate Speech' Crackdown After MAGA BacklashShe vowed to take action after Charlie Kirk's killing.
Read more »
Alaska attorney general argues Chugach Electric charity program raises free speech concernsChugach Electric fired back at Stephen Cox’s arguments in a filing, saying the attorney general has made multiple errors in his arguments.
Read more »