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Listen to the PodcastHate speech is legally protected free speech under the First Amendment, a protection that has been upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States. Yet, that doesn't mean we can agree on what constitutes hate speech—or free speech for that matter. So, what is the line between free speech and hate speech? Who gets to decide? And what protections and recourses are available when one person's speech is offensive to another?
Nadine Strossen, an attorney twice named as one of the 100 most influential lawyers in America by The National Law Journal and a former president of the American Civil Liberties Union, explores these questions in her new book Hate: Why We Should Resist it with Free Speech, Not Censorship. In it, she argues that the most effective way to confront hate speech and restore societal harmony is with more speech, not censorship.
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