Limits of Free Speech in the US: Skokie vs. Nazis (US Supreme Court Ruling)

What are the limits of free speech in the United States? When I was in school, the classical example was that you can’t yell fire in a crowded theater, because it will cause panic and people can get hurt. There are also other limits. For example, I am free to write a positive or negative review of an online casino website, but if my review contains outright lies, for example, “This online casino website rigs their slot machines so nobody is a winner.” and I have no evidence to back up that false claim, that is called slander and that is not protected free speech. But what about hate speech? Every other day, we are hearing about this tweet or that tweet that President Trump posted that is being censored for “false statements” and “lies”. This is now even including tweets and videos that President Trump is reposting. Has the United States always been this hyperbolic with regards to speech that its citizens say? Let’s take a trip down memory lane … to the time of 1977 in Skokie, IL. and the famous Supreme Court case of “Skokie vs. the Nazis”.










