4 ms·
> "When is a company abusing it's first amendment rights and dangerously coercing behavior, a la "yelling fire in theater"?" I really wish people would stop us
by darkpuma 8y ago
> "When is a company abusing it's first amendment rights and dangerously coercing behavior, a la "yelling fire in theater"?"
I really wish people would stop using that example. That standard of free speech is obsolete, and it comes from an abhorrent case where a draft protestor during WWI was arrested for telling people to dodge the draft. "Yelling fire in a theater" was used to justify upholding his conviction. It's a deeply immoral standard of free speech.
- smnrchrds 8y ago> That standard of free speech is obsolete What is the modern example/standard?
- darkpuma 8y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imminent_lawless_action https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imminent_lawless_action
- angel_j 8y agoFair editorial suggestion, no doubt. Will change to 'yelling "terrorists!" on a busy day at Disneyland'. H/e, that the example was used to uphold an immoral conviction does not make it an "immoral standard"; it makes the jury immoral people; "...fire!" is basically a metaphor at this point, an easy-to-abstract notion for when the first amendment will not defend you.
- darkpuma 8y ago"Fire in a crowded theater" came from the SCOTUS justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., not a jury. "Yelling fire" in this case was a metaphor for "opposing the draft."