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Except it’s not. Shouting “fire” isn’t an action. And the metaphor was used to explain something (handing out anti-war pamphlets) which is clearly protected spe
by akerl_ 3y ago
Except it’s not. Shouting “fire” isn’t an action. And the metaphor was used to explain something (handing out anti-war pamphlets) which is clearly protected speech.
It’s described as an appeal to authority because generally, the quote is invoked to imply ~”well a Supreme Court justice said there are limits on free speech, so clearly we can limit this speech we’re discussing”.
There are well-defined exceptions to free speech in the US, with well established tests for assessing them. A rough overview can be found here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_free_speech_exceptions https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_free_speech_ex...
- Kbelicius 3y ago> Shouting “fire” isn’t an action. What definition of action are you using? I couldn't find any that would exclude shouting.
- akerl_ 3y agoI was commenting in the context of this comment thread, where the person I was replying to referred to “shouting fire” as a clear example of the distinction “between stating opinion and being an action.” 1st Amendment jurisprudence is pretty clear that shouting is speech/expression, and is subject to the finite and well defined set of exceptions to 1st amendment protection.