Oregon high court protects racist, homophobic speech

Seattle Times ^ | 8/15/08 | William McCall

[LibWhacker]

Yelling homophobic or racist names is free speech protected by the Oregon Constitution if the insults don't lead to violence. In a unanimous ruling...

The Associated Press

PORTLAND — Yelling homophobic or racist names is free speech protected by the Oregon Constitution if the insults don't lead to violence.

[Old Professer]

Either speech is free or it is controlled; no middle ground can long exist.

[onlylewis]

So the next time I am driving thru a city in Oregon minding my own business and some thug calls me whitey and threatens me with bodily harm I can react in like manner.

Then he/she can be put in jail. Sounds like purely good rationale to me.

[PapaBear3625]

Looking at the article, it says:

In the opinion by Justice W. Michael Gillette, the court noted that, despite the epithets, Johnson "did not verbally threaten the woman with violence and no actual violence took place."

So I'm inferring that the court's position is you can yell out "Look at that A-hole" as long as you don't say "Hey, look at that A-hole, let's beat him up!". I.e., you can call somebody names as long as the speech does not threaten or imply a desire for you or others to commit violence against them

Which means that carrying posters saying "Behead those who insult Islam" would still be actionable, if you had a police dept with any guts

[VRWCmember]

If he comes over and slaps your face then you go to jail, whether he follows you or not isn’t mentioned.

What if he prances over and scratches your eyes out?

[Abathar]

*snicker*

Yeah, much more likely in most cases.

[Publius6961]

Far as the article goes...much as I hate racist and homophobic speech the Oregon High Court got it right. It's protected until it represents or causes a clear and present danger.

This ruling is unfortunate, because it will only empower additional fraudulent claims.

The zinger is "causes.'

A 10 moonbats are verbally insulted by a single "racist or homophobe" and one moonbat is attacked by one of the other moonbats as a result of inflamed passions, the hate crime would apply.
The physical chargeable result must be by the verbal assailant, not by an uncontrollable third party.

[SunkenCiv]

Ping!