Damakant Jayshi
Is hate speech a constitutional right? This question, amidst a documented rise in rhetoric against minorities, including Jews in the United States and elsewhere, will be discussed by a panel in Wausau next week, according to a news release.
Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul and Mayor Katie Rosenberg are among the speakers at the panel on Sept. 18.
Rosenberg is also one of the organizers of the event, which will be co-hosted by a local TV station. Additional partners are the Wisconsin Attorney General’s office, the Wausau Police Department, the Anti-Defamation League, Mount Sinai, the Jewish Community Relations Council, and the Wisconsin Institute for Public Policy and Service.
The mayor told Wausau Pilot & Review that the panel discussion was planned more than a month and a half ago after the city staff received “a lot of complaints about the very loud antisemitic diatribes taking place during community events.” She added that she has had discussions with Wausau’s police chief on how to address these public antisemitic declarations.
“We know that free speech is constitutionally protected but many, many citizens who have had to endure the tirades have told us they are angry that they have to listen to it when they are trying to enjoy a concert on the square or community event,” she said.
Just last week, residents witnessed an antisemitic rant by a Wausau man who blamed Jews for creating and using a “Covid agenda” to manipulate people. He also said Jews control the media and bank systems, an oft-repeated antisemitic charge used by alt-right conspiracy theorists.
The mayor said “the corrosive conversation we heard at the community for all debates created an atmosphere where comments like these are tolerated.”
The mayor shared links to stories documenting the rise in antisemitism in parts of the state, like the arrest of a man Kenosha for distributing antisemitic fliers and raising of a neo-Nazi flag in Watertown.
Less than one percent of Wisconsin’s population is Jewish but the state saw a 459% increase in incidents of antisemitism around the state between 2015-2021, the Milwaukee Jewish Federation reported.
According to data released by the ADL, “antisemitic incidents surged to historic levels in 2022, with a total of 3,697 incidents reported across the United States, an increase of 36 percent compared to 2021.” Last month, the ADL noted that “extremists and antisemites are increasingly co-opting the public comment portion of city and town council meetings to spread their hateful beliefs.”
The rise has not gone unnoticed in Wausau.
“Over the last few years, we’ve had a couple of incidents locally – and all kinds of reports nationally – where whole communities were targeted with insults, stereotypes, and even violence because of their backgrounds, their religion, their skin color, or their gender expression,” Rosenberg said, in a news release issued Tuesday.
Wausau’s newly appointed police chief also weighed in.
“The Wausau Police Department works every day to be responsive to our community,” Chief Matt Barnes said, in Tuesday’s release. “Realizing that many community members are dissatisfied with our response to what they consider hate speech during more recent incidents, we’ve accepted the limitations of what our officers can do to address offensive and disturbing speech that’s also constitutional protected.”
Is hate speech protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution?
When it comes to dealing with hate speech, there are no easy answers. According to the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a group promoting free speech on college campuses, the First Amendment makes no general exception for offensive, repugnant, or hateful expression. FIRE has said that free citizens do not lose First Amendment protection because their speech is considered hateful. This is because hate speech in and of itself is protected speech, particularly when spoken by adults on their own time.
But even FIRE has noted exceptions.
The pro-speech organization said not all hate speech is protected by the First Amendment, since hateful expression can fall within certain, narrow categories of unprotected speech like incitement to imminent lawless action, true threats, fighting words, or speech integral to criminal conduct, among others.
The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee also said hate speech, though offensive and hurtful, is generally protected by the First Amendment. It added that one common definition of hate speech is “any form of expression through which speakers intend to vilify, humiliate or incite hatred against a group or a class of persons on the basis of race, religion, skin color, sexual identity, gender identity, ethnicity, disability or national origin.”
The panel discussion will be held at the UW Center for Civic Engagement at 625 Stewart Ave., Wausau, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 18.
