The Heckler's Veto: Does the First Amendment Allow the Audience to Shut Down a Speaker?

Are audience members allowed to shout down or shut down speakers on college campuses if they disagree with the speaker’s message? In this brief, we asked professor of constitutional law at New York Law School and the long-time president of the ACLU, Nadine Strossen, to explain the “heckler’s veto” when it comes to protecting First Amendment free speech rights. In a nutshell, the answer is no. The heckler's veto not only violates the speaker's First Amendment free speech rights, but it also violates the First Amendment rights of audience members who want to hear that unpopular message. While we often see such conflicts in the context of racist or hate-mongering speech, the heckler’s veto was initially put in place to protect civil rights activists. Professor Strossen explains that it was implemented in the 1960’s at the height of the civil rights movement, when activists such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. were often violently shouted down and shut down for spreading unpopular and controversial messages. As a response to this violent opposition, the United States Supreme Court constituted those violent actions as a violation of the First Amendment, and urged the government to do anything it can to prevent such violence in the future. ► http://www.talksonlaw.com for more legal explainers and interviews with the titans of law. ► Patreon: TalksOnLaw is on Patreon! You can support us directly by signing up at: http://www.patreon.com/talksonlaw ► Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/talksonlaw ► Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/talksonlaw ► Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/talksonlaw ____________________ TRANSCRIPT There has been so much publicity recently about incidents on college campuses where speakers are shouted down, shut down, violently disrupted. Do they have a right to be protected from these kinds of shout downs, which are called the "heckler's veto?" My name is Nadine Strossen. I am a professor of constitutional law at New York Law School and the former head of the American Civil Liberties Union. Do you have a right to engage in a heckler's veto and to stop somebody whose ideas you hate from expressing those ideas? The answer to that question is no. The heckler's veto violates the speaker's First Amendment free speech rights. The so-called "heckler's veto" also violates the First Amendment rights of audience members who want to hear that unpopular message. And it's very interesting to note that the Supreme Court came up with the concept of an illegal heckler's veto in the context of the 1960s civil rights movement. Today, we usually see the heckler's veto wielded in an attempt to suppress racist or other hate-mongering speech. It's really important to know that it is a neutral concept that often, and from its beginning, has been used to protect the speech of civil rights activists. Back in the 1960s, when in many parts of the country Martin Luther King and other civil rights activists had messages that were deeply unpopular and controversial, government officials tried to stop them from speaking and from demonstrating, arguing that there would be violent disruption by people who disagreed with their messages. And in fact, there was violent disruption—rocks were thrown, bottles were thrown, people were injured, and the United States Supreme Court said this constitutes an illegal heckler's veto. Government must use all of its available resources to prevent the violence. So, in a nutshell, do those who disagree with, object to, do they have a right to exercise a so-called "heckler's veto?" No, a heckler's veto violates very important First Amendment rights. My name is Nadine Strossen. Thank you for listening to TalksOnLaw.