Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche on Tuesday said hate speech is “of course” protected by the First Amendment, after Attorney General Pam Bondi came under criticism for her remarks about the policing of speech following conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s killing.
Bondi has since clarified remarks she made on a podcast differentiating between hate speech and free speech, but the storm in conservative circles surrounding the comments has yet to completely lift.
“Yes, of course hate speech is covered by the First Amendment, and everybody thinks that,” Blanche told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins. “The Republican Party and this administration believes in that more than most, having been subjected to what we’ve been subjected to for the last several years.”
During an episode of ‘The Katie Miller Podcast’ published on Monday, Bondi said, “there’s free speech and then there’s hate speech,” and that the Justice Department (DOJ) will prosecute those “targeting anyone with hate speech.”
The Attorney General, after receiving blowback from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), a civil liberties group, and conservative pundits, sought to clear up her statements in an X post Tuesday morning.
“Hate speech that crosses the line into threats of violence is NOT protected by the First Amendment,” Bondi said. “It’s a crime. For far too long, we’ve watched the radical left normalize threats, call for assassinations, and cheer on political violence. That era is over.”
Kirk was fatally shot at an event in Utah last week. The Trump administration, Republican lawmakers and conservative figures online have since criticized those who have celebrated Kirk’s murder online.
“That’s not in any way what the attorney general meant, as she made crystal clear all day today,” Blanche added. “We are targeting violence. When there are individuals who are using words, threatening murder, threatening violence, threatening to harm people, that’s what we’re targeting.”
In a 2017 opinion, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito wrote that the government targeting individuals for speech “strikes at the heart of the First Amendment.”
“Speech that demeans on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, religion, age, disability, or any other similar ground is hateful; but the proudest boast of our free speech jurisprudence is that we protect the freedom to express ‘the thought that we hate,’” Alito wrote.
Republican lawmakers, including House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tx.) also pushed back on the notion that individuals can be prosecuted for speech on Tuesday.
“Look, in America, it’s a very important part of our tradition that we do not — this is a conservative principle and an American principle — we do not censor and silence disfavored viewpoints,” said Johnson, who practiced constitutional law before running for office.
A number of reports have circulated of people losing their jobs and positions for insensitive social media statements following Kirk’s assassination.
Source: The Hill