100,000 Protestors... Angry mobs of students...

innerSpaceman · 04-05-2006, 03:48 PM

Is bribery ok then? Jury tampering? Yelling "fire" in a crowded nightclub?

How absolutist is your free-speech desire?

Alex · 04-05-2006, 04:24 PM

Offering a bribe should be fine, for if it is rejected then there was no negative impact. Giving a bribe and taking a bribe are different.

Yelling fire in a crowded nightclub should be legal. Contributing to 200 people stampeding and thus killing two people should probably open you up to certain criminal consequences and definitely a lot of civil ones. Have you committed a crime if you should "Fire" in a crowded nightclub and nobody reacts? I don't think so.

Attempting to shape the verdict of a juror (purely through speech) outside of the appropriate channels is a situation in which I think content-specific prohibitions on speech are apparopriate. But attempting to engage in such speech should not necessarily be illegal (writing a letter to a juror but accidentally addressing it to the wrong person, for example, should have no penatly).

Pretty absolutist. Essentially, there are situations where speech can reasonably result in actions or behaviors that should be controlled but the speech itself should not, ipso facto, be illegal.

04-05-2006, 03:48 PM	#1
innerSpaceman Kink of Swank Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Inner Space Posts: 13,075	Is bribery ok then? Jury tampering? Yelling "fire" in a crowded nightclub? How absolutist is your free-speech desire?
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04-05-2006, 04:24 PM	#2
Alex . Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 13,354	Offering a bribe should be fine, for if it is rejected then there was no negative impact. Giving a bribe and taking a bribe are different. Yelling fire in a crowded nightclub should be legal. Contributing to 200 people stampeding and thus killing two people should probably open you up to certain criminal consequences and definitely a lot of civil ones. Have you committed a crime if you should "Fire" in a crowded nightclub and nobody reacts? I don't think so. Attempting to shape the verdict of a juror (purely through speech) outside of the appropriate channels is a situation in which I think content-specific prohibitions on speech are apparopriate. But attempting to engage in such speech should not necessarily be illegal (writing a letter to a juror but accidentally addressing it to the wrong person, for example, should have no penatly). Pretty absolutist. Essentially, there are situations where speech can reasonably result in actions or behaviors that should be controlled but the speech itself should not, ipso facto, be illegal.
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