Mayor and Council Right to Silence Hate Speech

During public testimony at the September 26 meeting of the Modesto City Council,  speakers using Zoom technology uttered racial slurs and voiced support for Adolph Hitler. Modesto Mayor Sue Zwahlen silenced those speakers. She was right to do so.

The speakers using Zoom during the Modesto Council meeting were part of a coordinated effort throughout northern California to promote fascism and white supremacy. They interrupted public meetings under cover of their First Amendment rights to free speech.

Time, Place, and Manner

While First Amendment absolutists almost always insist there can be no restrictions on speech whatsoever, speech has been regulated almost since the inception of our nation. The famous example about shouting “fire” in a crowded theater is probably the most  cited illustration of the need to restrict speech within contextual “time, place and manner” boundaries. The premise underlying that example is the “harm principle,” a fundamental tenet of free societies at least since the first English-language Constitution of 1647. Article 5 of that constitution reads, “the laws ought to be equal, so they must be good and not evidently destructive to the safety and well-being of the people.”

The Harm Principle

In On Liberty, John Stuart Mill developed the harm principle as the only reasonable limit the law could place on individual freedom of any kind:

“…the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.”

Mill’s argument was an attempt to expand individual freedom as far as it could be extended in any “civilized community.” Those who would include hate speech under the protection of First Amendment rights ignore the long history of harm caused by racism, anti-Semitism, misogyny, and fascism.

Equality

Liberty and equality are major tenets of the American democratic project. “All men are created equal” is the founding principle of our Declaration of Independence. As the country has moved forward toward the dual expansion of liberty and equality, blood has been shed so that those rights continue to be protected and extended.

Modesto City Councilmembers include women and men with a range of ethnic and cultural origins typical of the American people. That these councilmembers occupy positions of leadership is a living testimony to the power of great Americans like Susan B Anthony, Abraham Lincoln, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Martin Luther King to advance human rights. Their positions of leadership are a direct result of America’s democratic principles. They were elected to represent the will of the majority regardless of race, creed or color.

Seizing Public Platforms

Those who would interrupt public meetings to project hate interfere with public business in order to advance individual views. That interference alone causes harm because it thwarts the will of the people, regardless of the views themselves. Thus, the widely recognized “time and place” restrictions apply especially to comments at city council meetings. The right to free speech does not include the right to abridge the public interest by seizing public platforms to promote anti-American values.

History

History shows that racism, fascism, and hate speech cause irreparable harm to human society. Modesto’s Mayor and City Council offer living evidence of the power of democracy to establish liberty and equality as governing values in a “civilized community.” Defending those values takes courage. Modesto Mayor Sue Zwahlen and the Modesto City Council were right to silence hate speech expressed during their public meeting. Bravo.