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Podcasts Take Two
After Charlottesville violence, where should we draw the line between a legal rally and an illegal one?
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Aug 14, 2017
Listen • 7:44
After Charlottesville violence, where should we draw the line between a legal rally and an illegal one?
When a rally has the potential to turn into deadly violence, does it still fall under the First Amendment? What role can the government play to prevent violence?
Activists and protesters gesture at a man wearing a confederate flag before a KKK rally in Charlottesville, Virginia on July 8, 2017. Supporters of the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan gathered in Charlottesville, Virginia on Saturday to protest the planned removal of a statue of General Robert E. Lee, who oversaw Confederate forces in the US Civil War. The afternoon rally in this quiet university town has been authorized by officials in Virginia and stirred heated debate in America, where critics say the far right has been energized by Donald Trump's election to the presidency. / AFP PHOTO / ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS (Photo credit should read ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP/Getty Images)
Activists and protesters gesture at a man wearing a confederate flag before a KKK rally in Charlottesville, Virginia on July 8, 2017.
(
ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP/Getty Images
)

When a rally has the potential to turn into deadly violence, does it still fall under the First Amendment? What role can the government play to prevent violence?

At what point does the First Amendment no longer apply? When does an assembly cross that line?

This is one of the biggest questions we face as we talk about violence and tragedy in Charlottesville:  our right to free speech. At what point does it conflict with the public good? 

According to Justin Levitt, professor at Loyola University Law School and formerly Assistant Attorney General of the Civil Rights Division in the Department of Justice, the line that protects our rights to free speech should be very hard to cross. 

"The argument for permitting it,  even when it's disgusting, is that you don't want the government deciding which speech is okay and which speech is not okay," said Levitt, in an interview with Take Two host A Martínez. "And that preventing people from speaking not only makes martyrs out of those who would speak, but can lead to some pretty horrible consequences. Even worse than the sort of intolerance and the sort of despicable neo-Nazi attitudes of some of those who are marching in Charlottesville."

To hear the full conversation between Martínez and Levitt, use the blue media player at the top of the page.