1
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
2017 was a hell of a year 
for the First Amendment.

2
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Nowhere was more central
to this culture war

3
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
than the campuses and 
universities across America,

4
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
including right here, 
at the University of Nevada, Reno.

5
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Two UNR students became infamous 
for their speech in the past year,

6
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
found themselves embroiled in two
of the biggest free speech controversies

7
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
of the past couple of years.

8
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Student, Peter Cytanovic became the face 
of white nationalism,

9
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
when a picture of him snarling, 
holding a tiki torch

10
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
at the Unite the Right Rally 
in Charlottesville went viral.

11
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
On the complete opposite end 
of the political spectrum,

12
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
if you can call it that,

13
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
graduate, Colin Kaepernick,
went on to the NFL

14
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and used his position to highlight
police brutality and racial injustice,

15
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
by taking a knee
during the National Anthem.

16
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Both men became incredibly 
controversial for their speech.

17
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
There were calls and campaigns for both
men to be expelled for their opinions.

18
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
But regardless, whether you agree with one
of them, or both of them, or neither,

19
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
the First Amendment protects
both of those men and their opinions

20
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
from censorship and retaliation
by the government.

21
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
That's a good thing,
and I want to tell you why.

22
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
It's becoming more common for me to hear

23
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
that we should have 
lower protections for speech,

24
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
that specifically, we should 
criminalize hate speech.

25
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I hear this from the left a lot.

26
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I think a lot of progressives 
envision a world where people

27
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
like Colin Kaepernick can take a knee
and protest of racial injustice,

28
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
without fear of retaliation 
from the government,

29
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
without fear that the President
will pressure the NFL to fire him.

30
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
But they also want to live in a world
where a government school like UNR

31
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
can expel a student like Peter Cytanovic
for his hateful views.

32
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
That is a fantasy.

33
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And more than that, it's dangerous.

34
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I'm a progressive,

35
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
it's not hard for me to pick between
white nationalism and racial justice.

36
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
One is abhorrent, one is an overdue
demand for equal rights.

37
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
But what would happen if I gave
a government the right to decide

38
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
which of those men
was too hateful to speak?

39
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
President Trump 
is a pretty useful barometer.

40
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
He called the marchers 
at Charlottesville, "very fine people,"

41
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
while reserving his ire for
black football players who take a knee

42
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
as "sons of bitches."

43
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Your hate speech may not
be the government's idea of hate speech.

44
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I sure as hell know,
it's not mine.

45
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
But even if you happen 
to agree with Trump,

46
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
can you be confident that
the next President, the next government

47
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
will agree with your world view?

48
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
You shouldn't be.

49
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
That's why, above all,
I am an anti-authoritarian.

50
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I know that the U.S. government
has a long history

51
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
of wielding its raw power
against the vulnerable communities

52
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
that speak truth to that power,

53
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
against those who seek
to change the status quo.

54
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And because I want every student
to be able to take a knee

55
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
without fear of government censorship,

56
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I am a true believer 
in the First Amendment.

57
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
But even as a First Amendment attorney,
I find a lot of the common tropes

58
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and myths about the First Amendment
really unsatisfying.

59
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
So, I wanna go through three
of these myths, dust them off,

60
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and hopefully in the process,

61
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
we'll come up with three practical rules
for exercising your free speech rights,

62
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
powerfully and strategically.

63
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
So the first one, is one I suspect
we all learned in Kindergarten,

64
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
if you remember your nursery rhymes,
please feel free to join me.

65
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Sticks and stones may break my bones
but words will never hurt me.

66
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Does anyone, as an adult,
actually believe this?

67
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
It's manifestly untrue.

68
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I'm a free speech attorney precisely
because I believe that words matter,

69
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
it's ludicrous to protect free speech
by denying its very power.

70
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
So, why do we lie to kids, right?

71
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Why do we fabricate this thing for them?

72
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Well, it's because humans of all ages
can be vicious, it's just true.

73
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And when a kid is at the receiving end
of injustice, a taunt, hateful language,

74
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
we want that kid 
to be empowered, not diminished.

75
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
In February, notorious troll,
Milo Yiannopoulos,

76
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
had a planned speech at UC Berkeley.

77
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Students and others 
in the community went nuts.

78
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
There were protests, there were riots,
things were set on fire.

79
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
The administration cancelled his talk.

80
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
In April, there was a repeat, same thing,
except this time, it was Ann Coulter.

81
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
She was going to speak,

82
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
School officials said,
"There's going to be riots."

83
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
They cancelled her talk.

84
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Those two individuals, Ann and Milo,
man, they became martyrs.

85
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
They got to take on the roll of victims
of liberal censorship.

86
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
They went on media tours,
the media ate it up.

87
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
They got more attention 
for being silenced than they ever did

88
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
for trying to peddle 
their actual substantive views.

89
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
So, I think it's helpful to think 
of professional, provocateurs and trolls

90
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
as we would those schoolyard bullies.

91
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Yeah, their words can hurt, 
there's no point in denying that.

92
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
But the better question is, 
how do we respond to that, right?

93
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And a troll, a provocateur
wants you to censor them.

94
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
That's part of the goal,
it feeds into their power,

95
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
it gives them something to sell.

96
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
So, we don't have to march to that tune.

97
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
You don't have to play that role.

98
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And we can think of them,
like these bullies,

99
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
yeah their words hurt, 
but, there's also power in sass.

100
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
There's power in refusing 
to be goaded into a fight

101
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
or to play the role of censor.

102
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
So, don't do it.

103
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
But some words wound in ways
that are different from others.

104
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Which brings us to myth number two.

105
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I hear this one a lot, 
particularly online.

106
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
We all know that hate speech 
isn't protected by the First Amendment.

107
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Not so.

108
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
As that anecdote about Trump
hopefully made you think,

109
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
hate speech can be 
in the eye of the beholder,

110
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
ire of the behearer, I guess,
if that's a word.

111
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Just this week in Spain,

112
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
a man was arrested for the hate crime,
this is real, of calling cops "slackers."

113
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
on Facebook.

114
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Police are covered under 
the Spanish Hate Crime Law.

115
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
That's what criticizing your government
looks like in a country

116
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
without a First Amendment.

117
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
But, we don't have to protect speech
just out of paranoia

118
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
that our government will warp
what we think speech and hate speech are.

119
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
There's also an upshot.

120
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
In the late 1960's,