Proposed exception for hate speech against religious groups and against conduct-defined groups

[Paul Finkelman]

I think it should be noted that Jews do not call themselves the "chosen
people" in any sense of "ethnic superiority" or perhaps any sense at
all.  This seems to be something that the Christian world, usually for
hostile purposes, has imposed on us.  The question might be better
framed, as would it be ok for a Christian minister hostile to Jews to
assert that Jews claim to be the "chosen people" for purposes of
fostering his (Christian) theology? Or, perhaps to go back the old
Catholic position, asserting (falsely) that "the Jews" are responsible
for the death of Jesus.

Paul Finkelman

"Volokh, Eugene" wrote:

>
>
>         If it's illegal to say that homosexuals, or blacks, or Jews
> are inferior (which doesn't fit under the narrowest definition of hate
> speech with which I started, but which fits easily within some
> definitions that have been proposed, and I believe would fit within
> some foreign definitions), I take it that it would be illegal to say
> that God hates homosexuals or blacks or Jews, no?  And if so, would it
> be religiously bigoted hate speech to say that non-Christians are
> damned to hell?  Would it be an illegal assertion of ethnic
> superiority to say that Jews, and not others, are the Chosen People?
> --

Paul Finkelman
Chapman Distinguished Professor
University of Tulsa College of Law
3120 East Fourth Place
Tulsa, OK  74104

918-631-3706
Fax 918-631-2194

E-mail:  paul-finkelman at utulsa.edu

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