Fox News Forgets Fact in Christian Graduation Speech Story

[Volokh, Eugene]

	Why is the proper comparison for religious speech "partisan
political speech" rather than ideological speech, such as praise for
environmentalism, criticism of consumerism, or what have you?  Is it
just an estimate of the likely degree to which some members of the
audience will feel offended by the speech?  (What if, for instance,
someone condemns the evil oil companies, and some members of the
audience work for an oil company, or have parents who work for an oil
company?)

	Eugene


Marty Lederman writes:
 
I think one needs to find a good analogy, and it's not always readily
available.  I suggested two analogies that are roughly valuable markers:
partisan political speech and anti-religious speech ("e.g., "religion is
the opiate of the masses and all of you church-goers out there are
suffering from a massive delusion").  As a rough rule, if those are
allowed -- and if other speech entirely irrelevant to high-school
graduation is allowed -- then perhaps the school should also allow
speech as entirely inappropriate and inapposite as statments about
whether Christ did, or did not, die for my sins.