Some Animals Are More Equal Than Others
Dear Leading Ladies,
Free speech.
In the last two weeks, conservative activist Charlie Kirk was murdered while expressing his right to free speech and late-night host Jimmy Kimmel was fired for invoking his.
Apparently, the concept of free speech in this country now reflects George Orwell’s words in his satirical novel, Animal Farm: “All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.” Orwell was describing the totalitarian society the pigs created after power and dissension corrupted them.
We’ve known for a long time that some people – white people, people of means and education, people whose ancestors came from northern Europe – enjoyed more rights and privileges than Black people, indignous, those who came from below our borders, and recent immigrants from the Middle East and Africa.
But the right to free speech seemed a little safer in recent years.
Until now.
We wanted to understand exactly what the First Amendment, popularly called the Free Speech Act, guarantees us. It was adopted on December 15, 1791, as one of the ten amendments that became known as the Bill of Rights.
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
In other words, the amendment guarantees us, via the Constitution, freedom of expression in speech, the press, and other means of communication. While the amendment widely protects our rights to express our opinions and engage in protest, it is not without limits. According to the ACLU in Washington, DC, there are five ways our rights are protected and three they are not.
Ways our speech is protected (More details here).
The government cannot restrict your speech simply because they don’t like what you have to say.
The “government” includes local agencies like…public schools, public transportation, and the [police department.].
Most government employees can express their personal political views on their own time.
Your free speech rights are strongest in places like public streets, sidewalks, and parks.
Police may not break up a lawful protest unless there is a clear and present danger or immediate threat to public safety.
Ways our speech is not protected:
The First Amendment protects you from government censorship, but not from censorship by private organizations or individuals. (This means private employers can fire employees for language or protest, though California, Connecticut, and New York have exceptions.)
The First Amendment protects protest, but not civil disobedience.
The First Amendment protects your right to express yourself, but allows the government to restrict when, where, and how you do it.
So how does what Charlie Kirk and Jimmy Kimmel said fit in?
Jimmy Kimmel, in his monologue, said: “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.”
Kimmel also referred to Trump’s response to a reporter who asked how the president was doing in the aftermath of the death of his good friend. The president said “good” and pivoted to discussing the new $200 million ballroom being added to the White House.
Finally, Kimmel remarked: “Yes, he’s at the fourth stage of grief: Construction. Demolition, construction. This is not how an adult grieves the murder of someone he called a friend; this is how a 4-year-old mourns a goldfish.”
Criticism from the White House and conservative interests charged that the politics of the alleged murderer, reported by his mother to have recently been leaning left in his beliefs, were misrepresented by Kimmel. They also described the late night host’s language as full of hate.
As for Kirk, describing prominent Black women on his podcast in July 2023, he asserted, “You do not have the brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously. You had to go steal a white person’s slot to go be taken somewhat seriously.” In November 2023, he was quoted as saying that “Jewish communities have been pushing the exact kind of hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them.” He further said that “the philosophical foundation of anti-whiteness has been largely financed by Jewish donors in the country.”
Lots of hate and inaccuracies there and that doesn’t even include that he publicly said the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a mistake; MLK Jr. was a bad person; Jews want to replace whites in the United States; and abortion is equal to the Holocaust. Meanwhile, Jimmy Kimmel (temporarily, apparently) and Stephen Colbert were fired for making jokes.
There is surely more hate in Kirk’s public speeches than in Kimmel’s remarks, and yet, hate speech is not considered a crime unless it instigates violent action. The president, as recently as Sunday, directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to prosecute anyone who expressed not so much hate speech as “speech that he hates,” as Peter Baker reported in the New York Times. Let’s see how far they get in breaking the law since neither hate speech nor speech he hates is a crime.
Let’s also remember that the First Amendment guarantees that government employees, as opposed to those working in the private sector, can express their views and protest without any redress or fear of losing their job. That doesn’t seem to be working out too well for a slew of government workers who don’t agree with the president.
So there we have it. Some people have freedom of speech and some don’t. Perhaps it can be argued that Kimmel and Colbert were lawfully fired since their employers, as private companies, have the right to terminate employees at will (though clearly the federal government’s communication commission applied pressure). Without a doubt, the law is being unevenly applied. And attempts are being made to make that more true. It’s hard to see the present situation any other way.
Tell us what you think.
Therese (she/her/hers)
Judy (she/her/hers)
Didi (she/her/hers)
Leading Ladies Executive Team
Leadingladiesvote.org
ladies@leadingladiesvote.org