landmark federal cases in this area were Stromberg v. California, Near v. Minnesota, Cantwell v. Connecticut, Cohen v. California, Collins v. Smith, and a New Jersey state case, State v. Klapprott.
The basic rationale for upholding the constitutionality of hate speech and other objectionable forms of expression was stated by Justice Brennan in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, as follows: The policy protecting offensive forms of expression is
part of a broader policy reflecting "a profound national commitment to the principle that debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust and wide-open."
The first court tests on campus hate speech codes involved
state university codes. Generally, such codes adopted by private universities cannot run afoul of the free speech provisions of the First Amendment because no state action is involved. The University of Michigan Code involved in Doe v. University of Michigan prohibited "any behavior, verbal or physical, t
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