re: A white couple who burned a cross in their yard facing Black neighbors’ home....

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I’m pretty liberal, and if this isn’t protected speech, then the 1st amendment is worthless.

It’s hateful. And they should be shunned by the general public. But the government has no business regulating what views you express on your own property. Buyer beware.

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If it had just been burning the cross it would’ve fell under protected speech I believe (and even at that it depends on whether you can burn that on your law by your local municipality laws).

But they also did this:

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Butler also shared the Black couple’s address on Facebook, and posted that he was “summoning the devil’s army” and “about to make them pay,” the report said. According to an arrest warrant, Hartnett also threatened to hurt the couple.

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It stops being an isolated expression of protected speech at that point. At that point you’re fully open to the consequences of your speech.