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I find the debunkers of this myth to be overzealous, or at least confusing.

You can be charged with a crime if you knowingly, falsely yell "fire!" in a crowded theater and someone gets hurt as a result.

The case you linked is not actually a ruling on whether you can do this.




The biggest problem with the trope is that it plants in people's heads the idea that there was EVER a Supreme Court case where the defendant was accused of yelling "fire!" in a crowded theater.

In reality, the phrase was an analogy used to justify the conviction of a man who committed the heinous crime of… making and distributing leaflets opposing the draft in World War I. So for all the high minded rhetoric in the First Amendment, it may not provide all that much protection if your speech inconveniences the government sufficiently.

One might also be tempted to draw inferences from the fact that Schenk, the man whose speech was considered not worth protecting, was a socialist pacifist, while Brandenburg, whose free speech was considered more worthy of protection, was a KKK leader promoting violence against Blacks and Jews. In the US, protecting the civil rights of Nazis has become a litmus test of civic virtue across the political spectrum. Unfortunately, that protection is extended far less vigorously and consistently to other political views.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schenck_v._United_States

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandenburg_v._Ohio

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Socialist_Party_of_Am...




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