ARTHUR Terminiello was a contemptible bastard. In 1946 the suspended Catholic priest gave a speech to about 1000 people in Chicago, denouncing Jews, among others.
ARTHUR Terminiello was a contemptible bastard. In 1946 the suspended Catholic priest gave a speech to about 1000 people in Chicago, denouncing Jews, among others.
As some among the crowd inside yelled “kill the Jews”, a larger crowd of protesters outside smashed windows and threw stink bombs. Terminiello was later fined $100 for a breach of the peace, a decision he fought all the way to the United States’ highest court. In a narrow 5-4 decision, the US Supreme Court found Terminiello’s conviction and fine were invalid, ruling the First Amendment right to free speech outweighed the potential consequences that speech could have.
It’s an interesting case in light of recent debates here over the limits of free speech. At a Federal level, the Commonwealth Government walked away from plans to repeal section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act in the wake of strident progressive opposition.
The section came under the spotlight in 2016 after The Australian’s late cartoonist Bill Leak’s was taken to the Australian Human Rights Commission over his depiction of an Aboriginal father who didn’t know the name of his delinquent son.
Read the article in the NT News.