What do you think Supreme Court Justice Brandeis meant when he said, “when we are confronted with speech we do not like, the remedy to be applied is more speech… not enforced silence”? In what ways is free speech and the free exchange of ideas essential to a democracy, even if it is speech or ideas that we do not like (such as hate speech)? Explain in detail.

There is closed captioning available if you press start on the video and then click on “cc” in the bottom right corner of the video. Here is the link to the video: https://www.pbs.org/video/constitution-usa-peter-sagal-protesting-funerals-first-amendment-put-test/
After watching the video, type out a response to the following questions. Your entire response should be a minimum of 250 words. Please be detailed and specific in your answers.
Who are the Westboro Baptists, and why do they stage protests at the funerals of soldiers? What do you think of their actions? Do you think their actions should be supported by the 1st Amendment? Why or why not?
Why did Albert Snyder sue the Westboro Baptist Church? Who did the Supreme Court rule in favor of in this case? Albert Snyder thinks the Supreme Court got the case wrong. Do you think the Supreme Court got this case wrong? Why or why not? Explain in detail.
What do you think Supreme Court Justice Brandeis meant when he said, “when we are confronted with speech we do not like, the remedy to be applied is more speech… not enforced silence”? In what ways is free speech and the free exchange of ideas essential to a democracy, even if it is speech or ideas that we do not like (such as hate speech)? Explain in detail.
Would it be problematic for the government to be the entity that determines what IS and what is NOT hate speech in order to place limitations on that kind of speech? Explain why this would or would not be problematic. What if the government says that you are using hate speech against it, and tries to silence what you are saying – is this problematic? Why or why not?

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