During the middle ages Galileo one of the greatest minds ever to live would speak of the earth circling the sun and other ideas he believed, based on science. The Catholic Church took this as a form of hate speech against their religion since it opposed some of their beliefs. Today how many people still believe that the earth is the center of the universe? How many people agree with the fact that Galileo hated the Catholic Church? What can be considered what is Hate Speech and what isn't is a very relative thing. Everyone has different opinions and censoring Hate speech would deprive you from allowing to choose whether or not you agree with what is being said because you haven't had a chance to hear it.
In countries such as Afghanistan and Iraq, and even North Korea, countries that the U.S. isn't on good terms with, when President Bush makes a speech about stopping these countries from gaining power or going to war with them I am sure many citizens of these countries view his speeches as Hate Speeches. This is another example that helps to illustrate the fact that hate speech is relative.
In current events the Council of Europe has voted to outlaw "acts of a racist and xenophobic nature conducted through computer systems." They are non-member nations such as the United States to help show their support concerning the new law. The United States has said that supporting this law would go against the First Amendment. .
Another fairly recent event of infringing on the first amendment involves two students who were discussing President Bush and his decision to go to war with Iraq. The teacher viewed the student's comments to be more than just debated and informed the secret service. The students were then grilled by federal officials and when they asked for legal counsel or if they had the right to be silent the officials responded by saying "We own you. You don't have any legal rights.".
During the first session of the 84th Congress, 1955, First Amendment scholar Alexander Meiklejohn was summoned before the U.