In December 1999, Sports Illustrated published an interview with Atlanta Braves relief pitcher John Rocker. In the article, Rocker insulted the driving skills of Asian women, referred to a teammate, in a presumably racial comment, as a "fat monkey," and noted that he disliked New York City because of the preponderance of foreigners and subway cars filled with "some kid with purple hair next to some queer with AIDS." Rocker's statements are an example of what many people consider to be the problem of hate speech.

Hate speech is speech that encourages prejudice, and sometimes violence, toward specific groups, due to race, sexual orientation, gender, or other factors. The Supreme Court has heard several hate speech cases over the past six decades. In 1952, the court considered Beauharnais v. Illinois, which involved a man who led a white supremacist organization and had distributed leaflets containing...