by Richard Delgado

About the author: Richard Delgado, the Jean Lindsley Professor of Law at the University of Colorado at Boulder, is the coauthor of Must We Defend Nazis? Hate Speech, Pornography, and the New First Amendment, and The Price We Pay: The Case Against Racist Speech, Hate Propaganda, and Pornography.

In this viewpoint, I first address [the] central premise about governmental control of speech. Then, I address some subordinate issues about hate-speech regulation: [the] contention that minorities have no business writing about hate speech because we are blinded by self-interest, for example. Finally, I offer a perspective for understanding social resistance . . . to reform in this area.

The Role of Government

[It is pointed] out that anti-hate-speech activists have dishonorable predecessors in Supreme Court Justices who approved suppression of political speech.

But, of course, [the] heroes have their...