America’s New Battle Line: Where Free Speech Ends & Hate Speech Begins

Two people were killed and four others seriously injured in a terror attack outside a synagogue in Manchester, northern England, on Thursday morning, U.K. police said. The attack came as the Jewish community observed Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.

The suspect, who rammed a car into a crowd and stabbed people, was shot dead by officers at the scene. Two other people have been arrested in connection to the attack. The suspects’ names have not been released.
Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue’s schedule showed worshippers were due to gather for prayers at 9 a.m., about a half-hour before the police received the first report of the attack.

“A vile individual committed a terrorist attack, [who] attacked Jews because they are Jews,” U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Thursday, noting that antisemitism is “rising once again.”

Starmer vowed that Britain would stand with Jewish communities: “Many Jewish families first came to this country as a place of refuge, fleeing the greatest evil ever inflicted on a people... This is a country that stands up to hatred.”

Antisemitic attacks have increased globally since Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza. A report by the World Zionist Organization and the Jewish Agency for Israel found antisemitic incidents worldwide rose 340% from 2022 to 2024.

🚨 ONE IMPORTANT THING

Hate Speech & Free Speech: A Look At The History Of First Amendment Protections

Where is the line between free speech and hate speech? That’s where context and content come into play, Jonathan Zimmerman, Professor of History of Education at the University of Pennsylvania, explained in our latest Mo News Premium Workshop.

There is a long history in the U.S. of free speech debates: From the Founding Fathers, to McCarthyism, to today’s campus protests and cancel culture fights. Recent headlines — from Charlie Kirk’s murder to Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension — highlight just how charged the free speech debate has become in 2025.

Polls show a majority of Americans now believe free speech is in a bad place — and a growing number of both Democrats and Republicans support political violence as a means to getting the country “back on track.”

“In a very polarized society, we have a rough consensus among Republicans and Democrats, that free speech is in a bad place… I think that’s a good thing in the sense that it’s a necessary, although not a sufficient, condition for making anything better. It’s a certain kind of agreement, and it’s one of the only things we do agree on,” Zimmerman said.

THE LITTLE GUY BENEFITS MOST FROM FREE SPEECH
Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony, and Martin Luther King Jr. relied on speech as their only tool against injustice. “Free speech was all they had,” according to Zimmerman. “If you took that away, they couldn’t make the case against injustice… If you take away free speech, it’s the people at the bottom who lose.”

Pivotal cases: The landmark 1969 Supreme Court case, Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District ruled that “neither students nor teachers shed their First Amendment rights at the schoolhouse gate,” Zimmerman explained.
- Back in 1965 during the Vietnam War, a group of students – including Mary Beth Tinker – silently protested the war by wearing black armbands to their school in Des Moines. The protest angered school officials, leading the administration to suspend the students who protested, including Tinker. Tinker sued the school district for violating her right to exercise free speech.

Mary Beth Tinker and her brother, John, with the armbands. 1968.

THEN VS. NOW: Many years later, Tinker spoke to Zimmerman’s ‘History of Education’ class at the University of Pennsylvania. Students pressed her about the difference between then and now — suggesting that in the past, she was fighting the good fight. But today, figures like conservative commentator Ben Shapiro are simply saying hurtful things. Tinker pushed back, noting that in the 1960s, many at her school saw her protest as hateful.

NOT-SO-FREE SPEECH IN U.S. HISTORY: In 1798, the Alien and Sedition Acts jailed critics of the U.S. government; the Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918 during World War I and II criminalized anti-war sentiment; and suspected communists lost jobs and reputations during the McCarthy era.

It wasn’t until the Vietnam War era that the courts gave individuals more free speech rights. The landmark case Cohen v. California protected a man who wore a jacket saying “F*** the Draft.”

“Censorship is the most natural thing in the world. And that’s why we have to resist it. I’m not questioning that people say and hear things that you or I might find hateful. What I am questioning is whether we should empower the government, any government, to decide what is so hateful that nobody should be able to say it or hear it. I don’t trust the government enough to do that, and I’m astonished that anyone would,” Zimmerman said.

HATE SPEECH IS PROTECTED
Zimmerman explains that feelings are subjective, and what feels hateful is also individual. Painful speech, hateful speech, is shielded by the First Amendment unless it crosses into incitement or harassment.

“Why should we allow hate speech?” Zimmerman says to look at Salman Rushdie. To millions worldwide, Rushdie’s writing is seen as deeply offensive — even “hate speech” — that has led to assassination attempts. Rushdie’s novel The Satanic Verses caused a major backlash among some in the Muslim community, with the Iranian Supreme Leader issuing a fatwa or death threat against him.
- But others praise him for taking a courageous stand against censorship. The example shows how subjective “hate speech” is.

In the U.S., where freedom of speech stands out among nations, conduct is what crosses the line for hateful content. Using a slur in public is protected; repeatedly targeting someone outside their home is harassment — and punishable.

It comes as 4 in 5 Americans (80%) agree, at least slightly, that “words can be violence,” according to the National Speech Index by FIRE.

CAMPUS QUESTIONS
From anti-Israel protests to the backlash against conservative speakers, campuses continue to push the conversation about what constitutes free speech. “It’s not enough to say that the speech could cause violence,” Zimmerman explains. “There has to be, and this is the court’s language, a direct and immediate threat of violence.”

And do those free speech rights extend to non-citizens?

Earlier this week, a federal judge in Massachusetts ruled that the Trump administration unlawfully used the threat of deportation to silence noncitizens who protested in support of Palestinians — violating the First Amendment.

In a blistering 161-page opinion, which he called the most significant of his 30 years on the bench, Judge William Young said President Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem weaponized immigration law to intimidate foreign students and chill campus activism. Young affirmed that noncitizens lawfully present in the U.S. have the same free speech rights as citizens.

Young, a Reagan appointee, likened masked ICE agents detaining students to “cowardly desperados and the despised Ku Klux Klan” and warned that Trump’s “palpable misunderstanding that the government simply cannot seek retribution for speech he disdains poses a great threat to Americans’ freedom of speech.”
- A group of university professors sued on behalf of detained students, including Mahmoud Khalil of Columbia University, a green card holder who was arrested in March for his campus activism. Students at Tufts and Georgetown faced similar arrests.
The White House denounced the ruling as “outrageous” and vowed to continue revoking visas of those it deems a threat. The ruling did not immediately order changes to administration policies, however.

🎧 Listen to the full conversation with Zimmerman — and get access to past workshops on topics from media literacy to the MAHA movement — on Mo News Premium. Join today.

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⏳ THE SPEED READ

🚨NATION

White House warns thousands of federal workers could be fired amid shutdown (MO NEWS)
One flight attendant injured after Delta regional jets collide while taxiing at LaGuardia Airport, airline says (ABC)
Treasury Secretary warns shutdown could hurt GDP: ‘A hit to working America’ (THE HILL)
Immigration judge denies Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s request to reopen asylum application (USA TODAY)
Education Department employees surprised to find their email automatically changed to blame Democrats for shutdown (NBC)

🌎 AROUND THE WORLD

Israel intercepts Gaza-bound flotilla trying to break blockade, hundreds of activists to be deported (MO NEWS)
Philippines province in ‘state of calamity’ as 6.9 earthquake kills 69 (BBC)
‘We are the last hope’: Gen Z Madagascar protestors vow to fight on until president resigns (THE GUARDIAN)
Eiffel Tower closed as nationwide strikes held across France against austerity (AP)

📱BUSINESS, SCIENCE & TECH

Elizabeth Warren calls for Trump to release the jobs report despite shutdown (CNN)
Perplexity’s Comet browser is now available to everyone for free (THE VERGE)
Tesla deliveries rise 7% before EV tax credits expire (CNBC)
Apple shelves Vision Pro overhaul to focus on AI glasses (TECHCRUNCH)
OpenAI wraps $6.6 billion share sale at $500 billion valuation (CNBC)

🎬 SPORTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Trump advisor says ICE agents will be at Super Bowl for Bad Bunny’s halftime show (VARIETY)
First No. 24 jersey worn by Lakers’ Kobe Bryant sells for $889K (ESPN)
Caitlin Clark says the WNBA commissioner hasn’t reached out since their private chat became public (NBC)
Diddy planning unconventional move in court ahead of sentencing for prostitution charges (FOX NEWS)

ICYMI FROM THE 📲

In case you missed it… The 90s called, literally! The landline phone — once a childhood staple for Gen X and millennials — is making a comeback as more parents push back against smartphones and social media for kids.

A group of parents in Maine made headlines this summer after setting up a “landline pod” — families opting for corded, audio-only telephones instead of smartphones.
Kylie Kelce (wife of retired NFL player Jason Kelce — and soon-to-be Taylor Swift’s sister-in-law) said on her podcast she’s putting a “kitchen phone” in her home for her daughters to keep devices out of bedrooms.
The owner of Tin Can phones — a new Wi-Fi–enabled “smart landline” -- says sales are way up. The phones let parents control hours of use and approved numbers.

Bigger picture: With 95% of teens now owning or accessing a smartphone, many parents worry about mental health, screen time, and social media’s impact. There’s been a rise of “dumb phones” and more families taking the “Wait Until 8th” pledge (holding off on smartphones until at least 8th grade). We talked to Jonathan Haidt, author of The Anxious Generation, about the data.

Mo News Editorial Director, Jill, notes that as a parent of a 2nd grader (and a pre-schooler), she hopes more of these ideas take hold before her kids start begging for smartphones. Landlines and “dumb phones” feel like a great option because they let kids socialize with friends while also keeping them off social media, she notes. But the only way it really works is if more people do it!