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Heckler's Veto

Posted by ESC on April 30, 2004

In Reply to: Heckler's Veto posted by Wick on April 30, 2004

: Hello, I was just hoping someone might know the origin and meaning of this term. Thanks!

From FindLaw:
"It appears that government may not deny access to the public forum for demonstrators on the ground that the past meetings of these demonstrators resulted in violence, and may not vary a demonstration licensing fee based on an estimate of the amount of hostility likely to be engendered, but the Court's position with regard to the 'heckler's veto,' the governmental termination of a speech or demonstration because of hostile crowd reaction, remains quite unclear.
supreme.lp.findlaw.com/ constitution/amendment01/20.html

"...Long ago, the American Bar Association addressed the threat to free speech from rampant disrupters: 'It is the duty of the officials to prevent the threatened disorder instead of timidly yielding to threats.' Columbia University succumbed to what is called in law a 'hecklers' veto.'"

[Dead link removed - ed] Nat Hentoff on the Heckler's Veto: 26 December 1998

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