<< What would you say about some bonehead tacking a Nazi poster on the
public bulletin board outside your office? How about tacking said poster
on your bedroom wall? Noone is an absolutist about free speech.
>>
I am not an absolutist in the sense that I do not think all speech is absolutely protected at all times. I gave a short llist of examples of unprotected speech and I have talked about First Amendment doctrine at greater length. There is alrge body of legal theory devoted to the limits of free speech.
If someone tacked up a Nazi poster outside the chambers of the federal judge for whom I work, I'd say yucko, and take it down. I wouldn't call the cops unless I thought it was a threat, which it might be. I would alert the marshals so that they could inquire into whether it was a threat or just a political statement. If someone did it in my room, I'd call the cops about trespassers. If you are trying to get me to say that I would find Nazi speech, abstract advocacy of Nazi ideas, so offensive that I would want it banned, you lose. My First Amendment teacher was the guy who defended the Nazis right to march in Skokie, the Jewish suburb immediately to my south. I think he was absolutely correct.
--jks