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First Amendment. Are you an absolutist or a relativist?. Nat Hentoff: Absolutist. Northeastern graduate. Nat Hentoff: Absolutist. Northeastern graduate Wrote liner notes for John Coltrane and Bob Dylan albums. Nat Hentoff: Absolutist. Northeastern graduate
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First Amendment Are you an absolutistor a relativist?
Nat Hentoff: Absolutist • Northeastern graduate
Nat Hentoff: Absolutist • Northeastern graduate • Wrote liner notes for John Coltrane andBob Dylan albums
Nat Hentoff: Absolutist • Northeastern graduate • Wrote liner notes for John Coltrane andBob Dylan albums • First Amendment views formed by getting kicked off the Northeastern News
Robert Bork: Relativist • Served Richard Nixon
Robert Bork: Relativist • Served Richard Nixon • Failed Supreme Court nominee
Robert Bork: Relativist • Served Richard Nixon • Failed Supreme Court nominee • Blames liberal judges for protecting “vulgarity and obscenity”
Understanding“make no law” • Hentoff: Any restriction on speech, even libel law, violates the First Amendment
Understanding“make no law” • Hentoff: Any restriction on speech, even libel law, violates the First Amendment • Bork: The First Amendment was meant to protect political speech, not indecency and violence
Understanding“make no law” • Hentoff: Any restriction on speech, even libel law, violates the First Amendment • Bork: The First Amendment was meant to protect political speech, not indecency and violence
Hentoff on obscenity • Founders were unconcerned
Hentoff on obscenity • Founders were unconcerned • Supreme Court didn’t mention until 1957
Hentoff on obscenity • Founders were unconcerned • Supreme Court didn’t mention until 1957 • Brennan (right), in Roth, introduced social value
Lenny Bruce • A satirist with a dirty mouth
Lenny Bruce • A satirist with a dirty mouth • How do you define social value?
Lenny Bruce • A satirist with a dirty mouth • How do you define social value? • Won on appeal,but it was too late
Bork on obscenity • Criticizes Snoop Dogg, Nine Inch Nails
Bork on obscenity • Criticizes Snoop Dogg, Nine Inch Nails • Driven by aesthetic as well as legal judgments
Bork on obscenity • Criticizes Snoop Dogg, Nine Inch Nails • Driven by aesthetic as well as legal judgments • Hentoff may be wrong — Chaplinsky,Near v. Minnesota
Hentoff versus Bork • Protection of political ideas versus threat of censorship
Hentoff versus Bork • Protection of political ideas versus threat of censorship • A loophole for censors versus a loophole for pornographers
Hentoff versus Bork • Protection of political ideas versus threat of censorship • A loophole for censors versus a loophole for pornographers • Minority rights versus majority rule