A Right to Free Hatred?

Abstract: This paper examines Jeremy Waldron's critique of Ronald Dworkin's argument that legislating against hate speech undermines the democratic legitimacy of the state. This argument, hereafter the legitimacy argument, was criticized by Jeremy Waldron in his book The Harm in Hate Speech. This paper argues that Waldron successfully shows that minimal restrictions of speech can be justified even if the legitimacy argument is correct. Furthermore, this paper argues that the scope of the legitimacy argument is unreasonably broad, seeming to protect nearly any expression possible. Nonetheless, the paper also argues that the legitimacy argument highlight important considerations for legislating on this topic, and should not be completely overlooked.