{"id":13345,"date":"2025-09-16T16:31:55","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T16:31:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/cruz-says-first-amendment-absolutely-protects-hate-speech-in-wake-of-charlie-kirk-killing\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T16:31:55","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T16:31:55","slug":"cruz-says-first-amendment-absolutely-protects-hate-speech-in-wake-of-charlie-kirk-killing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/cruz-says-first-amendment-absolutely-protects-hate-speech-in-wake-of-charlie-kirk-killing\/","title":{"rendered":"Cruz says First Amendment \u2018absolutely protects hate speech\u2019 in wake of Charlie Kirk killing"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) defended constitutional protections for hate speech in the aftermath of the fatal shooting<\/a> of conservative organizer Charlie Kirk.<\/p>\n

In an interview with Blue Light News\u2019s Rachael Bade, Cruz said people who engage in hate speech are not \u201cimmune from the consequences of your speech,\u201d expressing support for companies that have taken disciplinary action against employees for speaking negatively of Kirk.<\/p>\n

“The First Amendment absolutely protects speech,\u201d Cruz said Tuesday at Blue Light News\u2019s AI & Tech Summit in Washington. \u201cIt absolutely protects hate speech. It protects vile speech. It protects horrible speech. What does that mean? It means you cannot be prosecuted for speech, even if it is evil and bigoted and wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the same time, Cruz endorsed \u201cnaming and shaming\u201d as \u201cpart of a functioning and vibrant democracy,\u201d citing English philosopher John Stuart Mill\u2019s famous axiom that free and plentiful expression is the best antidote to undesirable speech.<\/p>\n

“We have seen, as you noted, across the country, people on the left \u2014 not everybody, but far too many people \u2014 celebrating Charlie Kirk’s murder,\u201d Cruz said. \u201cWe’ve seen teachers in high schools and elementary schools posting online, celebrating. We’ve seen university professors posting. In my view, they should absolutely face the consequences for celebrating murder.”<\/p>\n

The senator lauded Kirk, who he described as a friend, for being willing to engage in civil debate.<\/p>\n

Numerous individuals have been targeted online for making disparaging posts about Kirk, leading to firings in higher education<\/a>, media<\/a> and other industries. The Pentagon has also vowed to discipline<\/a> service members who \u201ccelebrate or mock\u201d Kirk\u2019s killing.<\/p>\n

Cruz also defended Attorney General Pamela Bondi, who said law enforcement would \u201cabsolutely target you, go after you, if you are targeting anyone with hate speech.\u201d Cruz said those comments had been \u201cmisconstrued.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a Tuesday morning statement<\/a> posted to social media, Bondi clarified that \u201chate speech that crosses the line into threats of violence is NOT protected by the First Amendment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cruz said while he was glad to see social media companies attempt to block the video of Kirk\u2019s killing but added that the companies should \u201callow free speech,\u201d echoing earlier comments<\/a> by Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr who told Blue Light News\u2019s Alex Burns that the government should not crack down on social media posts about Kirk<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) defended constitutional protections for hate speech in the aftermath of the fatal shooting of conservative organizer Charlie Kirk. In an interview with Blue Light News\u2019s Rachael Bade, Cruz said people who engage in hate speech are not \u201cimmune from the consequences of your speech,\u201d expressing support for companies that have taken […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13345\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}