Starvin Larry

From Balko’s The Watch…

Pennsylvania just passed an awful new law that bars convicts from publicly discussing their crimes if doing so could cause victims “a temporary or permanent state of mental anguish.” Journalist Christopher Moraff is part of a group that’s suing to have the law overturned. At the Daily Beast, he explains why striking down the law, which he calls the “Silencing Act,” is so important.

We need to dispense with this anti-liberal notion that there is some right to not be offended. Whether it’s speech codes on college campuses, anti-blasphemy and anti-hate speech laws in Europe, or so-called victims’ rights laws like this one, you can’t enforce these laws without crushing free expression and stifling speech.

You can have a free, open society that protects speech, or you can have an enforceable right to not be offended. You can’t have both.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2015/01/21/terrible-new-pennsylvania-law-muzzles-speech-threatens-press-freedom/