Massachusetts Defends Free Speech But There Are Limits

Which words are illegal to say in Massachusetts? The short answer is none.

Well, sort of. There is no list of banned words that you cannot say.

You can face charges if you let loose with a volley of offensive terms aimed at someone during the commission of a hate crime or if your words are determined to be hate speech.

To say or write an offensive word is protected free speech.

I read a lot of U.S. history. The “N-word,” perhaps the most offensive word in American English, appears periodically, most often attributed to someone as part of a quotation. In that context, the presentation of the word is not hate speech.

Directing the word at an individual or group of people could be problematic.

The Massachusetts Executive Office of the Trial Courts Law Library states, “A hate crime is a crime that is motivated by bigotry.”

The Commonwealth further explains, “Hate speech is defined by Black’s Law Dictionary (10th ed., 2014) as: ‘Speech that carries no meaning other than the expression of hatred for some group, such as a particular race, esp. in circumstances in which the communication is likely to provoke violence.”

The Massachusetts Executive Office of the Trial Courts Law Library says, “There is no ‘hate speech’ exception to the First Amendment in the U.S. Constitution.” Nevertheless, the Commonwealth says, “The right to free speech is not absolute.”

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that certain types of speech are not protected by the Constitution, including “the lewd and obscene, the profane, the libelous, the insulting or ‘fighting words,’ – those by which their very utterance inflict injury or tend to incite an immediate breach of the peace.”

However, NBC News reported in May 2021, “The U.S. Supreme Court won’t decide if use of the N-word amounts to illegal discrimination.”

Chapter 272, Section 36A of Massachusetts State Law states, “Whoever, having arrived at the age of sixteen years, directs any profane, obscene or impure language or slanderous statement at a participant or official in a sporting event, shall be punished by a fine of not more than fifty dollars.”

Georgetown University’s Free Speech Project says the Massachusetts Legislature rejected proposed legislation in 2019 to “prohibit the word ‘bitch’ to ‘accost, annoy, degrade or demean the other person.” The Free Speech Project says legal experts found the proposal to be unconstitutional.

Are you confused yet?