Should Massachusetts enact a law that jails people for saying something deemed hateful?
One candidate for state representative thinks so.
Clinton Graham, a Democrat from Milton running for an open state representative seat, last year requested that state Representative Bill Driscoll Jr. (D-Milton) file a bill (HD.4113) titled “An Act Prohibiting Hate Speech.”
Under the proposal, so-called hate speech directed at someone because of the person’s race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, and disability would qualify.
The bill, which was filed April 3, 2023, would provide a sentence of up to one year in prison and a fine of up to $500.
Though Driscoll filed the bill, he is not its sponsor. Since it was filed by petition at Graham’s request, Graham is the sponsor.
Graham currently serves on the school committee for Blue Hills Regional Technical School. Blue Hills is a vocational-technical high school in Canton that serves 1,608 students from Avon, Braintree, Canton, Dedham, Holbrook, Milton, Norwood, Randolph, and Westwood. Graham has served on the Blue Hills school committee since 2016.
Graham is currently running for state representative in the Seventh Norfolk District, which is an open seat, because Driscoll is running for state Senate in the Norfolk, Plymouth, and Bristol district because the incumbent state senator, Walter Timilty III (D-Milton) is running, to serve as the Norfolk County clerk of courts — a position held by his father, Walter Timilty Jr., since 2001.
Here is the exact text of the hate speech bill that Graham supports:
Chapter 269 of the General Laws is hereby amended by adding the following section:-
Section 20. (a) As used in this section, the term “hate speech” shall mean speech that carries no meaning other than the expression of hatred for some group, such as a particular race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or disability, in circumstances in which the communication is likely to or does provoke violence.
(b) Whoever makes or circulates hate speech or causes hate speech to be made or circulated shall be punished by a fine of not less than $500 or by imprisonment in a jail or house of correction for not more than 1 year or by both such fine and imprisonment.
The U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that what counts as hate speech in other countries is often legally protected under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
In the 2017 Supreme Court case Matal v. Tam, the court unanimously ruled that “speech may not be banned on the grounds that it expresses ideas that offend.”
In this case, the U.S. Trademark Office declined Simon Tam’s request for a trademark for his band The Slants, contending that the name was disparaging towards “persons of Asian descent.”
Massachusetts is the only state in the country where citizens have an explicit constitutional right to file bills directly in the state legislature, as the State Library of Massachusetts points out. The idea comes from English common law. It first appeared in the Massachusetts Body of Liberties in 1641 and once again appeared in the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780.
The 1641 rule states (with period spelling): “Every man whether Inhabitant or fforreiner, free or not free shall have libertie to come to any publique Court, Councel, or Towne meeting, and either by speech or writeing to move any lawfull, seasonable, and materiall question, or to present any necessary motion, complaint, petition, Bill or information, whereof that meeting hath proper cognizance, so it be done in convenient time, due order, and respective manner.”
The current rendition from the 1780 state constitution reads: “The people have a right, in an orderly and peaceable manner, to assemble to consult upon the common good; give instructions to their representatives, and to request of the legislative body, by the way of addresses, petitions, or remonstrances, redress of the wrongs done them, and of the grievances they suffer.”
No action has been taken on the hate speech bill yet.
This is not the first citizen petition bill filed in recent years in an attempt to suppress speech. A bill filed in 2019 would have sentenced people to prison for up to six months for calling another person a “bitch,” as NewBostonPost previously reported. The Joint Committee on the Judiciary killed that bill by sending it to study.
The Seventh Norfolk District includes precincts 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10, of the town of Milton, and precincts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, and 10, of town of Randolph, according to the state legislature’s web site.
Other candidates running for state representative in the Seventh Norfolk District include: Milton board of selectmen chairman Richard Wells, Milton businessman Tony King, and Randolph town councilor Christos Alexopoulos, all of whom are Democrats.
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