crowded or not.
Just as long as the theater is actually on fire.
I was listening to the rerun of Bill Maher, and the discussion was on Maher arguing that the boycott of advertisers of Laura Ingraham was a violation of free speech. The guests — Eliot Spitzer, Heather McGee, and Max Boot — thoroughly demolished his argument.
But along the way Maher noted he accepted that the First Amendment did not mean you could shout fire in a crowded theater, and NO ONE — not even former NY Attorney General Spitzer — corrected his misstatement.
So let’s look at the relevant sentence from the opinion for the court of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. in Schenck v United States, 249 U S. 52:
The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic.
Please note the key word — falsely.
This is probably the most misquoted part of any Supreme Court opinion ever.
At least I can take some solace in this — any student who has studied US Government with me understands the difference from what Holmes wrote, and what most people say.
Peace.