From Volume 84, Number 4 (May 2011)
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This Note will propose a new categorical exclusion from the First Amendment for speech that specifically details how to commit a crime and, –as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value. This exclusion–the crime plans exclusion–may be tailored in various ways to reflect an accommodation of free speech principles and government interests. Ultimately, this Note will advocate a two-plank definition of crime plans speech requiring (1) that the speech be sufficiently specific so that a reasonable person who has never committed the described crime could follow the instructions and expect to carry out the crime or conceal evidence, and (2) that the speech, “as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value,” which will be referred to collectively as “redemption value.”
While this Note will advocate a new categorical exclusion, it will also suggest that crime plans speech can be denied First Amendment protection under traditional strict scrutiny analysis. Moreover, when crime-facilitating speech does not fall into the crime plans exclusion, it still may be denied First Amendment protection under strict scrutiny analysis if the state’s compelling interest in prohibiting that speech outweighs the individual’s free speech interest. Though strict scrutiny analysis can often yield the same result as a categorical exclusion, categorically excluded speech does not have presumptive constitutional protection and is subject only to the minimal rational basis test. Thus, the argument structure of the categorical exclusion conveys a message that specific crime-facilitating speech that has virtually no noncriminal redemptive value is undeserving of First Amendment protection.
In addition to a categorical exclusion, this Note will propose that specific crime-facilitating speech that poses dangers of catastrophic magnitude should be subject to prior restraints. Such restraints are constitutionally permissible so long as they implement procedural safeguards to combat standardless discretion.
Crime-facilitating speech is any speech that abets crime or provides information that may be useful in a criminal endeavor. Such speech can take various forms, ranging from one-on-one conversations to electronic publications disseminated throughout the world. Crime-facilitating speech makes some crimes achievable that would not otherwise be possible, such as divulging social security numbers to facilitate identity theft. This speech also makes some crimes easier to commit or harder to detect and thus harder to deter and punish.
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