Earlier this week, Michigan’s Democratic House passed legislation which permits lawyers to criminalize “hate speech.”
House Bill 4474 deems the subjective nature of one “feeling threatened” as sensible grounds to prosecute offenders.
Up to five years in jail paired with a $10,000 fine is the penalty for making someone “feel threatened.”
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A stint of community service to “enhance the offender’s understanding of the impact of the offense upon the victim and wider community” is a proposed alternate sentence.
The hard-to-define language regarding “feelings” is stated in the bill’s definition of “intimidation” as “willful course of conduct, involving repeated or continuing harassment of another individual that would cause a reasonable individual to feel terrorized, frightened, intimidated, threatened, harassed, or molested, and that actually causes the victim to feel terrorized, frightened, or threatened.”
In a recent Fox News report, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression’s Alex Morey claimed that many college students have adopted a “victim mentality” so censorship is a welcome trend as it combats perceived offenders. FIRE endorses legal aspects of ensuring that students are enabled to use their voices.
The Knight Foundation’s 2022 study revealed that the percentage of college students who believed their free speech was protected decreased from 73 percent in 2016 to 47 percent in 2021. The study intimated that “key events shaping the past two years, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the racial justice movement and the 2020 election, have only added deeper dimensions to the dialogue around free speech playing out on campus and in society at large.”
As the U.S. started to implement extreme stances on COVID-19 restrictions and racial justice, college administrations followed suit. Opposition was countered with intense repercussions, with campuses classifying dissent as “hate speech.”
Under the proposed HB 4474, a person’s subjective feelings, or even an exaggeration or mistruth about his subjective feelings could result in a felony charge, fines, community service, and even jail time for the offending party.
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