"We're not going to give in to terrorism," Vice President J.D. Vance declared after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent fatally shot Minneapolis protester Renée Good in January. Vance averred that Good was involved in anti-ICE "terrorism," which he said included not only violent assaults but also provocations by "people trying to antagonize" ICE agents.
In viewing speech that pisses off cops as a crime, Vance was following a legal tradition that the U.S. Supreme Court launched in 1942, when it invented a vague First Amendment exception for "fighting words." Although subsequent decisions cast serious doubt on the viability of that doctrine, its logic remains popular with government officials who think speech that offends them should be illegal.
