Alan Dershowitz Predicts Supreme Court Rulings Will Trend In Surprising New Direction When It Comes To Free Speech

Alan Dershowitz said on Newsmax Monday that he believes the Supreme Court is poised to rethink the limits of First Amendment protections as violent protests and threats of political violence escalate across the country.

Federal officials said that an illegal migrant who overstayed his visa under the Biden administration attacked a pro-Israel rally Sunday in Boulder with a flamethrower and Molotov cocktails. During an appearance on “The Record with Greta Van Susteren,” Dershowitz said that the legal framework surrounding free speech may soon shift toward a more security-conscious posture, especially in light of events on college campuses and rising antisemitic threats.

“My prediction is that over the next few years, the Supreme Court will revisit the Brandenburg case and ask itself whether or not we go too far in protecting speech that incites and encourages violence,” Dershowitz said.

Dershowitz said that the current legal framework might no longer be adequate in an era when inflammatory language can rapidly trigger real-world violence.

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“When Brandenburg was written, we didn’t live at a time when we saw this kind of rhetoric that escalates into violence so quickly. So I’m not saying I would favor it. But if you’re asking me as a legal scholar to make a prediction, I would bet the current Supreme Court would be open to the possibility of moving a little bit further on the side of security over free speech,” Dershowitz said. “I think that’s a trend that we may see occurring.”

In Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969), the Supreme Court ruled that the government cannot punish speech unless it is intended to incite imminent lawless action and is likely to do so. Dershowitz said the Court might revisit this standard as violent rhetoric increasingly leads to real-world attacks.

The ruling stemmed from a case involving a Ku Klux Klan leader whose speech, though inflammatory, did not provoke immediate violence. By adopting the “imminent lawless action” test, the Court significantly narrowed the government’s ability to restrict provocative or extremist speech. (RELATED: Alan Dershowitz Shares What Harvard Doesn’t Know That Will Cause It ‘To Lose’ Case Against Trump)

The Boulder assault took place less than two weeks after a shooter killed two Israeli embassy employees, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, near the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., reportedly yelling “Free Palestine” while being arrested.

The Israel-Hamas war began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas carried out a surprise massacre in southern Israel, murdering roughly 1,200 people and abducting around 250 others. In retaliation, Israeli forces launched a sweeping offensive in Gaza, crippling Hamas’ operational capabilities.

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