This is nothing new at all. The First Amendment, and all the rest of the Bill of Rights, has always been unpopular. Polls taken back in the 1950s show the same thing. Majorities have consistently thought that Nazis, Communists, atheists, pornographers, homosexuals, etc., should not be allowed to speak or should be locked up, that some criminals are so bad they should not be allowed to have a lawyer, and so on. A survey back in the 1950s showed that a majority of high school students wanted to lock up Communists -- while agreeing with all the economic and class warfare theories of Karl Marx. They had know idea who Karl Maex was, of course.

That's the way it has always been, and probably always shall be. They didn't take polls back then, but if they had, you can bet that a majority would have supported the Alien and Sedition Acts. "Free speech for me but not for thee" is the rule, not the exception, in human history. That's why America was not founded as a democracy (majority rule) but as a Constitutional republic. That's why we have a Bill of Rights that is not subject to plebiscite. Let's keep it that way!

Typo!: "no idea"

That's okay. When I was in 5th grade,
I read one of the Heinlein juveniles about a rebellion on the moon, which was essentually the
American Revolution in space. I was solidly
on the side of the "Tories" and didn't like the ending. I flipped over into a libertarian
about 5 years after that, right after getting to personally interface with the government for a few years. So there still hope.

um...which part is it that these high school students thought "went too far"?

Considering the indoctrination from much public school teaching, I have a sneaking suspicion its the part about "freedom of religion" that may be what bothers 'em.

E. Bryan I remember that book. I loved it. I also didn't much care for the Loonies. It was just too easyy for them- standing back tossing asteroids at us. "Us" because I was on Earth, lol.

Hmmm, if I remember high school correctly, freedom of speech was frowned upon and in many cases, you were punished if you tried to do so. Is it any wonder that this is what kids believe? If YOU told your 65 year old teacher that she smells of death, how many nights would you expect to spend in detention?

You have to love the steady decline of quality education in America. Th reason its the 1st Amendment is because its the most important.

I agree: anyone who thinks like these young Nazis should be summarily executed.

I'm afraid that even with a classical education, with the most Classical education possible, the majority of citizens of Athens voted to execute Socrates because they thought he was blaspheming the Gods. Free speech is precious, unfortunately largely because it is so rare. Nat Hentoff once pessimistically remarked that the urge to censor opposing or offending viewpoints is as primal and universal as the urge to eat or to make love.