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12 Nw. J. L. & Soc. Pol'y 1 (2016-2017)

handle is hein.journals/nwjlsopo12 and id is 1 raw text is: Copyright 2016 by Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law Vol. 12, Issue 1 (2016) Northwestern Journal of Law and Social Policy The Terrorist's Veto: Why the First Amendment Must Protect Provocative Portrayals of the Prophet Muhammad Daniel Ortner' I. INTRODUCTION On Wednesday, January 7, 2015, armed gunmen entered the offices of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and killed employees and editors of the magazine in probable retaliation for the publication of satirical cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.2 The attack on Charlie Hebdo has contributed to the debate over whether publication of speech that is likely to provoke violent reactions from religious extremists should be permissible.' Some have argued that such speech should be prohibited in order to prevent responsive violence and terrorism.' Recently, a school of journalism dean argued in USA Today that the publication of cartoons that insult the Prophet Muhammad 1 Daniel Ortner, J.D. BYU Law '15, Law Clerk to Judge Kent A. Jordan, Federal Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. With thanks to Professor RonNell Andersen Jones, for her invaluable assistance with this article. 2 See Josh Levs, Ed Payne & Michael Pearson, A Timeline of the Charlie Hebdo Terror Attack, CNN (Jan. 9, 2015), http://www.cnn.coni2015/01/08/europe/charlie-hebdo-attack-timeline/. See also What Motivated the Attacks on Charlie Hebdo?, PBS NEWSHOUR EXTRA (Jan. 9, 2015), http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/daily-videos/what-motivated-the-attacks-on-charlie-hebdo/. ' A foiled attack in May 2015 on a Texas cartoon contest by two armed gunmen launched another wave of debate over the censorship of provocative images. See generally Scott Shane, Texas Attacker Left Trail of Extremist Ideas on Twitter, N.Y. TIMEs, May 5, 2015, http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/06/world/middleeast/isis-texas-muhammad-cartoons.html?_r-0. If attacks related to the publication of images of the Prophet Muhammad on U.S. soil become even more common, it is likely that calls to censor/calls for restriction will also intensify. An indication of such escalation in calls for restriction is the decision of PEN America to give a free speech award to Charlie Hebdo, which led to sharp criticism and illustrates the continuing intensity of this debate. See Alan Yuhas, Two Dozen Writers Join Charlie Hebdo PEN Award Protest, GUARDIAN, Apr. 29, 2015, http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/apr/29/writers-join-protest-charlie-hebdo-pen-award; see also, e.g., Rich Lowry, Americans Have a Right to Insult Islam, NAT'L REV. (May 5, 2015, 12:00 AM), http://www.nationalreview.conarticle/417903/americans-have-right-insult-islam-rich-lowry. 4 See, e.g., Tomas Byrne, Banning Blasphemy: The Repercussions of Religious Offense Under the Right to Free Speech, TOMAs BYRNE (Jan. 29, 2015), http://www.tomasbyrne.com/blasphemy-may-offensive-laws- no-place-tolerant-society/; see also Javier E. David, After Paris and Copenhagen, Can Free Speech Learn to Live with Religion?, CNBC (Feb. 21, 2015, 12:00 PM), http://www.cnbc.com/id/102439946. Garry Trudeau, the well-known creator of the Doonsbury cartoon series also declared that Charlie Hebdo wandered into the realm of hate speech, which is illegal in France because it directly incites violence. Garry Trudeau, The Abuse of Satire, ATLANTIC (Apr. 11, 2015), http://www.theatlantic.conintemational/archive/2015/04/the-abuse-of-satire/390312/.

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