Source: Brownstone Institute
by Daniel Klein
“In the Vice-Presidential debate, the Democratic candidate Tim Walz used shouting fire in a crowded theater to justify limitations on free speech. Ironically, he resembles a man shouting fire in a crowded theater. The history of this phrase traces to Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. in the 1919 Supreme Court case Schenck v. United States, in which he says it is wrong to ‘falsely’ shout fire. The case concerned the right to protest war. Schenck was later largely overturned. Still, the phrase has stuck. When we think about why it is wrong to shout fire in a crowded theater, we see why Walz’s invocation makes little sense.” (10/08/24)
https://brownstone.org/articles/the-man-who-shouts-fire-in-a-crowded-theater/