Rappers like Chance the Rapper, Killer Mike, Fat Joe and Luther Campbell (2 Live Crew) have teamed with law school professors, and a university professor on the subject of hip hop culture, to submit an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court seeking certiorari in Knox v. Pennsylvania. In Knox, the Petitioner raps under the name Mayhem Mal. After being arrested in Pittsburgh on drug and gun charges, Knox wrote a rap song entitled “F**k The Police,” which named the arresting officers, and included lyrics that talked about killing them “’cause they don’t do us no good.” Knox was charged and convicted of issuing terroristic threats and intimidating witnesses. The issue is whether the song was just a song, which would be protected First Amendment speech, or unprotected threats of violence. Knox argued the former, while the police officers were scared and the song allegedly caused one, in part, to retire from the force.
The Supreme Court ruled in 1969 in Watts v. United States that words must actually be found to be construed as threats to be unprotected. In contrast, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that there was proof that he had intended to issue threats, while seeming to say that proof his statements would reasonably be understood as threats was unnecessary. Under Pennsylvania’s ruling, speech that could in no way be understood to be a threat could nonetheless be criminal if the speaker had bad intent when he said them. That is a very chilling concept.
The amici argue that hip hop and rap music have been “the subject of unique scrutiny” when it comes to its lyrics being interpreted as threats of violence, which remove them from First Amendment protection. As of Knox’s attorneys stated ““While famous rappers like Eminem win Grammy Awards and make millions off the violent imagery in their songs, judges and juries are routinely convinced that lesser-known rap artists are somehow living out their lyrics as rhymed autobiography,” Mr. [R. Stanton] Jones said. “It’s an alarming trend, often with devastating consequences for the young men of color who are almost always targeted in these cases.” Certainly, when this discussion comes up, it is usually rap lyrics that are involved, even though rap is hardly the only music genre with violent lyrics.
The last time the Court had this issue was in 2015’s Elonis v. United States, but the Court ruled on alternative grounds and did not reach the rap lyrics/First Amendment issue. Perhaps in Knox, if the Court agrees to hear the case, the Court will get there. Quoting the brief: “As Justice Sotomayor wrote in 2017, this Court should ‘decide precisely what level of intent suffices under the First Amendment.’ Perez v. Florida, 137 S.Ct. 853, 855 (2017) (Sotomayor, J., concurring).” There is at least one segment of the music industry that hopes so, but the answer could have much larger implications for free speech.
Read more in the New York Times Article here.
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