Mini-Post: You Would Think That She Knows The Law

You would think that as the Attorney General of the United States that she would know the law!

Opinion | Even conservatives push back after AG Pam Bondi wrongly claims ‘hate speech’ isn’t protected

After Bondi vowed to target ‘hate speech,’ legal scholars and conservatives alike reminded her that US law protects even offensive expression

Poynter

By: Tom Jones

September 17, 2025

It’s been quite a couple of days for Pam Bondi. The attorney general is twisting herself into a pretzel, first acting all tough about banning so-called “hate speech,” and then trying to explain what she meant after getting slammed from all sides of the political spectrum.

This all has come about in the aftermath of the shooting of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.

On a podcast hosted by Katie Miller, wife of Trump adviser Stephen Miller, Bondi said, “There’s free speech and then there’s hate speech, and there is no place, especially now, especially after what happened to Charlie, in our society. … We will absolutely target you, go after you, if you are targeting anyone with hate speech.”

But as MSNBC’s Jordan Rubin points out, “That sounds like the sort of thing that maybe could be true, especially coming from a nominally authoritative figure like the attorney general of the United States. But she’s incorrect. The law doesn’t make such a distinction. The point has been reinforced by none other than Justice Samuel Alito, certainly no wilting liberal.”

In a 2017 opinion, Alito wrote, “Speech that demeans on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, religion, age, disability, or any other similar ground is hateful; but the proudest boast of our free speech jurisprudence is that we protect the freedom to express ‘the thought that we hate.’”

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He added, “Beyond this one important speech issue, Bondi’s error raises a broader question: If the attorney general is incorrect about this basic legal premise, what other errors might she be making when it comes to the range of crucial matters that face the Justice Department every day?”

You have to wonder how she got her law degree?

And she is getting pushback from other Republicans...

Trump responded by saying, “She’d probably go after people like you! Because you treat me so unfairly! It’s hate! You have a lot of hate in your heart! Maybe they’ll come after ABC. Well, ABC paid me $16 million recently for a form of hate speech, right? Your company paid me $16 million for a form of hate speech, so maybe they’ll have to go after you.”

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And former ABC News correspondent Terry Moran tweeted, “The mask is off. Trump defines ‘hate speech’ as anything that wounds his fragile ego. And now he seems to want to jail those whose speech displeases him. This is what petty autocrats always seek to do: Make their whims law. Not here. Not in America.”

At best: it was a politically motivated, legally sloppy statement that shows poor judgment and at worst: it was a calculated move to stoke outrage or fear, knowing full well the actual law.