Constitutional lawyer calls out prominent Democrat for failing to understand the First Amendment

Howard Dean, former chairman of the Democratic National Committee and failed presidential candidate, tweeted Thursday that "Hate speech is not protected by the first amendment."

For Friday's episode of "Pure Opelka," host Mike Opelka invited constitutional lawyer Emily Zanotti to discuss how very wrong Dean is.

Mike asked Zanotti, "Is hate speech protected speech?"

She replied that it depends, although the left believe that anything they disagree with is hate speech. The truth is that "speech that incites violence or panic" is the only non-protected speech.

Zanotti cited the "quintessential case" of National Socialist Party v. Skokie in which the Supreme Court protected a Nazi march in a predominantly Jewish neighborhood. Mike, who is personally acquainted with that area, recalled that it was inhabited by 7,000 Holocaust survivors, saying, "One-tenth of the population of this city had tattoos on their arm."

Still, the Supreme Court did not abridge the Nazis' "right to be offensive."

Zanotti also discussed Chelsea Clinton's cover on Variety. Clinton was hailed as the magazine's "power woman of the year" even though she hasn't done anything aside from traveling with her mother Hillary Clinton's failed presidential campaign all over the country and asserting mom didn't win "because [Americans] were just so darn sexist."

Mike suggested Chelsea is "running for something," and Zanotti agreed that she does not see the Clinton dynasty ending with Hillary's loss.

To see more from Mike, visit his channel on TheBlaze and listen live to “Pure Opelka” weekdays 12-3 p.m. ET, 7–10 p.m. ET & Saturdays 6–9 a.m. ET, only on TheBlaze Radio Network.