Jackson Lee Introduces Bill Targeting Free Speech

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (R-TX) introduced a bill this week targeting “White supremacy” by criminalizing certain forms of free speech that the lawmaker finds objectionable.

The left’s war on free speech is heating up, and her effort is only the latest volley in the battle.

The Leading Against White Supremacy Act of 2023 attempts to “prevent and prosecute White supremacy-inspired hate crime and conspiracy to commit a White supremacy-inspired hate crime.”

The bill targeted people who publish what it considered material advocating White supremacist ideology, “replacement theory,” or other “hate speech that vilifies or is otherwise directed against any non-White person or group.”

Under the proposed law, people who utter objectionable speech online could be prosecuted even if they do not act on their words.

Of course, the current administration has repeatedly labeled “domestic violence extremists” (DVE) as the biggest threat currently facing the Republic. And it has been clearly shown that federal agencies are not above categorizing a multitude of words and acts as “hate crimes.”

Multiple whistleblowers have exposed the FBI’s blatant attempts to classify cases as DVE, even when there was little to no connection. This is simply a way to inflate numbers and back up the White House’s claim of insurrectionists and supremacists lurking around every corner.

Jackson’s bill specifically called for the prosecution of “antagonism based on ‘replacement theory.’ This is not combating hate speech, but rather the suppression of free speech.

Furthermore, it’s not just any “hate speech” that Jackson targeted.

She specifically called out words targeting non-White persons or groups in published materials. A blanket ban on so-called hate speech would at least be more defensible, but the representative favored some groups over others.

Fortunately, this ill-conceived legislation is unlikely to pass in the current House of Representatives. It still proved the point that the left will stop at nothing to stifle ideas they disagree with, and sweeping censorship based on vague principles is well within what they are willing to enact.