Images of the Outsider in American Law and Culture: Can Free Expression Remedy Deeply Inscribed Social Ills?

Free speech is said to be a prime instrument of social reform. Yet that faith—indeed conventional First Amendment doctrine generally—is beginning to show signs of strain. Outsider groups and women argue that free speech law inadequately protects them from certain types of harm. ¹ Further, on a theoretical level, some scholars are questioning whether free expression can perform the lofty functions of community building and consensus formation that society assigns to it. ²