Heckler's Veto - Laymen's Use of The Phrase

Laymen's Use of The Phrase

Heckler's veto is often used outside a strict legal context. One example is an article by Nat Hentoff in which he claims that "First Amendment law is clear that everyone has the right to picket a speaker, and to go inside the hall and heckle him or her—but not to drown out the speaker, let alone rush the stage and stop the speech before it starts. That's called the 'heckler's veto'."

In Hentoff's formulation, the heckler him or herself is the party which directly carries out the "veto" and suppresses speech. This runs counter to the legal meaning of the phrase, 'Note that, to a lawyer familiar with the First Amendment law, the phrase "heckler's veto" means something different than the plain English interpretation of the words suggests. In First Amendment law, a heckler's veto is the suppression of speech by the government, because of a violent reaction by hecklers. It is the government that vetoes the speech, because of the reaction of the heckler. Under the First Amendment, this kind of heckler's veto is unconstitutional.'

University of California, Irvine Law School Dean Erwin Chemerinsky has invoked the concept in an editorial following an incident in which heckling by individual students disrupted a speech by the Israeli ambassador, Chemerinsky explained that broad freedom exists to invite speakers and hold demonstrations, but that once a speaker has begun an invited lecture, “You have the right – if you disagree with me – to go outside and perform your protest. But you don’t get the right to come in when I’m talking and shout me down. Otherwise people can always silence a speaker by heckler’s veto, and Babel results.”

Michigan State University professor of political science William B. Allen has used the phrase verbal terrorism to refer to the same phenomenon, defining it as "calculated assault characterized by loud side-conversations, shouted interruptions, jabbered false facts, threats and personal insults."

Danny Ayalon has suggested that the tactic be combated by videotaping the shouters.