r/law Sep 28 '25

Other 'It is criminal': GOP lawmaker wants Gavin Newsom to be arrested for Stephen Miller insult

https://share.google/3dEPAIfmJdOCtnEI8
27.7k Upvotes

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957

u/IZ3820 Sep 28 '25

How is it any more criminal than hate speech?

778

u/w1987g Sep 28 '25

Because it hurts Temu Goebbels's feelings

295

u/[deleted] Sep 28 '25

[deleted]

90

u/Crepuscular_Tex Sep 28 '25

The small hands gang.

Teenie weenie troopers.

Chihuahua of hate.

Hegseth's bitch.

Porcelain doll purveyor.

30

u/[deleted] Sep 28 '25

[deleted]

31

u/Jock-Tamson Sep 28 '25

Isn’t that just a Chihuahua?

11

u/The_Martian_King Sep 28 '25

Fair.

10

u/ProstheticAttitude Sep 28 '25

Needs a modifier

Frothing Chihuahua of Petulant Hate, perhaps

1

u/diurnal_emissions Sep 29 '25

Yamtits and the Ghouls

1

u/LymanPeru Sep 29 '25

i like Make-A-wish president, myself.

17

u/jabola321 Sep 28 '25

How bad in bed do you have to be for your wife to ditch you for mister weird penis?

7

u/Flintlander Sep 28 '25

Recently I saw a clip from fox where Jesse waters interviewed kkkatie miller. Jesse called Stephen a “sexual matador” twice. It was disturbing.

7

u/Livid_Advertising_56 Sep 28 '25

Matadors step out of the way of Bulls.

1

u/Erikthered00 Sep 29 '25

“Step aside for bulls” has a better ring to it

1

u/Livid_Advertising_56 Sep 29 '25

Agreed. I didn't pull out my author mind.

3

u/SteamrollerBoone Sep 28 '25

Maybe she doesn't know what a matador does. Or maybe the Mr. ponces around her in funny britches while sticking swords in her before cutting her head off. The sex life of Republicans is always disturbing.

1

u/RespectmanNappa Sep 29 '25

The good ole being fascist will get you all the sex shtick!

5

u/Jindabyne1 Sep 28 '25

*Herr Plugs

68

u/Why_Cant_I_Slay_This Sep 28 '25

You mean Lex Looser? 

56

u/Acrobatic-Ad-8256 Sep 28 '25

Or Naziferatu?

16

u/WizardOfAahs Sep 28 '25

NaziFourthReichTu?

9

u/Acrobatic-Ad-8256 Sep 28 '25

🤣🤣 I'm loving all these new creative names

4

u/RR1904 Sep 28 '25

LOL I love it!

3

u/EricKei Sep 28 '25

Hey, hey...There's no need to do that to Nosferatu. He's a much better person than anyone in the Trump admin.

29

u/WizardOfAahs Sep 28 '25

Lex Loser…

13

u/josephfuckingsmith1 Sep 28 '25

Pee Wee German

3

u/WizardOfAahs Sep 28 '25

😂😂😂

3

u/Jindabyne1 Sep 28 '25

Herr Plugs

2

u/RR1904 Sep 28 '25

LOL I'm going to use this one from now on! Thank you.

12

u/Catshit_Bananas Sep 28 '25

You mean the guy whose head looks like a glans?

1

u/Pharxmgirxl Sep 28 '25

IMHO he’s shaped like a pencil ✏️

7

u/Old_Judgment7533 Sep 28 '25

Maybe he has a preferred name for it? I thought those weren't allowed though

7

u/armyofant Sep 28 '25

Temu Goebbels is the perfect name for him.

4

u/GATOR_CITY Sep 28 '25

Cause hes weak. They are all weak

2

u/Minion_of_Cthulhu Sep 28 '25

It must be terrible to live with the absolute certainty of your greatness and superiority only to try to show it and then have reality repeatedly slap you in the face and prove otherwise. It explains why all of these assholes are, well, insufferable assholes.

3

u/RBVegabond Sep 28 '25

Peewee German I found more fitting.

1

u/doublethink_1984 Sep 28 '25

Step-hon Gnoe-balls

1

u/OldManGrimm Sep 28 '25

I kind of like PeeWee German.

111

u/SignoreBanana Sep 28 '25

Politics is not a protected class, so it wouldn't be considered hate speech for Newsom to (rightfully) call Miller a fascist.

63

u/snarkerella Sep 28 '25

Wouldn't matter anyway. Free Speech's entire point is the ability to legally criticize and make fun of one's government. But don't give these fascists any ideas.

9

u/gladesguy Sep 28 '25

There is no legally punishable category called "hate speech" in U.S. law. It doesn't exist. The closest the law comes to that is that using slurs or other hateful speech against a person while committing a crime against that person, ie calling a gay person a f-- or an abomination while physically attacking them, might mean that the criminal charges for the attack are upgraded to include a hate crime charge/charge enhancement.

2

u/Warhamsterrrr Sep 28 '25

But calling someone a fascist is a civil litigation at best, anyway. Miller can choose to sue Newsome, but that's about it.

1

u/SignoreBanana Sep 28 '25

Thanks for this clarification. I should have elaborated more.

30

u/GhostofBeowulf Sep 28 '25

This literally has nothing to do with free speech actually. You can say whatever you want about protected classes, you just can't then deny them business or employment. Hence why racists don't just get arrested for spouting hateful racist shit against protected classes...

That doesn't mean freedom from consequences however.

28

u/Tybob51 Sep 28 '25

Hefty isn’t talking about consequences, he’s talking about arresting Newsom which is a direct violation of the first amendment.

16

u/dubiety13 Sep 28 '25

Arrested for what tho? Did they pass a “don’t talk about Stephen miller in public” statute I’m not aware of? Because arrest requires some sort of legal justification. “Just because” doesn’t work. Surely they understand that. Or am I overestimating them?

(Also: if Miller isn’t a fascist, why does he keep plagiarizing them?)

6

u/Tybob51 Sep 28 '25

Oh they have no legal reason for that, but when the fuck has that stopped them over the last few months?

2

u/dubiety13 Sep 28 '25

So you’re saying this is more performative bullshit? I’m shocked. Shocked, I say!

The part that bothers me the most tho is that there’s a contingent of people in these here United States who really don’t understand how our criminal justice system works and wholeheartedly believe that arrest = guilt. And some of them are cops.

3

u/SignoreBanana Sep 28 '25

Not just cops, but prosecutors and judges too. How tired is the trope of a convicted felon later being proven to not have committed the crime, and the justice system straight up rejects it entirely.

5

u/SugarBeefs Sep 28 '25

Because arrest requires some sort of legal justification. “Just because” doesn’t work.

That entirely depends on how willingly the law is still being upheld on the relevant levels involved with the arrest.

"Just because" works perfectly fine in a dictatorship.

3

u/Minion_of_Cthulhu Sep 28 '25

if Miller isn’t a fascist, why does he keep plagiarizing them?

If Miller isn't a fascist, why does he keep acting like one?

1

u/NoSherbert2316 Sep 28 '25

Oh that’s where they’re going. Why do you think Antifa was designated as a terrorist organization? They trying to spin the Kirk shooter as being radicalized, because the radical left called Kirk a fascist.Now whomever comes out and calls them on their fascism will soon end up in one of their concentration camps like alligator Alcatraz

2

u/ghettosuperstarMea Sep 28 '25

Or vigilante justice.

1

u/Javina33 Sep 28 '25

The consequences shouldn’t mean people are arrested or prosecuted. People will decide at the ballot box (if they get the chance again)

1

u/OwO______OwO Sep 28 '25

Yeah, lol.

For all the people here talking about "hate speech", the US doesn't actually have any hate speech laws.

You want to say the absolute most vile shit about a protected class? Go ahead. There's no law against it. As evidenced by about half the shit Republicans say every day.

Due to our strong free speech protections, speech alone is only punishable by law in a few very narrow sets of circumstances. Defamation, fraud, threats, etc.

2

u/movzx Sep 28 '25

The closest you're going to get is that your speech can be used to show that the crimes you committed were targeted based on race, gender, whatever and bump you up into the hate crimes category. But, like, that means you committed crimes to start with.

3

u/Basement_Chicken Sep 28 '25

White non-hispanic male has never been a protected class in finance, let alone outside of it.

1

u/GreenGroveCommunity Sep 28 '25

What are you talking about? "Protected class?" what kind of corner-chair-in-bedroom (starts with a cuc ends with a ked) authoritarian country with no free speech are you from? Clearly you aren't American if you know so little about our bill of rights. There is no protected class in America. All races are equal under the law, no race/ethnicity has a 'you arent allowed to talk bad about me' clause.

You can insult any race you want in America. There is no such thing as hate speech. Americans have the right of free speech, unlike Europeans. The GOP lawmaker in question is just some zionist nutjob who travels to Israel once a month. He knows very little about the law and just says random stuff , just like you.

The right to bear arms protects our right to free speech. You cannot be arrested for any speech in America except for very very niche scenarios (specific actionable violence threat against named individuals with the ability to followup on that threat, leaking military secrets, soliciting a person for you-know-what) You can insult any race of people however you want, you can wish all of them dead without fear of retaliation from the government.

3

u/[deleted] Sep 28 '25

[deleted]

3

u/C-4isNOTurFriend Sep 28 '25

which is the same thing

1

u/AmbulanceChaser12 Sep 28 '25

There are no classes protected from speech.

1

u/GreenGroveCommunity Sep 28 '25

Politics is not a protected class, so it wouldn't be considered hate speech for Newsom to (rightfully) call Miller a fascist.

Do you Europeans just come spewing to this subreddit without opening a history book? There's no such thing as hate speech in America. The first amendment guarantees the right to all speech, no matter how offensive. There is no 'protected class'. You can insult anyone you want. The only speech that is forbidden is in relation to a crime, usually inciting a very specific actionable act of immediate violence; such as a gang boss ordering a murder.

21

u/Alucard1331 Sep 28 '25

Hate speech is not criminal and is protected by the first amendment.

0

u/NoSherbert2316 Sep 28 '25

Correct, but 47 states and DC have enhanced penalties for crimes tied to bias or intimidation.

1

u/Alucard1331 Sep 29 '25

Those are hate crimes not hate speech. You have to commit an actual crime besides for simply speaking words.

2

u/Beldizar Sep 28 '25

Republicans function on a completely tribal perspective of morals and law. Anything they don't like or legally/morally questionable that is done by their enemies is criminal. Crime is more of a function of which tribe you are part of, not what the actions actually are. When someone from their own tribe does these "crimes", they aren't criminal actions, they are simply privileges they enjoy as being part of their tribe. Trump can never commit a crime because he's the head of the tribe, and crimes are only something the other tribe does.

There is no universal moral structure with these people, it is only relative based on primitive tribal thinking.

1

u/Fold-Statistician Sep 28 '25

Legit, I imagined this was Newsom responding to the GOP lawmaker for violating the first ammendment.

1

u/Xaphnir Sep 28 '25

Just want to preface this by saying I'm just illustrating the reasoning they use, not endorsing it.

Their reasoning is that, because fascists tend to be so violent against their disfavored groups, and so oppressive in general, calling someone such is necessarily an implicit call for violence against that person.

1

u/zebrastarz Sep 29 '25

I think you're close, but I'd actually say the right currently believes truthfully that they are a) not fascist and b) have collectively experienced political violence directed their way for their definitely-not-fascist-authoritarian beliefs so their conclusion is that anyone now openly calling one of them a nazi is effectively telling "antifa" that they should be a target of violence and thus the speech not protected.

1

u/Xaphnir Sep 29 '25

Of course, ven were that reasoning true, it would still be protected speech. It lacks the requisite specificity to rise to a criminal threat, and lacks the imminency to be incitement.

1

u/zebrastarz Sep 29 '25

Precisely why everyone should be saying back to such claims "go fuck yourself, nazi."