ABSTRACT
The term "hostile audience" refers to situations in which speech provokes unsympathetic listeners to violence or threats of violence. The advocacy of unpopular causes or the use of unpopular forms of speech tests the essence of the free speech guarantee of the First Amendment to the Constitution. Free speech advocates would permit such expressions to be used in what Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. called the "marketplace of ideas," where they may change opinions in the long run. Modern jurisprudence has drawn the distinction between restrictions on the time, place, and manner of speech, which are generally permissible, and content-based restrictions, which are not permissible absent a showing of a compelling governmental interest. The US Supreme Court overturned the defendants' convictions for disorderly conduct, noting that restrictions based on audience conduct could not be upheld when the speaker did not commit any breach of the peace.
