Free speech has been under threat virtually since the founding of our republic. There can be no greater threat to free speech than silencing a political actor like Charlie Kirk with a bullet. Attorney General Pam Bondi’s statements in the aftermath of the Kirk assassination were alarming:“There’s free speech, and then there’s hate speech. As the free speech advocacy outfit Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) argues, Bondi’s take on “hate speech” and the First Amendment is plain wrong, and she should know better:“Some consider criticism of Israel or Black Lives Matter to be hate speech. Even then, her words indicate that she does not recognize how narrow the standard is even for that exception to free speech protection.