This category contains song quotes that make reference to necrophilia.
The First Amendment of the Constitution specifically states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
If one takes this literally, then individuals should be able to say anything they want, any time they want, and anywhere they want. But it is impossible to do this in a society where there are diverse and competing needs. Therefore, it is important to understand the Constitution is referring to an ideal and a goal. And it is a great ideal, at that.
It also very important to point out that there were many laws that existed before and after the Constitution was ratified by the States that limited and censored speech (i.e., pornography was prohibited). This is very important to point out, not because pornography is unconstitutional, but because it clearly illustrates that the original intent of the First Amendment, as ratified by the States, was not to allow total unlimited and unrestricted freedom of speech and expression. But instead, it was intended that "the protection given speech and press was fashioned to assure unfettered interchange of ideas for the bringing about of political and social changes desired by the people . . . All ideas having even the slightest redeeming social importance--unorthodox ideas, controversial ideas, even ideas hateful to the prevailing climate of opinion--have the full protection of the guaranties, unless excludable because they encroach upon the limited area of more important interests."
It is also needs to be pointed out that censoring certain types of books and material (i.e., pornography) was common and fully allowed under the Constitution for the first 170 years (until the 1960s) after the Constitution was ratified to accommodate the different moral codes of local communities and States across the country.
During the early half of the 20th century, the First Amendment was re-interpreted to "whether a reasonable person would find [literary, artistic, political, or scientific] value in the material, taken as a whole." In addition, this was coupled with a criteria that was used for many years called "clear and present danger."
Then in the 1970s the Supreme Court came up with a new criteria, which was "whether the average person applying contemporary community standards would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest; whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law; and whether the work taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value."
Do songs about necrophilia and pornography have the same equal rights and protection of speech under the Constitution as political, scientific, literary, or artistic speech? Should entertainment with no redeeming value like necrophilia and pornography be given the same weight and Constitutional protection as political and social ideas and criticism?
Many United States veterans have served, been injured, dysfunctionalized, and died protecting our freedoms. Is necrophilia and pornography the type of speech that they sacrificed or died to protect? And even if in reality they fought for the principals behind which our government stands, does this kind of abusive speech honor and show appreciation to the personal sacrifices they made for their fellow human beings?